THE CANDIDATES VYING for the US Republican party’s nomination for the next presidential election will take part in their first televised debate tonight – but they do it minus Donald Trump.

The frontrunner has declined to participate in the debate, which will see eight other contenders questioned live on Fox News.

The debate starts at 2am Irish time (8pm local time) and is expected to last around two hours. It’s taking place in the town of Milwaukee in Wisconsin, a swing state, meaning that elections there have swung to both Democrats and Republicans over the years – making it an important battleground in presidential races.

The participants who will be most familiar to Irish audiences are former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Pence served as Trump’s VP from 2017 to 2021 but turned against him in the late days of his presidency, now arguing that Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election should discount him from returning to the White House.

Announcing his candidacy in June, Pence said that he had to choose between protecting Trump or the US constitution as the election results were certified on 6 January amid the Capitol Hill riots.

“The American people deserve to know that on that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution and I always will,” Pence said.

DeSantis is also hoping to upset Trump’s bid to retake the presidency.

Known for pushing hardline-right policies in Florida such as restricting access to abortion, censoring school curriculums, and rolling back LGBT+ rights, he came second in a recent FiveThirtyEight poll at 15.2% to Trump’s 52.5%.

In the last month, his campaign was forced to acknowledge issues with overspending as DeSantis fired a third of his staffers and replaced his campaign manager.

The other contenders in the debate are businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey governor and 2016 primary candidate Chris Christie, Senator Tim Scott, Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum.

The eight participants had to meet several criteria to qualify for the televised debate; they needed to attract a polling score of at least 1%, have 40,000 unique donors, and pledge to support the Republican party’s eventual nominee for president.

There was a few more less popular candidates who were trying to nab themselves a last-minute spot on the stage but missed a cutoff of 48 hours before the debate.

One candidate who could have easily qualified but will not be lighting up Fox News’ screens tonight is, of course, Donald Trump.

Trump confirmed on Monday that he would be skipping the debate, writing on his social media platform Truth Social that “the public knows who I am and what a successful presidency I had”.

In all capital letters, he wrote: “I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”

In an interview in June with Fox News host Bret Baier – one of the two anchors who will moderate tonight’s debate – Trump said: “Why would I allow people at 1% or 2% or 0% to be hitting me with questions all night?”

He has also criticised Fox, which was once the news outlet he was most closely allied with, calling it a “hostile network”.

In lieu of the debate, it is widely rumoured that Trump has recorded an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was fired from the network in April.

As campaigning for the Republican primaries kicks off in earnest, Trump is contending with a growing number of criminal charges.

Among the most serious allegations brought by prosecutors are that he mishandled confidential government documents and sought to commit election fraud.