Whopping 67 Percent of Debate Watch Party Says Trump Won It Despite Not Attending

Right after the fourth Republican presidential debate wrapped on Thursday night, NBC News talked to a few voters in Georgia to ask them who won the debate. The overwhelming favorite? Former President Donald Trump, who was not even at the debate.

NBC News Campaign Embed Nnamdi Egwuonwu talked to four of those 27 voters who “on their own, organized a straw poll,” and NBC’s Meet the Press shared the voter rundown on Twitter/X:

Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley: 1
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 1
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: 2
Vivek Ramaswamy: 5
Trump, despite not being on stage: 18

Egwuonwu spoke to one of those voters and asked him about what moment “left a mark” on him during the debate:

What left the mark for me was Nikki Haley being called out for being the warmonger that she is. At the same time, Ramaswamy holding up a notepad saying “Nikki is Corrupt.” And this is something that stands out really strongly in my mind and in the voter’s mind. But they talked too much about Trump, a man that wasn’t on the stage but ruled the stage tonight.

Even though many GOP voters have issues with Haley’s foreign policy experience, the various outrageous stunts pulled by Ramaswamy may have stood out, but may not have been well-received.

Watch the video above via NBC News.