Wednesday night is the third Republican presidential primary debate with five candidates set to take the stage. Columnist and political analyst Jonathan Harris spoke with Cheddar News to explain what to expect from a reduced field of candidates, what topics are on tap to discuss and which candidates have the momentum.

<div class="block">Wednesday night is the third Republican presidential primary debate with five candidates set to take the stage. Columnist and political analyst Jonathan Harris spoke with Cheddar News to explain what to expect from a reduced field of candidates, what topics are on tap to discuss and which candidates have the momentum.</div>

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What to Look Out for in Wednesday's Third Republican Primary Debate

So tonight is the third Republican presidential primary debate. Only five candidates qualified for tonight's event in Miami. Compare that to last time where seven did. All right. So here with the preview is columnist and political analyst, Jonathan Harris. Jonathan, thank you so much for joining us. We do see a reduced field that will be on the stage tonight. How might that affect the dynamics and takeaways from this debate? Well, I think seeing a lot of the field kind of whittle down a bit. One of the, one of the best things about that is you're going to get a chance to probably have a little bit more serious responses uh because the responses will be longer, it won't be people kind of trying to fight over each other for, for a takeaway sound. But I think you're going to see a little bit more fleshed out responses because there's less people on the stage, you're probably gonna see less bickering because again, there's not everyone trying to fight over each other to be heard. And I think that's actually going to give an opportunity for more fleshed out responses to some major issues that have developed certainly since the last debate, one of them, I'm sure is going to be the ongoing situation in the Middle East. So it will be nice to have a little more fleshed out responses on topics like that. So, Jonathan, we're expecting more in the Middle East and as you say, more fleshed out responses. So who is coming into tonight with the most momentum, you know? Definitely Nikki Haley. Uh I, she had a really strong showing that first debate, the second debate. I think she maybe uh didn't, didn't have as strong of a showing as, as the first debate, but she's coming in with, with a lot of, of momentum, uh certainly got a boost in the polls from the debates, which is ideally, uh certainly when debates were in their prime, the way they were supposed to work, voters are supposed to get an image of what your positions were. And then, you know, you would see who got a bump and I think debates are kind of losing some of their, their steam, but she certainly got a boost from those prior two debates. So she's got a lot of momentum coming into this third debate and we'll see if she's able to keep it. Ron desantis, of course, is, you know, they're, they're duking it out for a second place. So he's got to try to, you know, get the focus back. I mean, his, his biggest headline these past couple of days has been about the, the shoes he's wearing and whether or not he's got lifts in those shoes and he's got to try to get the topic back on to his campaign and, and being a serious contender for it at the very least second place. If not the nomination. Who do you think has the most to prove tonight? Jonathan. Definitely. Probably Haley. I think, I think, uh, Tim Scott is, is really gonna, I think if I have this correct, I think the, the threshold for, for making the cut was 4% in national polls and he was kind of just barely scraping by. And so he, I think a lot of people, if they were taking bets might think he, he, he will be the next to drop off. So I think he's got a lot to prove in terms of, you know, why he deserves to be on that stage and why he's still a serious contender, especially, I think we've lost, I want to make sure I have it right. We've lost Doug Berman. We've lost uh Asa Hutchinson and uh Mike Pence and, and some of the Mike Pence certainly had better name recognition than, than Tim Scott. So I think he, he's got a lot to lose. He's got to have a stronger showing tonight or tomorrow. I'm sorry. So Tim Scott has really got to bring it tonight. You know, let's be honest, former president Trump is still the front runner in the Republican primary race. What do the candidates need to do to cut through his lead? You know, I think they're going to have to do something that they're not likely to do, which is instead of attacking each other, they're gonna have to band together to really go after him. But I think the reason it's unlikely is because as much as they are trying to cast a difference between themselves and Trump, they also seem to be trying to, to for his vice presidential nomination if he gets the nomination and especially Vivek. And so I don't know that you're going to see them do that. But if they were to unite and really go after some of Trump's failure, something that Chris Christie has probably done more than any of them that would be the best chance they have at eating away at his lead and really highlighting some of the things that he said about Hillary Clinton when he was running against her and how somebody potentially facing indictments and facing investigations would be a danger to the country. And now you have him facing 90 plus different charges in four different jurisdictions. And you know, if they banded together to highlight those things that would probably chip away, but I don't think you're likely to see it. Interesting. Ok. We will be watching Jonathan. I know you will be as well to columnist and political analyst, Jonathan Harris