What issues dominated at Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate?
The word cloud shown above, which is based on a transcript of the debate, is an attempt at making sense of which topics drew significant attention as eight GOP hopefuls faced off in Milwaukee.
China and the border — the U.S. southern border in particular — were big stars, with those terms mentioned 42 times and 36 times, respectively.
Inflation got far less attention, being referred to just seven times. That’s even as 61% of respondents to a MarketWatch poll said that was the economic issue they wanted to hear about.
A recent Pew Research Center survey had similar findings. It showed that inflation remains the top concern for Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, with 77% saying it’s a very big problem.
The latest reading of the consumer-price index put the annual rate of inflation at 3.2%, up from 3% in the prior month but down from a 40-year high of 9.1% in mid-2022.
Other words tied to inflation did pop up in the debate, but not enough to bring the topic up to the same level as China
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and the border. Gas
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was mentioned seven times, costs or prices were mentioned five times and grocery or groceries were referred to three times.
Other topics with significant mentions included Ukraine (23 times), former President Donald Trump (also 23 times), the economy (22 times), education (also 22 times) and spending (19 times).
So what were some of the candidates’ lines related to inflation?
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina made a reference to “16% inflation, your gas is up 40%, your food is up 20%, your electricity is up 20%.” He added that the increases can be stopped “by turning the spigot off in Washington.”
Related: Republican debate: Why you may hear big numbers like 19% inflation, and how to make sense of it all
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also talked about prices at the pump.
“We need to lower your gas prices. We’re going to open up all energy
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production,” DeSantis said.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum offered a different name for the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022.
“Of course we’re paying too much for energy in our country right now,” Burgum said. “The $1.2 trillion of ‘Green New Deal‘ spending buried in the ‘Inflation Creation Act’ is something that is just subsidizing China.”
Read more: How will energy, climate change and EVs feature in the first Republican debate?
Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., promised to “bring this inflation down” in her closing statement, and former Vice President Mike Pence referred to the “worst inflation in 40 years” in his final remarks.
The word cloud above is made with certain common words excluded, such as “the” or “Americans.” The names of the debate’s moderators and participants are also left out to keep the focus on issues.
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