Never has a fight for second place been so nasty–and lively. 

With the party’s 800-pound gorilla taking a pass on the first presidential skirmish, most of the eight rivals who made the cut tore into each other like hungry wolves. 

It was a delicious two hours, if only because it allowed the top contenders to get a public hearing without Donald Trump’s antics and baggage overshadowing them.

Americans got an uninterrupted view of the Republicans competing to be the one alternative to the former president without having to weigh each one against him–or his nicknames for them.

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Eight top Republican presidential candidates faced off Wednesday night in the first debate of the 2024 election cycle — laying out competing approaches to issues facing the country from abortion to crime to aid for Ukraine.

The group was united in blasting President Biden but differed repeatedly on policy in substantive, if occasionally heated, exchanges under five months before the first votes are cast.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was first to speak at the Fox News-hosted event in Milwaukee, Wis., and offered up a double-barreled attack on Biden’s record and his family’s ethics scandals.

“We cannot succeed as a country if you are working hard and you can’t afford groceries, a car or a new home while Hunter Biden can make hundreds of thousands of dollars on lousy paintings,” said DeSantis, 44, polling in second after former President Donald Trump, 77, who skipped the event.

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With former President Donald Trump skipping Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate, the eight candidates who took the stage had a chance to shine and make up a 40-point polling gap on the 77-year-old front-runner.

Unfortunately for them, experts consulted by The Post agreed, nobody did enough in Milwaukee to change the dynamics of the race.

“All of the candidates were looking for a breakout moment and didn’t get it,” said former Westchester County Executive and Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino.

“Donald Trump wasn’t there,” he added. “That’s like watching the Kansas City Chiefs without Patrick Mahomes. The star wasn’t there.”

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Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy confidently stated at Wednesday’s Republican debate that the Constitution “won us the American revolution” in an apparent gaffe. 

“It is the strongest guarantor of freedom in human history. That is what won us the American Revolution,” Ramaswamy said of the US Constitution, which was signed on Sept. 1787. 

The American Revolution ended on Sept. 3, 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

It appears Ramaswamy actually meant to refer to the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted on July 4, 1776. 

Never Back Down, a political action committee backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, seized on Ramaswamy’s comment, noting in a post on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, that “The U.S. Constitution did not win us the American Revolution, it came years later. Vivek Ramaswamy is mistaken.”

“Ron DeSantis will fix civics education in our country!” the group added.

A panel of 15 Iowa voters declared entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to be the winner of Wednesday’s Republican debate. 

Eight hands went up for Ramaswamy when the Republican Hawkeye State voters were asked by CNN to choose which candidate did best at the debate. 

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley received the second highest amount of support, with four people saying she won, and two selected Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the best performer Wednesday night. 

One person on the panel did not pick a winner. 

The Iowa Republican presidential caucuses, the first nominating contest the GOP candidates will face, will be held on Jan. 15, 2024. 

WASHINGTON – All but two of the eight candidates participating in Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate said they would support former President Donald Trump if he is the GOP’s nominee in 2024 — even if he is convicted of a crime before Election Day.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were the only candidates to say they would not back a convicted Trump’s bid for the White House, despite signing a pre-debate pledge that they would support whoever becomes the party’s standard-bearer.

The Republican Party required all candidates to make the pledge to be eligible to participate in the debate.

Indicted in four criminal cases across the country since late March, the 77-year-old former president remains the Republican frontrunner as he faces 91 state and federal charges.

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Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) emerged from the first Republican debate feeling good — but argued the party needs to focus on important issues rather than petty spats.

"I felt really good. I felt like I wanted to have a conversation, an adult conversation, about why America can do for anyone what she’s done for me," Scott told Fox News' Sean Hannity.

"We need to focus on restoring hope, creating opportunities, and protecting America. We didn’t spend enough time talking about the challenges we have at our southern border," he continued.

"We need to dig into some of the most important, consequential issues facing the American people, and not have a food fight on the stage."

One key topic that Scott regretted didn't get more attention was China.

"It’s not the strength of China, it’s the weakness of Biden, that’s the problem that we face as a nation," he stressed.

Eight top Republican presidential candidates faced off Wednesday night in the first debate of the 2024 election cycle — laying out competing approaches to issues facing the country from abortion to crime to aid for Ukraine.

The group was united in blasting President Biden but differed repeatedly on policy in substantive, if occasionally heated, exchanges under five months before the first votes are cast.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was first to speak at the Fox News-hosted event in Milwaukee, and offered up a double-barreled attack on Biden’s record and his family’s ethics scandals.

“We cannot succeed as a country if you are working hard and you can’t afford groceries, a car or a new home while Hunter Biden can make hundreds of thousands of dollars on lousy paintings,” said DeSantis, 44, polling in second after former President Donald Trump, 77, who skipped the event.

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, 38, who is currently sitting in third place in the RealClearPolitics national polling average behind Trump and DeSantis, got into repeated sparring matches with the other candidates after pitching himself as an outsider.

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Former first son Donald Trump Jr. compared the Republican debate to a poorly done teenage Model UN team performance.

He implied the debate was amateur without his father's presence on stage.

"This #GOPDebate is like watching high school kids do bad model UN," Trump Jr. wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

He also called Vivek Ramaswamy, who appeared to be the most pro-Trump candidate on stage, the "standout" among the eight contenders and described Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is second to Trump in the polls, as a "panicked deer in the headlights," the New York Times reported.

Vice President Kamala Harris issued a scathing statement following the Republican debate Wednesday, arguing that none of the “extremist” candidates “won.”

“No one on stage ‘won’ tonight’s debate,” Harris said in the statement released by President Biden’s campaign. “Instead, the American people heard how much they stand to lose from an extremist agenda.”

“One by one, each extremist Republican candidate laid out a vision for an America that is less fair, less free, and less safe,” she added, accusing the GOP candidates of wanting to “gut” Social Security and Medicare and “strip” Americans of “fundamental rights.” 

“These extremists focus on unnecessary debates meant to divide our nation in hopes that the American public will not notice they have no affirmative agenda,” Harris argued.

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert named Vivek Ramaswamy as the winner of Wednesday night's debate -- which she said was more like a contest to become Donald Trump's running mate rather than the 2024 GOP presidential candidate.

"I think it's safe to say that Vivek Ramaswamy is the winner of Round #1 of The Apprentice: Vice President Edition," she tweeted in a callback to the ex-president's former show.

Ramaswamy appeared to be the most pro-Trump candidate on the debate stage, where Trump himself was noticeably missing after refusing to participate.

Trump has a massive lead over the eight other Republicans in the field, and many stringent conservatives, like Boebert, have said he is the only candidate they want to see at the head of the White House.