Democratic Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg visited Salt Lake City on Monday night to host a town hall. UPR’s Matilyn Mortensen visited with attendees outside of the event to ask them about their thoughts on the presidential race as Super Tuesday approaches.
“My preferences are the moderate wing of the Democratic Party. So it would be, you know, Pete, Amy, Mike Bloomberg or Biden,” said Tom Moyer of Park City.
Moyer describes himself as a political moderate and said although he is a registered Republican, he requested a Democratic ballot for Super Tuesday. When it comes to voting issues, he said the environment and climate change are top priorities for him.
“They are candidates that I like the policies and the tone of and who I think have a good chance of winning,” Moyer said. “Tone is particularly important to me, I think we need a lot of healing as a country right now.”
Many other attendees also mentioned how important it was to them that the Democratic nominee for president be someone who could unite the country. This included Merriah Hammaker, a Provo resident, who recently turned 19 and will vote in her first presidential election this fall.
“I'm wanting to vote for someone who I think will beat Trump and someone who I think won't divide America super a lot,” Hammaker said. “And I think Pete Buttigieg is the best candidate that we have for that right now. I feel like Sanders and Warren are pretty divisive. And I feel like it's going to be harder for them to pull a moderate vote than Pete.”
Super Tuesday is on March 3 and this is the first year Utah has participated in the March primary. Across the state, voters should already be receiving their by-mail ballots.
Over the next two weeks, UPR will run more stories looking at what Utah voters are thinking coming in to Super Tuesday. Watch our website and social media for more coverage.
