With Election Day less than a month away, three candidates for Mitt Romney’s open U.S. Senate seat debated at Weber State University on Thursday, Oct. 10 for a debate organized by the Utah Debate Commission.
Candidates discussed a number of topics important to Utahns, including how they would address water issues.
U.S. Rep. John Curtis, a Republican who currently represents Utah’s 3rd Congressional District, said he believes using Utah’s innovation and partnering with both agriculture and the private sector is the answer.
“Agriculture is not the enemy, and I’m afraid if we’re not careful we tend to demonize our good friend in agriculture,” Curtis said. “And I actually believe, not only are they not the enemy, they are the solution to this and we need to be listening to them.”
In contrast, Caroline Gleich, a professional skier and the Democratic nominee, was concerned that too much of the Great Salt Lake’s water was going to agriculture and not enough work is being done to address the climate crisis.
“Not only do we need to speed up water conservation methods to get more water to the Great Salt Lake, we also need to redefine and revamp our entire western way of looking at water,” Gleich said. “Water’s a finite resource.”
Carlton Bowen, who was on the American Fork City Council from 2014 to 2017 and is running with the Independent American Party of Utah, opposed water going to the Great Salt Lake as being a beneficial use, which gives the lake access to water rights.
“The pioneers recognized that water’s a critical resource for Utah, and beneficial use meant using it for farming and to live, to drink,” Bowen said. “And changing that definition to allow a certain amount to go down to the lake is very dangerous to the state.”
Overall, Bowen relied on his conservative, pro-Trump platform and continually pressing Curtis on his history as a Democratic lawmaker in the early 2000’s.
“There’s a Democrat on the ballot, there’s a former Democrat on the ballot who ... wouldn’t even endorse his party’s presidential nominee,” Bowen said. “And then there’s me, a conservative, pro-Trump, independent American.”
Curtis defended his time as a Democrat and relied on his political experience throughout the debate, citing legislation he’s passed or working on in most questions.
“I'm very proud of everything I’ve done in the past,” Curtis said. “If you’re damning somebody because they were once a Democrat, you have to rule out Donald Trump, you have to rule out Ronald Reagan.”
Gleich relied on her younger age, saying Utah needed newer, younger politicians with fresh ideas for change to happen.
“I’m an environmental advocate, so I’m all about reduce, reuse, recycle,” Gleich said, “but we cannot keep recycling the same old politicians and expect them to get out of this mess. It’s time for the new generation to step up.”
All three candidates will be on the ballot for one of Utah’s Senate seats, along with the unaffiliated candidate Laird Hamblin.
Thanks for joining us on Election Day. You can find results and reporting here.
