It’s been over a decade since Jon Huntsman Jr. participated in a presidential debate. On Wednesday night, the 2012 candidate watched the debate from his living room in Salt Lake City, alongside his wife, Mary Kaye, and a group of Deseret News journalists: videographers Ryan Templeman and Burgess Coffield, photographer Laura Seitz and reporter Samuel Benson.
A significant portion of the debate centered on Huntsman’s biggest area of expertise. His 2012 run was sandwiched between stints as U.S. ambassador to Russia and China, the nation’s two largest geopolitical rivals. Thanks to the ongoing wars in Israel and Ukraine, foreign policy was the debate’s central issue.
Nikki Haley won the night, Huntsman thought — she was strong on Israel, strong on abortion and reasonable on the deficit.
Read more about Huntsman’s impression of the debate here.