Utah debates in limbo as Utah Debate Commission founder exits blasting GOP legislative leaders

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — One of the founding members of the Utah Debate Commission (UDC) has announced his departure from the organization, alleging that it is “under attack” from the GOP-controlled Utah state legislature.

“Since the legislature now seeks to become involved (in debates), thanks to efforts of our former governor and current Republican legislative leaders, the UDC is under attack,” wrote founding UDC member Richard Davis in a letter to 24 of his fellow board members on Monday announcing his departure.

“Obviously, now the Republican officials will have the power to determine the venues, the questions, the moderators, the thresholds for participation, and so on.  So, it makes sense to them to take charge.  It is a travesty for Utah voters,” Davis wrote.

But multiple current and former board members who spoke to ABC4 say that behind the scenes, the decade-old organization that has executed Utah’s federal and statewide general election debates, and more recently primary ones, has faced a messy history of being disorganized, excluding a Republican from its board, and accusations of being biased against the state’s dominant party.

Davis’ departure also comes as the group’s future, and the future of debates in Utah, is somewhat uncertain after the legislature decided not to fund the UDC anymore, instead giving $600,000 to the University of Utah and the Hinckley Institute of Politics to join with Utah Valley University’s Herbert Institute for Public Policy, run by Governor Gary Herbert, to “establish a statewide non-partisan debate organization.”

“I knew partisanship would rear its ugly head, although I did not anticipate how much that would occur as well in Utah,” wrote Davis. “I knew it would take vigilance to resist the governing party’s effort to co-opt the UDC,” he added.

Former Governor Gary denied that he or Republicans were trying to usurp control of the UDC in any way; rather, he said, that his idea was that if the legislature wanted a better debate organizing system, then they should fund it.

“Rather than control it, they’re trying to make sure it’s fair,” said Herbret. The goal that Richard has to make it fair is the same, and they’ll fund it,” he said.

A BYU Political Science Professor, Davis also founded the United Utah Party and has been openly critical of Republicans, including in his 2022 Deseret News Op-ed, where he first accused them of trying to “strip away independence” from the commission.

Davis told ABC4, and he outlines in his email, that the UDC fallout with Republicans escalated that year, after the decision to participate in primary debates and the Republican Party’s backlash, which led to its refusal to have its candidates participate.

“I think a lot of the folks in the state were following the lead of their national counterparts who were saying don’t participate in (the Commission on Presidential Debates), debates where you have supposed, what they considered supposed non-partisan settings because their board includes Democrats,” Davis told ABC4.

But Republicans have alleged biases too, citing some of the moderators chosen by the commission. Like, in 2022, when Congressman Burgess Owens skipped his general election debate, citing a “racist cartoon” from the Salt Lake Tribune, whose editor, Lauren Gustus, was the moderator.

“Since 2014, the Utah Debate Commission has proudly provided Utahns with fair, independent, and nonpartisan candidate debates,” said current GOP Co-Chair Becky Edwards via a statement.

The commission has also faced criticism over its polling methods, which have allowed several third-party candidates to qualify for the stage despite the political reality that they likely wouldn’t have a chance of winning in Utah.

Davis maintains that the threshold was meant to balance fairness for voters outside the two-party system while weeding out non-serious contenders, and that he was in no way trying to unfairly benefit his third party.

“This threshold was set in 2013 or 2014, long before there was a United Utah Party, ” Davis said. “And when I did become involved with the UUP, I stepped away from UDC.”

Board rejects Republican Chief of Staff

With those issues as the backdrop, in 2024, the board members who spoke to ABC 4 say Mark Thomas, the Utah Senate’s Chief of Staff, had been asked several times by another founding member, Democrat Scott Howell who resigned in March after serving for 12 years, to join the board because of his experience in Utah elections and relationship with the legislature. Thomas was hesitant at first because of 2022, but ultimately agreed and began attending board subcommittee meetings.

With approval from the board’s executive committee, Thomas, a Republican, was then brought forward for a vote of ratification.

But the board ultimately chose not to ratify Thomas, but did approve former Governor Gary Herbert in the same meeting.

Davis took issue with Thomas’s ability to be independent because he was appointed by Senate President Stuart Adams (R-Layton). But Thomas’s actual role is Chief of Staff for the entire Senate, Democrats included, just as Adams is the President over the entire Senate.

“It wasn’t that he was Republican, it was that he was a state government employee who was working directly for politicians,” Davis said, citing a board bylaw that prohibited politicians from being on the board.

Rumors then started swirling among board members that Howell had offered Thomas a spot on the board in exchange for legislative funding.

“I never, ever, even once made reference to anything like ‘help us get an appropriation and we’ll give you a seat on the board,'” Howell said emphatically. “Never. Ever.”

“I felt bad about the situation that Thomas had been misinformed that he was already on the board,” Davis said.

But the experience left a sour taste for other board members who felt Thomas was treated poorly, made to wait on Zoom for 40 minutes while Davis and others debated his eligibility. Some also believed that Thomas wasn’t let in because he was too conservative, and there was a double standard of allowing public university employees funded by the legislature, and other members with ties to politicians, but not Thomas.

Future of the Utah Debate Commission

The following legislative session, in 2025, the legislature stripped UDC of its funding in favor of the two universities, which did not even submit a formal appropriations request for the money.

And despite the criteria for appointees to serve on the future debate committee not being outlined anywhere in state law, Herbert maintains that the Herbert and Hinckley Institutes will be able to create a non-partisan system.

“Our goal is to make sure there’s a fair and balanced debate commission to make sure they’re run professionally without bias,” he said.

Davis believes the legislature gave the funding to the universities to dismantle UDC.

“(The legislature) is expecting that we’ll just fold and that their version, because it’s got to be well funded by the legislature, will just be the prominent debate organization in the state,” Davis said.

With the state funding of the UDC now gone and the new system not yet created, Davis urged the media coalitions to take over running the UDC for federal and statewide races.

“The media is the one organization left of the group that is truly independent,” Davis said.

His outlook on the UDC’s fate, however, was grim. Davis believes that the universities that have now been funded by the legislature will be controlled by the GOP purse strings.

“With no money, I’m not sure that there’s a future there, which is very sad for me.”

Edwards says the UDC will continue its mission of “elevating political discourse and empowering voters,” though presumably they’ll have to find private donors.

Edwards said they are moving toward debates in 2026.

“The Utah Debate Commission continues its work and is actively preparing for the 2026 elections. We believe Utahns deserve fair and substantive debates, and we are proud to serve that public interest.”

Editor’s note: ABC4 is a member of the Utah Debate Commission with two company representatives on the board. The information for this story did not come from them.