Live Coverage Of The First Republican Debate

John Kasich started the night justifying expanding Medicaid in Ohio, saying he wanted to get treatment to the mentally ill and people being released from prison. It’s a reasonable justification: More than half of inmates have mental health issues, and before the Affordable Care Act, an estimated 70 to 90 percent of inmates were uninsured when they were released. National estimates before Obamacare was implemented said 57 percent of inmates would be eligible for Medicaid or subsidies under the law.

Google searches in the first 50 minutes of the debate, relative to Donald Trump who we’ve indexed at 100: Trump is still clearly ahead, although not by nearly as large a margin as he is on an ordinary evening. Cruz and Carson seem to be doing better on the Internet than in the debate room; the reverse is true for Kasich. Scott Walker has been very, very quiet.