Dem hopefuls stake out progressive positions during feisty congressional debate

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Well, a Democratic [music] primary debate here in Utah is gathering more attention than the typical Democratic debate because they actually have a chance of winning. They have four candidates are running to represent the new first congressional district here in Utah, which covers I think most of the northeast and about 2/3 of Salt Lake County.

[00:00:18]>> And usually, you know, people pay more attention maybe to the Republican primaries in these kinds of elections, but because of redistricting, this new district is likely to go to a Democrat in the general election, which means a lot of people both here in Utah and nationally are watching this primary election.

[00:00:36]>> And having participated in debates myself and you probably as well, they're important because it gives candidates a chance to sort of set themselves apart, give the public opportunity to hear what they have to say and decide who more closely represents what they're what they think a congressional representative should do.

[00:00:52]>> And I'll just say this about debates, I think it's really, really hard to have policy discussions with 60-second answers. Right? It's really hard to do that. But the candidates who were on stage last night are former Congressman Ben McAdams, State Senator Nate Blouin, tax attorney Michael Ferraro, and Leon Muhammad, who was the party's nominee party's convention nominee with 51% of the vote, I think.

[00:01:16]>> And I don't know whether you agree with this, but Nate Blouin came out a week or so ago and made it seem as though there was the the moderate candidate and the three more progressive candidates and that if the three could get together and decide who among them was the strongest, that he and personally would set would step aside.

[00:01:36]>> It wasn't even It wasn't even a week ago. It was I think the end of last week where he said if the polling shows that I'm not in the lead for the three progressive candidates, then I'll step aside. They actually mentioned that a couple of the candidates last night and just Basically, we we hadn't even had a debate yet. He didn't ask us if we wanted to be involved, right, until after he'd pulled the trigger, basically. So, um that was interesting.

[00:02:03]It's interesting to me, too, to see that the the news media largely called it feisty. I would say it was pretty tame. Maybe maybe I'm thinking of on the federal level some of the feistiness. It was I mean, there were some pointed remarks, but I didn't think it was super hostile.

[00:02:22]>> Did you feel like anyone that they were ganging up on Ben McAdams? I mean, he's clearly the front runner, and so >> Yeah, and so usually, like you you know, you shoot at the king, so you take you aim your arrows at him, and he he kept getting um additional rebuttal time because they would call him out by name. If you mention him by name, then that person got a chance to rebut, and he was the one I think that got called out the most often.

[00:02:45]>> It seemed like they they agreed on a lot of things, that there wasn't much disagreement on. But there were there were a few issues um that they I thought it was interesting their take on the national debt, that two of them said we need to have a balanced budget, we need to do this, and two of them said it's not that important. You know, we we end up just >> Or that there's other things.

[00:03:05]>> Right. Yeah, other things that are more important.

[00:03:07]>> So, there were some tense moments, right, uh between State Senator Nate Blouin and Liban Muhammad. I mean, certainly Liban had uh some very pointed remarks. But But this answer, this is a question about the cost of health care, it it went into personal attacks, and the conversation went to data.

[00:03:25]>> senators coming to the state of Utah.

[00:03:26]>> We spend more money on health care than any nation on Earth in the history of humanity. Yet, we are the only wealthy nation that does not guarantee coverage.

[00:03:35]It is clear it's not the resources at hand that's the issue, it's how those resources are being allocated. With a single-payer system, such as Medicare for all, we can provide full coverage for everyone, increasing the quality of care with the kicker lowering overall costs. It's a no-brainer solution, and only reason it does not occur is because of the unlimited money that is allowed to be spent in politics because of Citizens United Buckley, Speech Now, and how that owns politicians like Ben McAdams or performative folks like Nate Blouin who says the right things but has never passed a bill in the history of his tenure of the entire legislature.

[00:04:12]Actually, statistically, the most ineffective person since Utah has existed. What it calls for is a new generation of leadership that understands that we can have health care for all the 300,000 Utahns.

[00:04:24]>> That's time.

[00:04:24]>> And get it done.

[00:04:26]>> And Mr. Blouin, you were mentioned there. I'm going to give you 30 seconds for a rebuttal.

[00:04:30]>> Thank you. Yeah, during my time in the legislature, I have done everything I can to move the needle. That has meant going up against Republicans and Democrats alike. Uh it's challenging. We see We see Democrats taking money from the same pharma companies, the same corporate PACs that Republicans do in Utah and I have fought against that. Uh I'm having a hard time understanding how folks who can uh who are watching this debate will will trust someone like Liban Muhammad who has actually worked in the past for the same lobbying firm that is pushing Kevin O'Leary's data center into our backyard.

