All the candidates onstage for the first GOP debate, explained

The 2024 presidential election is finally picking up, as the Republican Party holds its first presidential debate, hosted by Fox News, on Wednesday.

As of Monday — the deadline to qualify — as many as 11 of the 14 declared candidates vying for the party’s nomination appeared to have met the standards to participate, though the Republican National Committee eventually only confirmed eight of them on Tuesday, and the party’s frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, will not attend.

The eight confirmed participants — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson — will have their first major opportunity to claw away support from Trump, who leads the field with the support of just over half of Republican voters, according to polling averages.