The fourth Republican debate featured just four candidates – narrowing the broad pool down to Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie – competing not only to get the GOP presidential nomination, but to see who could shoehorn in the most anti-trans talking points.
Despite attacks on the trans community not being a politically popular idea, the GOP’s 2024 White House hopefuls embraced them anyway at the final debate on Wednesday (6 December) in a desperate attempt to beat current favourite Donald Trump, who continues to dominate in national polls.
Discussions over real issues impacting Americans quickly devolved into candidates like DeSantis and Halley flaunting their hardline stances on trans rights in the US.
With primary elections just weeks away, here are five ways the Republican presidential candidates tried to use anti-trans attacks to bolster their political prowess at the final debate.