Congressional candidates Chris Stewart, Erin Rider debate guns, energy and inflation

The Republican candidates for Utah’s 2nd Congressional District gathered in a radio studio Tuesday night for one of the only debates before the upcoming primary election, mostly agreeing on a lot of conservative values around guns, inflation, energy and the 2nd District.

This primary will be a face-off between the five-term incumbent, sitting U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, and Erin Rider, a Salt Lake City-based attorney and former congressional staffer with the late U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch.

The debate was sponsored by the Utah Republican Party and was moderated by radio host Rod Arquette on his show on KNRS. To listen to a recording of this debate, click on this link. The debate starts at the 1-hour-16-minute mark of the show.  

Guns and mass shootings

Much of the conversation concerned guns, shootings, and the reactions from politicians after the shootings in Buffalo, New York, where 10 black people were killed in a grocery store and in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed in a school.

The candidates spent almost half of the debate on those topics, with both candidates saying they were sad and both arguing that new policies in schools, a focus on mental health and measures to "strengthen the family" need to be used to address the problem.

Rider called for a “holistic approach” to addressing gun violence in America, saying there could be room to enact legislation that could tighten gun ownership in the country so that responsible people can own guns. She also called for an increase in school security, mental health and family support, saying that any action around guns shouldn’t infringe on the 2nd Amendment.

Stewart was less flexible around the gun issue, saying that changing the rules on guns won’t stop mass shootings but that changes to other areas of policy can. The main one he touted in the debate was an increase in school security. He likened the security he wants in schools to be the same as in airports. He promised to put forward a proposal to shift unused COVID funds on school security in the coming weeks.

Stewart says he doesn’t support proposals from Democrats to restore a ban on the sale of assault weapons, since he thinks it’s a slippery slope where more and more guns could be banned later.

“Is this the last step you’re going to do? I’m fairly confident we will have another shooting after [Uvalde], as tragic as that may be, and then what are [Democrats] going to propose?” said Stewart.

Rider said Congress hasn’t been willing to do the work to address the issue, and that most people want to see some changes to the system.

“We all know, every single responsible gun owner, knows there are ways for the system to be improved,” Rider said.

Both candidates supported creating federal red-flag laws to prevent dangerous people from owning firearms but cautioned that those laws need to be tight and specific. Riders said she thinks the patchwork criminal justice system in America makes it hard to write a good law on this and Stewart advocated these laws only apply to people making threats and could be appealed every 30 days by the person being red-flagged.

2nd District

Many of the topics discussed were about national issues like inflation, energy production and immigration, but the 2nd district was briefly talked about how each candidate views representing the vast geographic area of the district.

Stewart said he liked what was done in the past redistricting cycle by the Utah Legislature since the 2nd district “didn’t change much.” He echoed a point made by state redistricting officials that he thinks having an urban-rural mix in the district is good.

“It's so important that members of Congress represent rural and urban parts of the state. The issues in Salt Lake City, issues in Davis County or Tooele County, are very different than Washington County ...  every legislator has to be conversant and has to be committed to representing all those issues.”

He emphasized that since Utah has a high amount of federal land, rural areas need to have multiple congressional representatives. Stewart also said “his heart” is in southern and rural Utah.

Rider touted the diversity within the district and said her ancestors helped settle Washington County. She acknowledged covering this big of a district is a challenge and one that can be addressed by increasing the number of congressional offices and staff in the district.

“We have talked a lot about the fact that this is one of the largest … geographic districts in the state right now,” she said. “We need a stronger presence in the district.”

Inflation

Both candidates railed against the Biden administration for the current inflation in America. Stewart said he saw this coming a year ago and Rider said the administration has been “reactionary” to the problem.

Stewart said the high spending of the current administration — especially on COVID relief funds — is driving inflation.

“This is not because of bottlenecks,” Stewart said. “The EU's inflation rate is much lower than ours. This doesn't have anything to do with COVID. This is not the Vladimir Putin price hike. This is because this president and the Democrats in Congress spent $10 trillion in 26 months.”

He said the most simple way to control inflation is to cut spending and reduce the deficit.

Rider called out the actions of past Congress saying that even when Republicans were in power over the last decade that spending increased and that they were “terrible” on spending. Saying the federal government is ever-growing and that hard limits on spending need to be introduced, she warned that if it’s not addressed a recession could be coming.

“We need a biblical Joseph in Egypt, right, to say we have our seven years of famine coming. What are we doing? Are we filling the storehouses? Or are we continuing to spend hoping that we can outspend a looming recession,” said Rider.

Energy Production

Both candidates expressed a desire to reduce gas prices and make the U.S. a net exporter of energy, with both criticizing the Biden Administration for ending the Keystone Pipeline and his decisions to limit issuances of oil leases on federal lands.

Although the U.S. currently isn’t a net exporter of oil and petroleum, it remains a net exporter when it comes to crude oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. 

Rider said oil and gas should be expanded to meet the demands and that she would advocate for a bigger investment in renewable energy, green energy and nuclear energy.

“Here in the 2nd District, we have a lot of resources, we have a lot of energy resources, we've got geothermal, we've got wind, we've got a solar whole bunch of things here in the second district itself, this district could be a real leader on this topic,” said Rider.

Stewart took a shorter approach, saying the U.S. should increase its oil production and that “it’s that simple.". He also said the U.S. should increase oil production even with concerns of climate change since if U.S. production falls other countries with lower environmental standards would just replace American oil on the market.

Sean Hemmersmeier covers local government, growth and development in Southwestern Utah. Follow on Twitter @seanhemmers34. Our work depends on subscribers so if you want more coverage on these issues you can subscribe here: http://www.thespectrum.com/subscribe. 

This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Stewart, Rider debate guns, inflation ahead of Republican primary