ST. GEORGE — Out of the 11 candidates aiming to be the Republican nominee to replace outgoing Sen. Mitt Romney this November, four were hosted at a forum in St. George organized by the Washington County Republican Women.

The forum was held as a part of the group’s monthly luncheon and featured candidates Brent Orrin Hatch, Carolyn Phippen, Brad Wilson and Trent Staggs. A representative for Congressman John Curtis also attended the luncheon and expressed the congressman’s regret at not being able to attend due to conflicting congressional obligations in Washington, D.C.

The candidate forum covered a myriad of topics that the four attending candidates shared much common ground on. Any measure of debate or disagreement largely revolved about who would do a better job as Utah’s next senator.

“I believe we’re going to send a Republican senator to Washington,” Wilson said. “The question is: what type of Republican will they be?”

Both Wilson and Staggs touted their experience as small business owners and being involved in state and local-level politics as reasons for why they should be elected.

Wilson previously served as the Utah House Speaker for five years until resigning to run for senate. Staggs has served as the mayor of Riverton for over a decade.

“We have the opportunity here to elect either Mitt Romney 2.0, or we can put another Mike Lee in office,” Staggs said, marking one of many shots made at Romney during the event. “If you want another Mike Lee, I’m your guy.”

Hatch and Phippen have both worked in Washington D.C. as White House and senatorial staff, respectively.

“Ultimately we need to have is … people who are smart, who will think through things, and find creative ways to do it.” Hatch said, adding that many politicians have said the same things over and over and have not delivered on promises.

Hatch, who is a son of the late Sen. Orrin Hatch, is a lawyer who served as an associate White House counsel during the first Bush administration. Phippen is a former staffer for Sen. Mike Lee and has worked with state and federal-level lawmakers on various bills, including the current year’s House Bill 92 in the Utah Legislature.

“We have such an opportunity with this election to send in a good, strong, consistent constitutional conservative who has proven over the years that she understands those principles and has never backed down from them,” Phippen said.

What followers are highlights of some of the questions shared with the candidates during the forum:

How to address the crisis on the southern border?

“I think is pretty simple – shut the door,” Hatch said, adding that President Joseph Biden has the authority to shut down the border, yet is “failing his constitutional duties and imperatives.” Congressional Republicans need to hold the president accountable for those responsibilities, he said.

Related to the border issue and migration, Hatch also decried the federal government’s supplying illegal migrants with food and housing while not doing more for homeless people who are actual American citizens.

Phippen said Congress needs to cut the funding to certain border and immigration programs and personnel that are allowing and promoting illegal migration into the country.

“When it comes to the border crisis we need to shut down funding until the president does what he has the power currently to do,” she said. “We have a massive crisis on our hands. It can be stopped by stopping the flow of money.”

A budget and $43 trillion national debt

Staggs said a good way to cut the national budget is reining in or getting rid of certain federal agencies that go on to create costly and overreaching federal policies.

“The regulatory framework is way too extensive,” he said, adding he would “take a chainsaw” to it and pointed to the REINS (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act as a way to achieve that.

“Sadly congress abdicated its authority to these unelected bureaucrats and we all have to live underneath their rules … It’s a joke,” he said. “A lot of these agencies can be folded up and gotten rid of.”

The proposed REINS legislation would require any “major rule” established by a federal regulatory agency to be reviewed by congress before it can take effect. Versions of the bill have been introduced in recent years yet have failed to advance.

Wilson said the average cost of living for Utahns has jumped to $8,000 since Biden took office and is due to reckless government spending and inflation caused by Democrats and “go along to get along” Republicans in Washington, D.C.

“Now we as Utahns and the American people are paying the price for that reckless spending,” he said. “There is no requirement that says congress has to spend the amount of money it’s taking in. We need a balanced budget amendment to force hard decisions in Washington D.C.”

Federal involvement in public education?

Phippen said Utah needs to move away from accepting federal funds for public education that often comes with strings and mandates attached. She also said federal funds makes up less than 10% of the state’s education budget.

“We get less than 10 of our education funding from the federal government, and yet they dictate 100% of our curriculum and how our time is spent,” Phippen said, adding she suspects the cost of complying with federal education mandates may be more than the dollar amount the state receives.

She also advocated for dissolving of the U.S. Department of Education.

Staggs agreed with eliminating the Department of Education and promotes more parental involvement and control in education. He went on to tout his “standing up to woke-ness” in local schools while interacting with the area school board weekly as Riverton’s mayor.

“We don’t need a separation between church and state, we need a separation between woke and state,” he said. “Sadly, the Biden administration has endorsed all these programs and pushed them down to the military and education — we can stop it.”

Like the other candidates, Staggs supports removing books from public school libraries considered inappropriate for minors that “have no educational value whatsoever.”

How to know what the people of Utah really want?

Wilson said one of the reasons his campaign has gained the endorsements of Washington County area legislators and the Washington Commission is because “they know that I listen.”

Wilson referred back to his time as the Utah House Speaker and being “in tune” with the needs of Washington County. He pointed to helping to create the Colorado River Authority of Utah in order to better fight for the state’s, and Washington County’s, access to the river, along with providing millions of dollars in funding to the county for its regional water reuse project.

“You get that kind of outcome when you listen to the people you work with and you spend time with the people you represent.” he said, and added that as senator he will continue to be “in tune, and in town and I’m going to be listening to the concerns you have and continuing to fight for the folks of Washington County.”

Hatch said he was privileged to grew up watching how his father listened to others in order to learn the will of the people he represented.

From an early age, Hatch said he learned there are many powerful and rich people who you have to deal with as a public servant. However, if you want to know what’s really going on and how to get things done, you talk to regular people. It was an approach his father had taught him and that he used while working at the White House.

“I got to know the people doing the work — not the people doing the talking,” he said. “All of a sudden I was far more connected and I knew far more of what was going on and I could actually get things done.”

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