What kind of Republican would Utahns choose to replace Mitt Romney? With the June 25 primary election around the corner, the party’s four Senate candidates tried to establish who they would be in Washington on the debate stage.
Rep. John Curtis, Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, businessman Jason Walton and former Utah Speaker of the House Brad Wilson all presented a different stripe of conservatism. From their opening statements, each tried to paint a picture of what conservatism meant to them and where their loyalty to Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, stood.
And in true debate fashion, there were a few pointed attacks toward Curtis, the polling frontrunner.
Of those surveyed by the Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics, 36% said they would vote for the sitting representative. Staggs gathered 16%, Wilson 13% and Walton received 5%. However, 33% of respondents said they were “unsure” of who they would vote for. Those were the voters the candidates were trying to draw a distinction for in the debate.
Curtis
Curtis presented himself as the experienced, moderate-conservative Republican, leaning on his tenure in the House as a reason why voters should trust him in the Senate. To him, conservatism means “representing the values of the people you serve.” which can “vary from community to community.”
“But overall, I think the voters have weighed in over and over that they like my brand of conservatism,” he said. “And to me, that's Utah values.”
The congressman laid claim to “the most conservative voting record” out of Utah’s delegation in the House and noted he voted with Trump more than 90% of the time. He applauded the former president’s judicial nominations, his work on tax credits, his position on immigration and securing the border and deregulating some industries. However, speaking with reporters post-debate, Curtis added he’s “not going to give him an unconditional yes to anything he wants.”
“This narrative that you're either all in or all out on Donald Trump is a false narrative,” he opined. “And the way I chose to do it when I worked with him is if it’s in Utah's best interest. I'm there. And if it's not, I'm going to push back.”
Staggs
Firmly in the court of former President Donald Trump was Riverton Mayor and convention winner Trent Staggs.
He aligned himself squarely with the MAGA base and said he will unequivocally support the “America First agenda.” Especially “stopping this crazy printing of money which has caused the inflation and the Bidennomics that is crushing Utah families.”
“An America First agenda is going to help out all Utahns. And I'm committed to pass that on day one,” he said. “I've got a coalition of national conservatives I can go back and work with on day one that nobody else on the stage has.”
Staggs distanced himself from Romney, calling him an establishment Republican and “endemic to the problem in D.C.” Even though he has Trump’s endorsement, Staggs still needed to make up ground on Curtis, who was one of his primary targets of the evening. During closing statements, Staggs alluded that Curtis inappropriately traded stocks. He concluded his remarks with the call to “ban the trading of individual stocks from members of Congress and their families.” Curtis pushed the moderator, Glen Mills, to allow him a response which was granted.
“I'd like to challenge you to produce that evidence that somehow I've committed a felony,” Curtis told Staggs. “And if that's how you're going to work in [the] Senate, the people of Utah would be very disappointed.”
Walton
Entrepreneur and political newcomer Jason Walton played up the fact that he isn’t a “career politician” as his pitch to become Utah’s next senator.
“I've never run for office, but my experience is building a business in my garage with my wife and taking it national,” he said. “My experience is balancing complex budgets and mentoring thousands in pursuit of their American dream.”
Walton said he has “always felt connected” to Trump because he is a businessman like himself and “was just frustrated watching what career politicians were doing” in Washington.
“He [Trump] proved to the world that us businessmen are pretty good at getting stuff done in government because we don't have any political strings attached. We're not trying to get up the next stage of the political ladder. And I think that that's what this election is about.”
As a business person, Walton said he enjoys tackling complex issues, like the national deficit, which he believes to be one of the biggest problems facing America. He said Congress needed to stop with big spending bills and passing funding earmarks in legislation. His primary message aligned with a fiscal and pro-business approach that many voters might recognize as part of the Republican Party’s previous identity before the age of Trump.
Given that, he also called Trump the “most attacked and maligned, persecuted president or presidential candidate in the history of the United States of America.”
Wilson
The former Utah Speaker of the House positioned himself as the anti-President Joe Biden candidate who would “take the Utah way to Washington, D.C.” as a means to fix the “country's greatest problems.”
“We've seen what’s happened under the Biden administration and his failed leadership, whether it's the open border, whether it's a lack of regard for the law, whether it's the spending that's happened in Washington, D.C. or these tax cuts that are going to expire,” Wilson explained.
His last criticism was directed at the president for considering to let the Trump-era tax cuts expire in 2025, stating that Utah’s working middle class “cannot afford to let that happen.” However, an analysis done by the nonpartisan Brookings Institution argues the tax cuts spearheaded by Trump don’t uplift the middle class.
If elected, Wilson pledged he would bring his track record from the Utah House to Washington. As Gov. Spencer Cox has done on the campaign trail, he leaned on his claim to have delivered “the largest tax cuts in the history of this state” and a balanced budget. He added that it’s important that America’s voting population elect Donald Trump as president in November.
“I will close the border. I will balance the budget, and I will do everything I can to bring back prosperity to the middle class of this state,” he said.
The winner of the Senate primary race will join Democratic candidate Caroline Gleich and Independent Party candidate Carlton Bowen in the general election. Ballots are out now for the June 25 primary. Learn more about the GOP Senate primary candidates in our voter guide.
