Utah’s 3rd Congressional District is largely rural. And the lone debate between U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy and her challenger, former state lawmaker Phil Lyman, was dominated by data centers and AI, affordability and public lands.
The district spans most of eastern and southern Utah, and it is the largest congressional district in the state by geographic size. The debate, organized by the Utah Debate Commission and moderated by former Utah GOP chair Thomas Wright, largely centered on the candidates trying to find daylight between themselves on issues important to rural voters.
The contentious Box Elder County data center has become the poster child for public outcry over these projects, even though it isn’t located in the 3rd District. It was a litmus test of sorts for the candidates on data centers and their future in the state, since many would likely be built in rural areas.
“On paper, Utah is a perfect place to build data centers,” Rep. Maloy said. “Unfortunately, data centers aren't built on paper.”
While the Republican incumbent expressed dismay at the process in Box Elder County, she reiterated that Utah is in a unique position in the overall conversation on AI and data center development.
“But in order to build data centers in Utah, we've got to make sure that we're siting them where people want them, and we're building the type that match our resources,” she said.
She argued that while water is scarce, the state could support air-cooled projects that rely on power generation.
Lyman said Box Elder County was treated poorly by officials who — in his eyes — responded to public concern with “a reprimand, a put down, a condescension towards those people.” As for his views on similar projects elsewhere, he said he’d prioritize accountability with congressional input.
“I don't agree that Utah is the best place for data centers,” he said. “They are water-intensive, and they are a drain on resources, and those things can all be measured if we have transparency on the front end of it. If we don't have transparency, then it's a no-go for me.”
When pressed on whether they were more afraid of moving too slowly on AI and being overtaken by China or moving too fast without sufficient safeguards, both candidates expressed more concern about moving too slowly.
The ping-pong of Grand Staircase-Escalante is the headliner of decades of tension between the state and federal government on the management of public lands. Both candidates have positioned themselves as Republican leaders on public lands
Maloy has proposed public lands legislation that would lead to the sale of some of those lands, and Lyman has been outspoken on the issue for years, even getting arrested after an illegal ATV ride in southern Utah in 2014.
In terms of public lands changing hands, Maloy said she’s in favor of transferring federal lands adjacent to municipalities or otherwise difficult to manage due to surrounding private land to the state. She shied away from advocating for the wholesale transfer of federal lands to state or local control, and instead said she’s working to make sure local communities have a say in how land gets managed.
“What we have had in past administrations is an unwillingness to accept that input, to listen to the locals, to manage accordingly,” she said. “And I'm working closely with my partners in the Senate and in the administration to make sure that we're addressing that.”
Lyman hearkened back to Utah’s territorial origins and said the state has all of the authority it needs to manage its lands. The problem, he said, is that it simply doesn’t exercise those powers in the face of the federal government. Although he said he’d much prefer to see federal lands in Utah go directly to private individuals and expressed distrust of any long-term government management.
“Because if the state has jurisdiction and ownership, I've seen what they will do with their state land,” he said. “And I do not trust the state of Utah in this situation to be in charge of divvying up the public land if they were to receive that from the federal government.”
On immigration, Maloy advocated for more beds for federal immigration detainees, such as the proposed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Salt Lake City, but stressed that the country “needs to do two things at the same time.”
“We have to make sure we're deporting the people who need to be deported and fixing the legal immigration system, so people who want to come here, live the American Dream, and become Americans have a way to do that that makes sense,” she said.
Lyman opposes the Utah ICE facility, not because he opposes immigration enforcement, but because he thinks “those immigrants should be shipped back to their countries.”
He also expressed skepticism of the country’s legal immigration system, calling the current status quo “suicidal empathy” that could lead to countries like China taking advantage of current laws.
“It is suicidal when we're unwilling to look at visa programs that were designed to provide temporary workers being abused and turned into conduits for human trafficking and fentanyl trafficking,” he said. “A Congress that can't distinguish between those two is doomed to have some serious problems in immigration, and that's what we've got right now.”
Both Maloy and Lyman are southern Utah favorites and have seen strong support in the district in other elections — Maloy for Congress in 2023 and 2024, and Lyman in his runs for the Legislature, governor in 2024 and state party chair in 2025.
Maloy was a relative unknown in Utah politics before becoming the surprise winner of a special election to replace retiring Rep. Chris Stewart in 2023. She then went on to secure her first full term in 2024 after another strong primary challenge.
A traditional delegate darling, Lyman ruffled more than a few feathers after his gubernatorial primary loss in 2024 and lengthy legal fight against Gov. Spencer Cox over the results of that race. His convention support led to a tight battle at April’s Utah GOP Nominating Convention, which saw Maloy eke out a slim majority of support, but not enough to eliminate Lyman from contention.
The winner of the June 23 primary will face Democrat Kent Udell in November. Ballots will be mailed to registered Republican voters starting June 2.
