Over the course of the three Republican presidential primary debates, the feud between entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has grown increasingly personal.
The two Indian Americans have sparred over an array of issues ranging from abortion to TikTok and are set to take the stage again tonight.
Here are some of their most notable moments:
First debate: With former President Donald Trump absent from the first debate in August, the target of most of the debate participants was not Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott or any candidate who has ever held elected office. It was political newcomer Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy clashed with former Vice President Mike Pence over his experience, Haley over foreign policy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over Trump, and more.
During an exchange over Russia, Haley hammered Ramaswamy as she defended US support for Ukraine.
“You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows,” she said during one of the night’s most animated exchanges.
That night, Haley brought onto the stage a message that was geared more directly for a general electorate than those of her rivals.
She balked at a federal abortion ban, was one of the few candidates to acknowledge that climate change is real and was the first to criticize Trump by name.
Meanwhile, Ramaswamy positioned himself as a defender of Trump.
Second debate: During the second debate in September, Haley unloaded what often seemed like the entire field’s pent-up frustration with Ramaswamy.
Haley appeared ready to debate health care, arguing for transparency in prices to lessen the power of insurance companies and providers and overhauling lawsuit rules to make it harder to sue doctors.
Some of the candidates onstage didn’t want to have a repeat of the first debate, in which Ramaswamy managed to stand out as a formidable debater and showman.
Ramaswamy this time spoke louder and faster than most of his rivals. But he was bogged down repeatedly when caught between his own talking points and cross-volleys of criticisms from frustrated candidates like Scott.
Third debate: The tensest moments on the stage during the third debate in November stemmed from a series of exchanges about TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform that the candidates are happy to spend time dissing.
Ramaswamy was the lone dissenter on that front, talking up his use of the app as a campaign tool while his rivals pledged to bury it, then effectively calling Haley a hypocrite because her daughter used it.
Understandably infuriated, Haley told Ramaswamy to “leave my daughter out of your voice,” before dismissing him as “scum.”
Then in terms of the war in Ukraine, Ramaswamy left no doubt where he stood, issuing a lengthy rebuke of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky while accusing the war-torn country of harboring Nazism and anti-democratic beliefs.
Haley, continuing to tussle with Ramaswamy onstage, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping were “salivating at the thought that someone like that could become president.”
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