Two Republicans will try today to present themselves as a better alternative to Donald Trump in the US presidential election, during a televised debate that takes place less than a week before the start of the primaries and with the former president the favorite despite his problems with justice.

Nikki Haley and Ron Desandes, who trailing Trump significantly in GOP nomination polls; they’re sort of playing their spare change in this last debate before Iowa’s Republican voters go to the polls.

A good election performance on Monday in this small, high-stakes state would serve as a springboard for them to hope to catch up to Donald Trump and upend the odds.

The other Republican candidates are still in the race with so little momentum that they didn’t even meet the criteria set by the party to participate in this debate in Des Moines.

Donald Trump, for his part, chose once again not to participate in the debate, considering that he would have nothing to gain by exposing himself to the criticisms of his opponents.

But he again made sure to organize a counter-program, with a campaign event in the same city, which will be broadcast by the conservative television network Fox News, while his two opponents will conduct their debate on CNN.

His attitude cost him a rebuke from the former ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, which said in a statement that “it is time for Donald Trump to be seen.” “To the extent that the field of debate narrows, it becomes more difficult for him to hide,” assured the former governor of South Carolina.

THE Desandis he also criticized him for it, saying recently: “He comes in to make a half-hour, hour-long speech and leaves again, instead of listening to the people of Iowa, answering their questions.”

Springboard

But the former president also leads in a new poll (Suffolk University / USA Today) that shows 51% of Republican voters do not plan to attend this debate.

According to polling site RealClearPolitics, Mr Trump leads in Iowa with 52.3% of voter intent, well ahead of Haley and Desandes, each of whom is around 16%.

Nationally, the entrepreneur is credited with 51.5% of voting intention.

His lead is not diminished despite the legal proceedings against him. Instead the tycoon incorporated the indictments and trials against him into his campaign, going so far as to print his court photo as a suspect on mugs and T-shirts.

Yesterday, Tuesday, he was thus before the federal appeals court in Washington, which is considering his request to have criminal immunity as a former president. And tomorrow, Thursday, he will be back in court in New York in a civil trial on suspicion of fraud in the administration of the Trump Organization.

While he was once presented as a serious threat to Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis never quite got his candidacy off the ground.

To the point where he’s now trying to stay close to Haley, the candidate with the most swagger other than Trump, and his future almost certainly hinges on a very solid Iowa result.

For Nikki Haley, a strong performance in Iowa would be the ideal springboard to the next vote, on January 23 in New Hampshire, where independent voters can vote in the Republican primary. Those voters could favor her more than Trump, potentially making the race more lopsided.

Without running a perfect campaign, Haley has enough supporters, raised enough money and is performing well in the polls to now be under fire from Trump and his allies, who have so far ignored her.