The biggest takeaway for some Texas Republicans who watched last night’s presidential debate was that no clear candidate has yet to emerge and that they learned a lot from the night’s verbal shouting matches.
After last night’s heated GOP debate, many of members of the Williamson County Republican Party still feel they’re without a clear choice for who will unite and lead the party in 2016.
For much of the night, CNN moderators tried to keep up with the side squabbles between candidates in between their own debate questions.
Cedar Park resident Eric Stratton, who is a Republican Party precinct chair, said these side squabbles proved to be the most insightful in how candidates are able to distinguish themselves from one another.
“It’s been interesting to watch, where you see the exchanges that are the side conversations, the side attacks that moderators aren’t really anticipating and moderators are trying to figure how to play out,” Stratton explained.
And some of those interactions did become turning points for candidates like former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina who was asked to respond to real estate mogul Donald Trump’s comment about whether she was physically attractive enough to be president.
“Mr. Trump said that he heard very clearly what Mr. Bush said about women, I think the women of this country clearly heard what Mr. Trump said about women,” Fiorina said during the debate.
Despite the fact that he is still leading the pack, Trump did not fare well with those watching the debate in Georgetown. George Whiting says he supported Trump’s candidacy until he could no longer tolerate his insults of others.
“I don’t like Donald Trump. I did in the beginning, but he doesn’t represent the Christian ethics that the Republican party says they believe in. I’m a Republican, [and] I don’t believe in putting people down, making fun of their looks,” Whiting reiterated.
Others like Sun City resident Cathy Cody were pleased with the strong performance they witnessed from candidates that don’t have a political background.
“I think the fact that the top three in the polls are Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly says a lot. People are fed up with politics as usual, doesn’t matter what party, they’re fed up,” Cody said.
While some watching Wednesday’s debate in Georgetown urged networks to begin to thin the herd of candidates, others scolded the networks for excluding candidates from the primetime debate.
