- Democratic candidates for Utah's new 1st District competed to be the most progressive at a town hall on Monday.
- The candidates all agreed Israel is committing a 'genocide' against Palestinians and said I.C.E should be abolished.
- Former Rep. Ben McAdams did not attend. He said he has had more progressive results than 'empty rhetoric.'
Most Democratic candidates for Utah’s new — and very blue — 1st Congressional District participated in a town hall on Monday where they unanimously accused Israel of genocide, endorsed transgender treatments for minors and called for abolishing ICE.
The event, hosted by Black Lives Matter and 71 Percent Coalition, an anti-Israel advocacy group, showcased the competition among primary contenders to prove their progressive bonafides.
Rep. Ben McAdams, who raised more money last year than his seven opponents combined, did not attend the event. The former Salt Lake County mayor has attempted to find a more moderate balance between opposition to former President Donald Trump and coalition building.
State Sen. Kathleen Riebe, who ran for Congress in 2023, also did not attend. But she told the Deseret News she agreed with the stances taken by the six town hall participants on Israel, transgender treatments and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
This week candidates will officially file with the state election office now that a court-ordered congressional district map has been finalized, upending Utah’s political landscape and giving Democrats a rare opportunity to define themselves on the national stage.
But the partisan pressures of a downtown Salt Lake City district, where Kamala Harris won by 23 percentage points in 2024, appear to be pushing candidates toward extreme positions that a new national poll suggests may be out of touch with most Democratic voters.
How left can you go?
Monday’s town hall featured little debate. The candidates found consensus trying to outdo each other in their eagerness to “tax the rich,” pass the Green New Deal and cut off aid to Israel. The U.S. and Israel are currently committing a “crime of aggression” against Iran, they concurred.
Attorney Michael Farrell said of his preferred policy, “not another penny for Israel,” while self-described democratic socialist Luis Villarreal said “Israel is not a real country. It is an evil and deeply fascistic economic arm of the United States’ capital interests,” to which the crowd cheered.
Salt Lake County council member Eva Lopez Chavez said the U.S. should prosecute Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And, like every other candidate present, she criticized Utah’s law prohibiting Utah from contracting with companies that boycott Israel.
Much of the conversation focused on programs of redistribution — including higher tax rates to ensure there are “less billionaires.” Former tech lobbyist Liban Mohamed called for a new wealth tax to fund universal health care, child care and pre-K schools.
Candidates also backed major reforms to the U.S. government. Former state Sen. Derek Kitchen proposed expanding the Supreme Court to 13 justices, one for each circuit court, enacting term limits for justices, and overhauling campaign finance rules.
Former state Sen. Nate Blouin knocked McAdams for voting against pro-union legislation while in Congress and mentioned bills he introduced — which never made it to a floor vote — that would have repealed Utah’s “right to work” law and raised the minimum wage.
Nationwide Democratic disconnect?
Blouin, who has raised more money than his fellow town hall participants put together, framed himself as the only progressive candidate who can win, pointing to endorsements from notable progressives like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
“We’ve built the only coalition capable of defeating the Democratic establishment in Utah’s 1st Congressional District,” Blouin said in a statement to the Deseret News. “We don’t need another Democrat who will vote for more war and less healthcare.”
However, a new Manhattan Institute poll suggests the 1st District race may reflect a national disconnect between the Democratic Party and its voters, with 38% saying the party should move toward the center, 26% saying it is in the right place and 22% saying it should move toward the left.
The poll found that only 21% of Democrats say youth under 18 should be eligible for transgender treatments, 13% say Israel is an illegitimate state that is responsible for all the violence after its founding and 11% say there should be no focus on deporting immigrants in the country illegally.
“There is clearly a dynamic at play here where the Democratic voter is much more moderate than the median professional Democrat,” the poll’s author, Jesse Arm, said. “Democratic politicians, all of the incentives for them point toward ideological escalation rather than moderation.”
This is because of the extensive network of nonprofits, activists, donors and unions on the political left that place pressure on Democratic candidates during primaries to reflect their priorities, even if it is not what a majority of voters want, Arm told the Deseret News.
To be, or not to be ... a socialist?
In a statement to the Deseret News, McAdams said his campaign is about “real progress for Utahns, not empty rhetoric and strongly worded tweets.” He highlighted his role in expanding Medicaid and passing a landmark LGBTQ nondiscrimination compromise in Utah.
But this “record of progressive results” does not need to come at the expense of “building coalitions” and trying to be a “unifying figure,” McAdams told the Deseret News on Monday. “While I’m somebody who takes courageous stands, I’ve never been polarizing,” McAdams said.
Riebe, who has focused on funding education and forming relationships with rural Utah, said the top issues animating Utahns are government debt and executive overreach on immigration. She believes a lurch to the left could make the Democratic nominee less responsive to Utahns’ needs.
“To be too far left would hinder our ability to build those alliances and move our Democratic values forward,” Riebe told the Deseret News. “When you push to the left, you’re trying to move the conversation, but if you move too far to the left, you’re alienating too many people.”
However, a recent Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll found Utah Democrats may be more open to left-leaning politics than their national counterparts. Fifty-one percent of Utah Democrats said they have a favorable view of socialism, 65% approved of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and 71% favored democratic socialism.
On Monday, the six Democrats on stage appeared poised to spearhead that shift. The candidates jumped behind debt-free higher education, single-payer health insurance and low-barrier housing — all while joking about which candidate actually occupied the chair furthest to the left.