Republican candidates hoping to replace Rep. Chris Stewart in Congress gathered in Woods Cross Tuesday evening, hoping to make their case ahead of Saturday’s special Republican convention.
Stewart’s surprise announcement that he was leaving Washington, citing his wife’s health concerns, set off a mad scramble that saw the GOP-controlled Legislature delay this year’s municipal elections to minimize how long his seat remains empty. The primary election is delayed by three weeks, moving from Aug. 15 to Sept. 5., and the November election shifted by two weeks, moving to Nov. 21.
Tuesday evening’s debate, along with a second debate scheduled for Friday in St. George, comes just days before approximately 900 Republican delegates will gather in Delta on Saturday afternoon to nominate one of the baker’s dozen candidates who jumped into the race following Stewart’s announcement.
Due to Utah’s unique dual-path nominating system, most of the GOP field will be knocked out of the race in just a few days. Nine candidates opted for the convention path, with just one golden ticket up for grabs. Five other Republicans hope to petition their way into the September primary election. If none of them can collect the 7,000 required signatures by Jul. 5, Saturday’s winner will be the GOP nominee by default and advance to the Nov. 21 special general election.
A light crowd consisting of a few hundred people showed up for Tuesday’s forum at Woods Cross High School. The field of 11 candidates was split into two groups of six and five, where they faced mostly the same questions posed by Utah GOP Chair Rob Axson and ABC4 political correspondent Glen Mills.
The random pre-event draw placed a pair of former Utah lawmakers, former House Speaker Greg Hughes and state Rep. Becky Edwards, on the first panel, where they leaned heavily into their experience in the halls of government.
“Welcome to my district!” Edwards said during her opening statement. “This is the district I represented for 10 years in the Utah House of Representatives.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Becky Edwards answers a question during the GOP 2nd district debate, at Woods Cross High School, on Tuesday, June 20, 2023.
Hughes argued his experience leading the Utah House would be invaluable if he’s selected to fill the vacancy in Congress.
“If you elect me, I’ll make sure the legislative branch does its job. It’s going to be about the relationships you build and keeping a mind toward your goals,” Hughes said.
The rest of the field is light on experience in office, with only Leeds Mayor Bill Hoster holding a position in government. He repeatedly mentioned he was “not a career politician” and attacked Republicans he thought were insufficiently conservative, who he characterized as “RINOs” (which is short for “Republican in Name Only”).
“I’m sick of the people who are bending over the Constitution and your rights,” Hoster said.
Last year, Hoster spoke at a meeting of the far-right Liberty Action Coalition, where he repeated anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Bill Hoster answers a question during the GOP 2nd district debate, at Woods Cross High School, on Tuesday, June 20, 2023.
Ahead of the start of Tuesday’s debate, Stewart endorsed one of his staffers, Celeste Maloy, to replace him in Congress, announcing his pick on his Facebook page.
“She is a strong conservative woman with Utah values, and the one person in the race I know for certain is ready to serve on day one,” Stewart said.
Maloy, who has not run for elected office before, served as a deputy county attorney for Washington County, vice chair of the Washington County GOP and policy adviser for public lands for the Utah Association of Counties.
Fresh off the endorsement from her boss, Maloy highlighted her middle-class chops.
“I know what it’s like to have to live on a budget. I know what it’s like to make your paycheck stretch. I think I have a lot in common with you,” Maloy said.
Asked how they would vote on the recent deal to raise the nation’s debt limit of $31.4 trillion through Jan. 1, 2025, most of the field said they opposed the deal.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Bruce Hough answers a question during the GOP 2nd district debate, at Woods Cross High School, on. Tuesday, June 20, 2023.
“I would have voted no because this country has gone way too far with too much foreign debt,” Scott Reber, a former congressional staffer, said.
Entrepreneur Bruce Hough says he would have been a yes vote, saying getting President Joe Biden to negotiate when he initially said he wouldn’t is a win.
“We got an agreement on spending cuts. We didn’t get everything we wanted, but Washington doesn’t work that way. You have to do it incrementally. If we’re not able to take the inch, then we will continue to spin our wheels and grandstand,” Hough said.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Celeste Maloy answers a question during the GOP 2nd district debate, at Woods Cross High School, onTuesday, June 20, 2023.
Another dividing line among the candidates was the Respect for Marriage Act, which adds protections for same-sex marriage into federal law. Most of those who said they opposed the legislation because it either did not do enough to protect religious liberties or states’ rights.
“I believe individual liberties are important, but we need to protect our churches,’ former Utah GOP Vice Chair Jordan Hess, said.
Maloy, who said she supported the bill, pushed back against those arguments.
“As the only person who actually worked on that bill, I feel like I’m maybe the most qualified to talk about what it does,” Maloy said. “It says the federal government will respect whatever the state’s legislature says regarding marriage.”
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