Utah’s primary debates begin June 10

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Debate Commission will host its series of local and federal Republican primary debates starting June 10 ahead of Utah’s primary election on June 25.

“We’re anticipating everyone is going to sign and it is their intent to debate and to follow the procedures that we’ve and guidelines and laid out,” said Utah Debate Commission Co-chair Becky Edwards.

A total of 18 GOP candidates will debate in races for Congressional Districts 1, 2, and 3, along with candidates in the races for Governor and Attorney General on June 10, 11 and 12. The commission also announced the times and moderators.

The deadline for candidates to sign their agreements to debate is Wednesday at midnight. However, Edwards said there were three stragglers who hadn’t confirmed as of this writing but couldn’t remember who they were.

“The intent is there to participate. And that was certainly portrayed to us in our meeting on Tuesday. I mean, on Monday, our commission anticipates that we will have a full slate of candidates who are enthusiastically participating in our debates,” she said.

The schedule is as follows:

Monday, June 10

• 10 a.m. – Congressional District 2, moderated by Rod Arquette – Colby Jenkins and Celeste Maloy
• 2 p.m. – Congressional District 1, moderated by Julie Rose – Paul Miller and Blake Moore
• 6 p.m. – U.S. Senate, moderated by Glen Mills – John Curtis, Trent Staggs, Jason Walton, and Brad Wilson

Tuesday, June 11

• 2 p.m. – Attorney General, moderated by Glen Mills – Derek Brown, Frank Mylar, Rachel Terry
• 6 p.m. – Governor, moderated by Caroline Ballard – Spencer Cox and Phil Lyman

Wednesday, June 12

• 6 p.m. – Congressional District 3, moderated by Thomas Wright – J.R. Bird, John Dougall, Mike Kennedy, Case Lawrence and Stewart Peay.

Debates for Utah’s general election will begin in the fall, starting with the Gubernatorial debate at Salt Lake Community College in Salt Lake City on Sept. 23.