Utah attorney general candidates on social media, public lands and accountability

Nomination convention season in Utah has arrived. With the Republican and Democratic conventions coming up on Saturday and the Libertarian and United Utah party conventions held recently, the Deseret News asked each attorney general candidate the same three questions.

They were asked about social media litigation, public lands and accountability to the people of Utah.

Republican candidates Derek Brown, Trent Christensen, Frank Mylar and Rachel Terry are competing for the nomination Saturday. Brown is seeking the nomination via signature gathering and the convention, so he is qualified for the primary. Rudy J. Bautista and David Carlson are both seeking the Democratic nomination through the convention process. Michelle Quist received the nomination for the United Utah Party and W. Andrew McCullough is the nominee for the Libertarian Party. Austin Hepworth is running as unaffiliated.

Here’s a look at their answers to these questions. Candidates appear alphabetically by the first letter of their last name.

Social media litigation

The Utah attorney general’s office is currently involved in litigation with social media companies Meta and TikTok. Candidates spoke about how they would approach this litigation.

Rudy Bautista: “The reality of it is, if people are concerned about the content on social media, there are tools available to protect children and I believe that it’s a parent’s responsibility to do such,” Bautista said. He said it’s important to protect children and protect people from hate, and he also wants to protect free speech. “I believe that free speech and all of those things should be protected, so I may pull Utah out of that litigation.”

Derek Brown: “I think the underlying grounds and the underlying basis on which they are filed is sound,” said Brown, adding that he would anticipate the lawsuits would continue if he is elected. “Utahns want someone who both understands the issues and are willing to stand up against these companies. I have a track record of doing that.”

David Carlson: Carlson said if he is elected, he would rely on the expertise of the assistant attorney general to handle the litigation. He said he thinks it’s important to protect the rights of Utahns and “if social media companies are intruding into areas that they should not be in,” then it’s the responsibility of the attorney general to handle it.

Trent Christensen: Christensen said he wanted to start his answer by giving credit to Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes for the work that he did. He said that he believes the work on these lawsuits needs to continue and social media companies need to be stopped from employing algorithms that lead children to use their platforms excessively.

Austin Hepworth: Hepworth said he believes that the lawsuits against the social media companies were filed for political purposes. He said he believes it’s the responsibility of parents to manage their kids’ social media usage. “I get highly concerned when we transfer responsibility and say it’s the social media companies’ responsibility to not keep my kids addicted to social media.”

Andrew McCullough: “Parents are going to have to be responsible and other people are going to have to be responsible to try and ameliorate the harm done by the fact that we can see and hear so much stuff that many others think we shouldn’t see,” McCullough said. “I don’t see how the government can realistically get involved in that and I cannot see myself doing that.” McCullough added that he believes it’s the responsibility of parents to manage their children’s social media.

Frank Mylar: Mylar said there are two things the office needs to balance when approaching social media companies: Parents need to be in charge of their children’s social media usage and “sometimes social media is actually acting as a regular media, and they shouldn’t be able to silence First Amendment expression.” He said he would review the issues the office is litigating and see if anything needs to be changed.

Michelle Quist: Quist said she believes she’s the only candidate who has litigated social media issues. “I am committed to supporting Utah families in vigorously defending pending litigation as well as the 2022 Social Media Regulation Act and its mission to protect Utah’s children against online harm.” Quist said the act “exposes issues of data privacy, artificial intelligence, First Amendment protections and other similar concerns.”

In addition to protecting Utah children, Quist said the attorney general’s office also has to work to protect the First Amendment rights of all Utahns. “My administration will ignore the political rhetoric and focus on finding the right legal balance for all Utahns, especially our children.”

Quist added that she would modernize the office to deliver results for Utahns. “The AGO’s e-discovery methods are severely antiquated and unreliable, as a court noted in a public filing this past January. One of my top priorities is to modernize the AGO’s e-discovery, as promised 8 years ago.”

Rachel Terry: Terry said without continuing to pursue the social media litigation, “we’re not going to really be able to get to the bottom of how to protect teens from the harms that social media is causing without continuing this litigation.” Calling it a top priority, she wants to fight to give parents more options to protect their children. Terry said that there needs to be oversight on social media companies and Congress needs to engage on this issue.

