During a rapid-fire two-hour debate, seven Republican presidential hopefuls exchanged canned one-liners and hurried remarks as they tried to stand out among a crowded field. Meanwhile, the elephant not in the room, former president Donald Trump, again opted out of the debate and stopped in Michigan to speak to a crowd of auto workers.  Hosted by Fox Business and Univision, the Wednesday debate for top billing in the Republican Party presidential primary is a race for second, with the Real Clear Politics polling average having Trump at 56.%, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 14.4%, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley at 5.8%, businessman and author Vivek Ramaswamy at 5.1%, and former vice president Mike Pence at 4.2%, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie at 2.7%, and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, who barely made the cutoff for the debate, at just 0.9% support.

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