During and in the wake of the first GOP primary debate tomorrow, the official Republican National Committee-sponsored event at Milwaukee will have to compete with counter-programming — not just from Democrats but from President Trump as well.

The first debate is set to kick off on Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern and will see eight Republican hopefuls take to the stage — Vice President Pence, Ambassador Haley, Senator Scott, Governor DeSantis, Governor Hutchinson, Governor Burgum, Governor Christie, and businessman Vivek Ramswamy.

These eight candidates, though, won’t be the only ones vying for the attention of voters on debate night. Mr. Trump has already recorded an interview with a former Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, that is expected to air on X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter, at the same time as the debate.

Mr. Trump is also expected to surrender to authorities at Atlanta on Thursday, in a move that will compete with next-day coverage and analysis of the debate and the debaters.

“I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED by a Radical Left District Attorney, Fani Willis,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post. “In my case, the trip to Atlanta is not for “Murder,” but for making a PERFECT PHONE CALL.”

Fox News has said it plans to restrict access to its “spin room” after the debate to representatives of candidates who took to the debate stage, according to a memo obtained by Axios.

The memo says that other candidates’ surrogates will only be able to get into the spin room if they are guests of media organizations, leaving an opening for other competing debate-related content to air on conservative news networks, like Newsmax.

On the Democratic side, officials such as the Democratic National Committee chairman, Jamie Harrison, and the co-chairman of President Biden’s campaign, Cedric Richmond, will be traveling to Milwaukee for a press conference at noon on Wednesday.

Aside from that, the Democrats have devised an attention-grabbing set of on-the-ground efforts in Wisconsin that will likely be used to contextualize the debate, at least for people who are physically there. The DNC shared is plans with Politico.

The on-the-ground — or, rather, in-the-air — efforts will include a plane Democrats have booked to fly a banner around Milwaukee reading, “GOP 2024: A Race for the Extreme MAGA Base.”

The Democrats have also bought a few billboards at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, where the debate is taking place, that will simultaneously attack the Republican candidates and tout President Biden’s accomplishments.

One billboard reads, “2024 Republicans’ MAGA Agenda,” listing, “higher costs for working families,” “tax giveaways for the rich,” and “national abortion ban.”

The pro-Biden billboard reads “Biden-Harris 2024,” before boasting about “record number of new jobs,” “lowering costs,” “updating our nation’s roads and bridges,” and “protecting a woman’s right to choose nationwide.”