Public lands

A new rule from the Bureau of Land Management is aimed at conserving federal land. Candidates were asked what they think about this rule.

Rudy Bautista: “I want to make it clear that as the attorney general, I would be the people of the state of Utah’s attorney, not the politicians’ attorney, not the governor’s attorney,” Bautista said. He said that he wants to hear from the people of Utah on this issue and would establish a unit for surveying people. “With that in mind, I believe that we must preserve our environment, we must protect it and beautify and maintain it for not only us, but for nature,” Bautista said, also adding that “if the federal land is trying to encroach on state land and if the people of the state of Utah want to preserve independence from the federal government in that respect, I will support whatever the people want to be supported.”

Derek Brown: Calling the Public Lands Rule “a dream for environmentalists,” Brown said it would give federal bureaucrats a reason to deny mineral extraction or grazing rights “under the guise of conservation.” If the Supreme Court succeeds in overturning Chevron — a legal doctrine that says federal courts need to defer to an agency’s own interpretation in many cases — then Brown would do a top to bottom review to determine if “the actions taken by BLM go beyond what they have been authorized to do.”

David Carlson: “I think it’s important to remember that the reason that it’s public land is because the leaders of our country, of our state, have made a determination that it needs to be protected and preserved,” Carlson said. “There are competing interests.” As attorney general, he said he would give good advice to leaders of state officials and balance between conservationists and protecting the rights of ranchers and farmers.

Trent Christensen: Christensen said it is a theme of the Biden administration to give the federal government more power. “We absolutely need Donald J. Trump as our president,” said Christensen. “That’s my first and biggest answer to this.” He said he believes a Trump administration would take care of some of these bureaucratic issues. He also pointed toward the possibility that Chevron is overturned. In turn, Christensen said that this would result in “the power to start clawing back our lands.”

Austin Hepworth: Hepworth said he feels like some lawsuits around federal lands are political in nature and instead of suing, there needs to be different solutions. If the federal government was pushed to be more transparent, Hepworth said, then he believed that the transparency would “chase away problems.”

Andrew McCullough: “It’s a proper thing in life, especially if you’re a Utahn, to hate the federal government,” McCullough said. He added that the national parks are a treasure to the work, but he does not want to interfere too much with the way the federal government handles public lands. “I don’t think I would spend a great deal of time suing them. I think there are probably some issues in which the feds may step on our toes and we may have a valid right to go after them.”

Frank Mylar: Mylar said giving the Bureau of Land Management more control over public lands is “a disaster.” He said the agency is “nickel and diming” cattle ranchers off the lands and he believes the agency should back off of regulating lands. Mylar added that law enforcement needs the ability to access all the land in its jurisdiction so it can enforce the law and maintain roads. He said he believes the federal government needs to give some of the public lands back to Utah.

Michelle Quist: Quist said that her administration would be proactive, not reactive, when it came to protecting public lands. “If elected AG, I will vigorously defend Utahns’ rights to coexist with any new conservation uses, as contemplated by the rule, and will use cooperation and negotiation, along with litigation when necessary, to achieve these goals. We need competency and experience in the AG’s office, not reactive politics.”

Rachel Terry: Terry said the Public Lands Rule was “further evidence that the Biden administration is trying to cut off access to use of our own lands.” She said she would sue the Bureau of Land Management if elected and that she does not believe the lands should be federally owned at this point. “When we lose ranching, we lose towns, we lose the culture, we lose the access that we’ve had,” Terry said.

Accountability to the people of Utah

Candidates were asked what are three specific steps they would take to be accountable to the people of Utah.

Rudy Bautista: Bautista said if elected, he would implement a civilian review board to ensure that law enforcement agencies and the attorney general’s office are functioning properly.

“I would have full disclosure of calendaring and schedules,” Bautista said. “The attorney general is someone who is paid by the people of the state of Utah, they should only be working for the people of the state of Utah.” He said he is concerned that politicians keep their calendars secret because they’re out playing golf and he doesn’t think they should do it.

In addition, Bautista said, “I would handle cases in the courtroom so that the public can see what the attorney general does for them — not just be a figurehead, but actually be the state’s attorney general.”

Derek Brown: Brown said if he is elected, he will look closely at implementing the recommendations that come from the legislative audit of the Utah attorney general’s office. He added that he wants to improve the culture that already exists in the office.

