Left: Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, greets supporters at an event for candidates in the GOP primary election at the Awaken Event Center in South Jordan on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 (Spenser Heaps/ Deseret News) Right: Darlene McDonald speaks during a Concerned Coalition Public Health Rally at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022 (Mengshin Lin, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Voters have learned more about a new debate arranged between the campaigns of Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, and the Democratic challenger for the Utah’s 4th Congressional District, Darlene McDonald.
In a press release, Anders Moumoulidis, Campaign Manager for Darlene McDonald, said the 4th District debate will be held Friday, Oct. 28, in the sub-floor training area of a Keller Williams in South Jordan.
As was previously known, the debate moderator will be Professor James Curry from the University of Utah Political Science Department. Moumoulidis said the format of the debate will be “the same structure as the Utah Debate Commission’s format.” That format includes opening and closing statements. Candidates have one and a half minutes to answer questions, and 30 seconds for rebuttals.
Moumoulidis also said that the public can submit questions through the moderator’s email address, u0844867@utah.edu.
Due to the size of the location, Moumoulidis said the public will not be able to attend the debate.
The media will be able to attend. However, the Owens and McDonald campaigns previously announced that a debate would only be held if The Salt Lake Tribune, a Utah newspaper, was excluded from the event.
Also excluded from the debate this week is January Walker, the United Utah candidate who is also running to replace Rep. Owens.
Owens did not participate in a 4th District debate on Oct. 12. The Utah Debate Commission sponsored that debate. And Lauren Gustus, the executive editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, moderated.
Owens said he would not debate on Oct. 12 because of the tie between the moderator and the Salt Lake Tribune, which he has called a ‘racist’ newspaper.