Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley will battle it out in a make-or-break GOP debate in Iowa as they fight to take on Donald Trump, who will simultaneously appear live on the Fox News town hall

Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley prepare for the first one-on-one debate of the presidential primaries Wednesday night in Iowa – five days before the caucuses.

The showdown on CNN at 9 p.m. will be one of their final pleas to voters and their attempt to overtake Donald Trump, who is leading by an average of 30 points in the polls.

DeSantis has made it clear that he always wanted to meet Haley alone. Will both candidates be able to do enough to close the huge gap or will they simply compete for second place?

Trump, as usual, easily exceeded the qualifications to participate in the fifth debate of the 2024 primaries, but will once again choose to skip the event and hold a Fox News town hall at the same time.

In addition, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who was not eligible for a debate for the first time in the cycle on Wednesday, is organizing a competitive event.

Candidates are flocking to Iowa ahead of the Jan. 15 caucuses — with the exception of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who hasn’t stepped foot in the nation’s first state since his presidential bid.

DailyMail.com explains what to watch on debate day and how to tune in.

Drake University’s Olmsted Center is the site of the fifth Republican presidential debate. Downtown is pictured Tuesday with a stream clearing snow from the sidewalk as a winter storm moves through the state in the days leading up to the caucuses

DETAILS OF CNN’S FIRST DEBATE OF 2024 AND HOW TO WATCH

After holding the first four Republican presidential primary debates of the cycle last year, the Republican National Committee (RNC) suspended debate activities in December.

It overturned a promise that candidates only had to sign a pledge to participate in RNC-sanctioned debates after reports emerged that Trump’s team pressured Speaker Ronna McDaniel to stop the showdowns.

Wednesday night’s debate will be hosted by CNN and moderated by two of the network’s top anchors, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. It is the first non-RNC debate of the cycle.

Florida Governor DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Haley will meet on stage at 9 p.m. Eastern time – locally in Iowa it will be 8 p.m.

It will be streamed live on CNN and the network’s other channels, including CNN International and CNN Español, as well as on CNN Max. Anyone who pays for the CNN subscription can watch on CNN.com.

Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis are the only two candidates who qualified and agreed to debate

Trump will not participate in the debate, but will instead enter a town hall with Fox News at the same time as the showdown between his top competitors

DEBATE THRESHOLDS AND WHO QUALIFIED

The qualifying period for CNN’s Iowa debate closed Tuesday.

By then, candidates had to get at least 10 percent in three separate polls, either nationally or among Republican caucusgoers in Iowa — and at least one had to fall among the latter.

The polls had to be taken after October 15 and before January 2 and could only be pulled from 14 of CNN’s identified approved polling sources.

There were no donor-related criteria as in previous debates.

Trump, DeSantis and Haley all met the qualifications. But the ex-president will once again not participate in the primary debate, claiming the event is unnecessary due to his huge lead in the polls and his belief that he has already been de facto nominated.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie didn’t qualify for the debate – he also hasn’t set foot in Iowa since launching his bid for president and is going all-in to do well in New Hampshire

Ramaswamy, Christie and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson did not meet the qualification requirements.

The voting thresholds for Wednesday’s debate were higher than those of the previous four RNC debates, in which Ramaswamy and Christie qualified each time.

Wednesday’s stage is the smallest yet — halving the debate stage in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in December — and will feature the first head-to-head battle between the candidates that many see as in a race for second place.

Haley took part in a Fox News town hall in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Monday, followed by DeSantis who took part in the same event on Tuesday evening after flying back from Tallahassee following his State of the State address.

DONALD TRUMP AND VIVEK RAMASWAMY’S ALTERNATIVE PLANS

Former President Trump will join Fox News hosts Martha McCallum and Bret Baier for the third in the town hall series, but his event will coincide with CNN’s debate Wednesday night.

It is the fifth time that Trump has decided to decline the debate over his main competitors, despite having cleared the thresholds to enter the stage.

The town hall, where Trump will answer questions from the Fox hosts and audience members, will air on Fox News from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. — the exact same start time for the debate.

DeSantis insists that Trump is refusing to appear because he doesn’t want to answer for his record and instead wants to try to steal the spotlight from his competition.

Meanwhile, Ramaswamy will also host competing events with a “live audience show” with the Tim Pool Podcast at his campaign headquarters in Iowa, along with an afterparty with conservative commentator Candace Owens.

Owens will remain in Iowa on Thursday to spend the day campaigning with Ramaswamy.

While the show with Pool will start at 6:30 PM and will be streamed live. But the afterparty will run counter to the Haley-DeSantis debate.

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy was ineligible for the debate — and will host a live audience show of the Tim Pool podcast Wednesday night, along with an afterparty at his campaign headquarters in Iowa

A new poll released Tuesday in New Hampshire has Nikki Haley trailing Donald Trump by just seven points

POLLING FOR DEBATE DAY

DeSantis is still in second place, dozens of points behind Trump.

The former president has more than 50 percent of the vote among Republicans in Iowa, according to a FiveThirtyEight average of polls in the early primaries.

With an average of 18.4 percent, DeSantis is a distant second after polls over the summer showed him with about a 20-point lead over Trump — down from the current 32 percent gap.

Haley is third with 15.8 percent. She has only gained traction in the Hawkeye State over time and was able to make the gap between her and DeSantis much smaller than the 20-point gap seen between the two last year.

The former South Carolina governor has also rocketed to second place in New Hampshire, where the second primary will take place on January 23.

Haley trails Trump in New Hampshire by just four points in one poll released earlier this month, and by 7 percent in a separate poll released Tuesday.