In addition to looking at the audit, Brown said he would create transparency via a calendar. “When I was the state party chair, I always erred on the side of divulging more information to party members than less, because I felt like, then, you’re rarely criticized when people understand why you’re doing what you’re doing, and when they understand what you’re doing.”

The third step Brown said he would take is establishing a constituent service program that gives people a place to go when they have issues. He said it would be similar to the office he managed when working with Sen. Mike Lee. “The short answer is, I’ve done this before, I’ve managed that very kind of program and I would like to institute something like that in the attorney general’s office.”

David Carlson: “My record stands for itself,” Carlson said. “I have acted with honor throughout my career and my intent is just to continue to do that, to lead the people who work in the attorney general’s office with honor.”

Speaking of the late Utah Attorney General Jan Graham, he said Graham was a mentor for him and was the best attorney general with whom he worked. He said he wants to follow in her path. Now there is a different world because “people like Jan Graham had the courage to stand up against people with money and power,” he said, referencing her battle with the tobacco industry.

Carlson said he did not want to pick fights; he wants to stand up and do what’s right.

Trent Christensen: Christensen said he would make his calendar public, noting that sometimes, due to litigation, the entry would be generic. He also stated that he would do an audit of the electoral system.

“I keep telling people, look, I’m going to run on Day 1 a full statewide transparent audit of Utah’s electoral system,” Christensen said, adding that he cannot change laws, but he believes people need to see the electoral system. “Everything that we do in the office needs to be public to the people, because the people are the ones that need to talk to their legislators,” Christensen said.

“One of the things that I want to do is continue having regular monthly meetings with state delegates where we’re talking about issues,” Christensen said. He said that he would be an attorney general for the people of Utah and would follow the Constitution.

Austin Hepworth: Hepworth said if he is elected, then he will make his calendar public and be “fully transparent on what I do and what I’m involved in.”

“Another way to be accountable to Utahns, I believe, is to actually prosecute and enforce the law without favoritism, and that ties into the first thing, if I can fully share who I’m meeting with, what’s going on,” Hepworth said. When the office is as transparent as possible, then he believes the law can be equally enforced.

Hepworth said he was “committed to opening the office up more for citizens to be able to file grievances or complaints, even for constitutional concerns.” He added that if a citizen had a constitutional issue, he wanted to have the Utah attorney general’s office handle it. “Whether it’s once a month or however often it is, I actually want to meet with people, have real citizens in the office, listen to their concerns, and then do something about it.”

Andrew McCullough: As a libertarian, McCullough said he believes the power of the state should be limited and the first thing he would do is look at what the office is currently doing and ask if the office should continue doing it. “There are a lot of enforcement activities and so on that I would probably stop with.”

McCullough said the office may shrink in the number of employees as a result. He also said that he would not file many amicus briefs and spend time engaging in messaging. What he did say he would do is look at establishing a responsible adulthood class.

Speaking about his political future, McCullough said being attorney general would be it for him — he does not have a desire to seek higher office. What he wants his tenure to look like is to do the job, make things work and downsize the office.

Frank Mylar: Mylar said he would make his work calendar public. He also said that he is not taking money from corporations because he does not want to beholden to them. He also said he would not take gifts when in office if he’s elected.

Mylar also pointed back to his law career where he said he has filed lawsuits on behalf of Utah citizens “to vindicate religious freedom, pro-life issues, Second Amendment issues.”

“You’re not going to do the suits that I do for free if you’re just after money in power,” Mylar said.

Michelle Quist: If elected, Quist said that she would publish the annual report of the attorney general’s office by Dec. 31. She would also publish her calendar online and make hiring and financial decisions “related to executive level AGO activities” public as well.

Rachel Terry: Terry said that transparency is needed because federal overreach with regards to public lands, education and energy is having an impact on daily life. “It’s a fight that the office is currently fighting, but there’s a lot more work to be done and I’m committed to doing that work.” She said that she would establish a constituent services office to respond to complaints and connect people to resources.

In addition to the that office, Terry said she would do town halls like legislators and the governor do to explain what she’s doing.

“I’ll also make my calendar accessible and provide opportunities so they can let me know how I’m doing,” Terry said, adding that the people of Utah would be her boss and they need to have the ability to evaluate her outside of just media reports.