GEOFF BENNETT: Last night in Simi Valley, California, seven Republican presidential candidates took the stage for the second primary debate held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

On full display, the party's unequivocal transformation since the Reagan era.

White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez is back with our report on the night.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: At times combative and unfocused, seven GOP presidential hopefuls desperately tried to steal the spotlight away from former President Donald Trump.

NIKKI HALEY (R), Presidential Candidate: This is where President Trump got it wrong.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Some risked new jabs at the party's standard-bearer, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in center stage.

GOV.

RON DESANTIS (R-FL), Presidential Candidate: You know who else is missing in action?

Donald Trump is missing in action.

He should be on this stage tonight.

GOV.

RON DESANTIS: He owes it to you to defend his record, where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt.

That set the stage for the inflation that we have.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: But early attacks against the absent front-runner flopped.

FMR.

GOV.

CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), Presidential Candidate: You're ducking these things.

And let me tell you what's going to happen.

You keep doing that, no one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore.

We're going to call you Donald Duck.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And faded.

(CROSSTALK) VIVEK RAMASWAMY (R), Presidential Candidate: Excuse me.

Excuse me.

Thank you for speaking while I'm interrupting.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Chaos reigned among the candidates, who are trailing Trump on average by 40 points.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley landed a blow against businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

NIKKI HALEY: Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Not long after, she got into it with Senator Tim Scott over curtains.

NIKKI HALEY: ... do your homework, Tim, because Obama bought those curtains.

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC), Presidential Candidate: Did you send them back?

NIKKI HALEY: And it's in the press.

SEN. TIM SCOTT: Did you send them back?

NIKKI HALEY: It's the State Department.

SEN. TIM SCOTT: Did you send them back?

NIKKI HALEY: Did you send them back?

You're the one that works in Congress.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: DeSantis defended Florida's African American studies curriculum, which claims that some enslaved people benefited from slavery.

GOV.

RON DESANTIS: These are great Black history scholars, so we need to stop playing these games.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: African American history scholars dispute that, and so did Scott.

SEN. TIM SCOTT: There is not a redeeming quality in slavery.

It's why I can say I have been discriminated against, but America is not a racist country.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Fights over race and gender identity, now cornerstones of the modern GOP, came into play as well from former Vice President Mike Pence.

MIKE PENCE (R), Presidential Candidate: And we're going to pass a federal ban on transgender chemical or surgical surgery anywhere in the country.

We've got to protect our kids from this radical gender ideology agenda.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Gender-affirming care surgery for minors is rare.

And Pence's position is opposed by every major medical association in the country, which say such care for minors is effective and safe.

NIKKI HALEY: Defund sanctuary cities.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: On the most frequent topic of the night, immigration, Ramaswamy promoted ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States, a right enumerated in the Constitution.

VIVEK RAMASWAMY: Well, if the kid of a Mexican diplomat doesn't enjoy birthright citizenship, then neither does the kid of an illegal migrant who broke the law to come here.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The moderators largely avoided asking about Trump, with no question on the mounting indictments or recent extremist statements, including suggesting last week that Chairman to the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley should be executed.

Trump again counterprogrammed with his own event, though his opponents were on his mind.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States: Now they're all job candidates.

They want to be in the -- they want to -- they will do anything, secretary of something.

They even say V.P.?

I don't know.

Does anybody see any V.P.

in the group?

I don't think so.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In Michigan, where the United Auto Workers union is on strike, Trump rallied supporters at a non-union facility, and made direct appeals for labor's support.

DONALD TRUMP: Do me a favor.

Just get your union guys, your leaders, to endorse me.

But your leadership should endorse me, and I will not say a bad thing about them again.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: But with Trump comfortably leading the debate participants, the two-hour spectacle appeared unlikely to change anything.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.