Editors Note: This article was originally published in the Aug. 16, 2023 issue of the Chronicle Progress. Some information may be outdated.
For a party with an elephant as its symbol, the two Republican candidates competing to replace Rep. Chris Stewart in Utah’s 2nd Congressional District almost missed the one in the room at last week’s debate at Delta High School.
The Millard County Republican Party hosted an hour-long, moderated debate last Friday between Celeste Maloy and Bruce Hough.
Becky Edwards, a third option for GOP voters to consider on primary election day, Sept. 5, was a no-show at the event.
The open forum covered numerous topics, from federal government spending to Ukraine and public lands policies to immigration. But one subject seemed to be noticeably missing from the discussion—the trials and tribulations of one Donald John Trump.
The former president is facing a litany of federal and state felony criminal charges in multiple courts. If nothing else, it’s an epic, historic development never experienced in the country’s 247-year experiment with democratic governance.
And he currently dominates every other candidate in a crowded field for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
And yet, not a peep? Not from the debate moderators. Not from the audience members. Not from the candidates.
Not until the Chronicle Progress asked a couple questions after the debate, that is.
Are these Republican candidates for federal office willing to support the beleaguered former president should he win their party’s nomination next summer? What if he’s convicted of one of the 80 or more felonies arrayed against him in the meantime?
The answers were basically “yes” and “yes” from both candidates.
Maloy, arguably the woman to beat since she won the state GOP convention here in June and has Stewart’s personal endorsement, said her job was to support whomever Republican voters decide to nominate—even if he’s a convicted felon, apparently.
“I have said I will support the party’s nominee and I’ll stand by that. If the voters make him the nominee, that’s their job. My job is to work with him,” she said.
As for the indictments themselves—they run the gamut from stealing nuclear secrets, among many other classified documents, and not giving them back when asked nicely, to business fraud in New York to multiple conspiracy counts related to attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, and, possibly as early as this week, state RICO charges in Georgia—Maloy said she was interested to see how it all plays out.
“I do think from what I’ve seen, the indictments are an attempt at criminalizing political speech, which we don’t do in this country,” she said, voicing a familiar argument often made by supporters of the former president. “But just because there’s an indictment doesn’t mean there was a crime.”
Hough said much the same.
He believes every person, regardless of political stripe, is accountable to the rule of law. He also said he believes every defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence, due process and a fair trial. But he qualified those sentiments by saying that many voters are upset that the fair administration of justice doesn’t seem to be equally distributed among everyone.
“If we can follow those standards, that’s my litmus test. What’s been problematic is it hasn’t been equally administered. And we see this example with the Bidens and the Hunter Biden case. We see it with the way that it was done during the first impeachment of President Trump…We have Hillary Clinton who has done criminal acts with servers and with emails. The problem is, I’m not doing whataboutism, it doesn’t matter, everyone should be accountable, even now, even the former president,” he said.
Hough further added that he is a Republican because of the principles of the party not because of any one member or leader.
“I have always voted for the Republican candidate, nominated by the party. Which is different than my other two opponents, by the way…It is my intent to support whoever the Republican nominee is for president,” he said.
Asked even if that meant the nominee was a convicted felon, Hough said he wasn’t sure that was even possible—it is.
“That’s conjecture and hypothetical. My intention is to vote for the Republican nominee. I always have and it is my intention to continue to do that. Not because of the person, necessarily, but because of the principles of the party,” he said.
While such party fidelity certainly plays well during a closed primary election, especially in deep red Millard County—Trump was the overwhelming winner here in the 2016 and 2020 presidential contests—it remains to be seen whether embracing a politically historical aberration such as Trump’s continued candidacy—and dominance over the party faithful—will play well with general election voters in other parts of CD2, like suburban Salt Lake City, Cedar City or St. George.
It may not matter much. Maloy said she thinks the outskirts of St. George, combined with the rural counties that make up central Utah, will select the party’s nominee next month.
November’s general election is likely to be only a pro forma affair after that.