[00:05:02]>> That's time. Mr. Muhammad, um he did mention that working for the firm that is supporting the data center. Do you have a response to that?

[00:05:10]>> Senator, that's false.

[00:05:12]But I will say this, I worked in tech. I quit big tech. He performs for big tech.

[00:05:17]He's owned by big tech. I know big tech and I'm going to do what it takes to hold them accountable. I know what it takes to hold them accountable. I quit for the very purposes of standing up on this stage and calling for prohibitions on data centers in Utah and all other water stressed areas. I said this from the day I entered this campaign. He just wants a pause, just delaying the issue.

[00:05:38]A prohibition answers it.

[00:05:40]>> Little bit feisty. I mean and we heard a lot from Liban Muhammad and attacking uh Blouin of all people and and and McAdams a little bit sort of more subtly but and Blue and sort of jumping back into it but the two of them got into it there it seemed like.

[00:05:57]>> They did and if you're jockeying for position for the most progressive right then I understand why they're going after each other. So um all three of the more progressive candidates they agreed with the idea of abolishing ICE but Senator or well I knew him as a state senator. That was a just a slip. Ben McAdams didn't go quite as far he said ICE needed reform and there were things that he wanted specifically to have happen with that and all of them said they would fight the the ICE detention center here in Utah.

[00:06:25]>> Yeah, I think ICE is a is a topic and the an issue that is going to weigh strong with Democrats. It seems like McAdams really is positioning himself as the moderate and and that they're they're letting him do that.

[00:06:39]>> Yeah, and I don't I mean I don't disagree with that. In fact one of the things that um Ben said last night is he pointed out the percentage of voters in this district CD1 that you had 25% registered Democrats, 35% registered Republicans and then the rest were unaffiliated or part of another party. Right? So that was interesting that he pointed that out and he said I have to represent everybody.

[00:07:03]>> Right and wouldn't it be interesting if in fact it didn't end up being a Democratic district. I mean we're all just assuming a Democrat's going to win.

[00:07:10]>> But there is a Republican challenger.

[00:07:12]Yeah. So so we mentioned the Great Salt Lake and certainly um they all had opinions on that. Uh Ben McAdams talked about the $1 billion that President Trump wants to give to saving the Great Salt Lake.

[00:07:25]>> Saving the Great Salt Lake is an existential question for the people of Utah. It will be my number one priority.

[00:07:31]And look if Zoran can work with Donald Trump then to save the Great Salt Lake I can work with him too. We must secure that funding to make sure that we save this lake. This is about the air we breathe. It's about the place that we call home, and we must take actions to do that. So, addressing the Great Salt Lake is going to take really an all-hands-on-deck every solution that we we can. It's going to require each and every one of us minimizing our water use, but that won't get us there enough.

[00:07:58]We have to eradicate invasive species along the Jordan River, the phragmites and the Russian olives that consume so much water.

[00:08:04]We can eradicate those and get more water to the lake. We will not save the lake unless we address agricultural uses. So, that money can be used to for agricultural leases, for reappropriation of agricultural water, and getting really the water that we need to to restore this lake to a healthy level.

[00:08:21]>> And all three candidates all three other candidates agreed that the Great Salt Lake is important. One candidate made kind of a quip about what he thought might really save us have something to do to save the lake.

[00:08:31]>> Yeah, I would happily work with Donald Trump to bring in more funding for the Great Salt Lake. We could call it the Great Trump Lake if he wants to save it.

[00:08:38]I don't care.

[00:08:39]The most important thing is saving the lake. If we lose that, Salt Lake City is done.

[00:08:44]Utah is done. It is an existential crisis. It is a nuclear bomb waiting to happen. To save that, we do need we need an all-hands approach, bringing in more federal funding so we can bring more water into the Great Salt Lake, whether that be from Bear Lake, Lake Powell, it does not matter. We need more water, and we need to cap agricultural use of water. 85% of water used in Utah is agricultural. 15% is home consumption, but we're told that oh, we have to conserve our water. Yes, we do, but you know who else does? Large alfalfa farmers. We need to put a tax on excessive water consumption by agricultural producers, and we need to ban data centers nationwide. I I'm running to represent Utah. We need to ban them nationwide. We cannot be wasting our resources on these things when we're about to lose the Great Salt Lake.

[00:09:32]>> That was candidate Mike Farrell at the debate last night. So,