Youth, Reform, and Some Feistiness on the Dems’ Senate Ballot
There is a passionate prosecutor championing women’s social justice squaring off against a Julliard-trained musician-turned-advocate fighting child sexual abuse. The Utah Senate’s only queer and millennial member, who wants a second term to push affordable housing and clean air and water, is also facing a pediatrician and self-avowed staunch liberal, on a personal crusade against opioid abuse and transgender discrimination. And, in a generational divide, the Senate’s 76-year-old sage, known more for bipartisan compromise than bomb throwing, is being challenged by a 32-year-old renewable energy public policy specialist focused on clean energy, clean air, and clean elections.
In a party famous for internal squabbling and disparate approaches to progressive passions, Utah’s 2022 Democratic Senate primary races really feature something for everyone. But the common denominator is just that. Each candidate says they’re sick of seeing Utah’s super minority get kicked around on Capitol Hill. Each is convinced the Legislature is out of touch with Utah’s changing demographics. And each thinks the combination of environmental and quality of life threats can galvanize voters to lean a little more blue while steeped in a sea of red.
District 2: Sen. Derek Kitchen vs Dr. Jen Plumb
In a repeat of their 2018 primary tilt, Sen. Derek Kitchen puts his freely admitted “ambitious” agenda up against Dr. Jen Plumb’s straight-talking advocacy. Both have big personalities, big ideas, and a sense of urgency perhaps befitting the state’s most Democratic and dense urban district, once held by outspoken former Sen. Jim Dabakis.
Kitchen argues that the heavily lopsided nature of the Utah Legislature is not good for government. With a median age of 30, Utah has the youngest population in the country, he points out, insisting the GOP majority does not represent the priorities of that population.
What’s worse, he laments that when residents bring ballot initiatives for things such as medical marijuana, Medicaid expansion and redistricting, they get “crushed by the Republican Legislature.”
“They whip through the motions and then they refuse to even vote,” he says. “It’s unconscionable, honestly. Democrats need to fight back.”
Foremost, Kitchen wants to focus his offense on securing more affordable housing along with breathable air and ample water. “Housing is the number one issue for me,” Kitchen says. “I really want to see young people not just see affordable rents but maybe one day be able to afford home ownership.”
Prior to his 2018 Utah Senate win, Kitchen led the charge on the Salt Lake City Council to get $27 million set aside from the Redevelopment Agency for affordable housing. He helped secure 10 percent of Inland Port revenue for similar housing and worked in 2020 on a $30 million appropriation to close the gap in financing for affordable housing via the Olene Walker statewide revolving loan fund.
Kitchen’s June 28 primary opponent is Dr. Jen Plumb, a pediatrician with distinctive purple lawn signs matching her name. She runs a downtown clinic that provides services to unsheltered residents and shares the concerns over housing. Both candidates say the skyrocketing cost — the median housing price in Utah suddenly hovers around $600,000 — is untenable.
Those prices certainly apply across the large district, which extends from Foothill to Redwood Road and from the Avenues to 1700 South. For Plumb, it’s the neighborhood she grew up in, which she hopes will help her chances. “It’s a group of voters that absolutely know me and know my work and care about the issues I do,” she says.
Since losing her brother to a heroin overdose in 1996, that work has been laser-focused on fighting the opioid crisis. She was instrumental in gaining bipartisan support from the Legislature as a citizen-advocate to allow non-medical personnel to carry the opioid reversal drug Naloxone. Plumb continues to train law enforcement, government agencies, medical workers and others on the use of Naloxone. And she was picked by the Attorney General’s office to play point on the distribution of opioid abuse funding.
“That was why I got engaged in the legislative landscape,” she says. “This is an unprecedented opportunity to save lives and ameliorate the problems of the opioid crisis.”
Equally personal, the single mother has a daughter who came out as transgender just before the pandemic. Plumb camped out on Capitol Hill to protest at committee hearings as lawmakers first explored legislation targeting transgender youth.
“My senator didn’t show up once,” she says about Kitchen. “When I say not once, I’m not exaggerating. That was really hard for me. I think Derek is a lovely person, but there is too much on the line on areas I care too deeply about.”
Kitchen, a small business owner, who is gay and a gay rights champion, says it seems like Plumb is reaching. “For her to discount my accomplishments for the LGBT community is silly,” he says. “I’ve not only been an advocate and an ally but I’ve been a vocal opponent of the awful and cruel legislation targeting that community.”
Kitchen says Republicans told him privately how much they hated this year’s last-minute substitute bill banning transgender youth from high school sports, which was vetoed by Gov. Spencer Cox before being overridden in special session.
Kitchen also touts working with Republicans on passing an inmate telephone plan, a potential restorative justice bill, and even collaboration with conservative Sen. Dan McCay on a carbon tax. If re-elected, he would push for more water conservation including more drip irrigation and drought tolerant crops from farmers.
“There’s an opportunity to get to that kumbaya moment,” he says. “The issues that are hitting us square in the face are quality of life matters.”
At the Salt Lake County Convention, Plumb received a commanding 59 percent of the vote. But both earned spots on the primary ballot since Kitchen notched the necessary signatures.
Besides opioids, Plumb says she’d focus on reproductive freedoms and environmental protections including how to create snow to keep Utah’s ski resorts open. She says the rematch against Kitchen isn’t personal but was pointed nonetheless.
“I don’t have any kind of vendetta against him,” Plumb says. “He gave it a good shot for four years and he didn’t get anything done. He made a fair amount of enemies and it’s too precious a seat.”
Plumb continued. “I have not burned a single political bridge, I’ve only built them and unfortunately, I think Derek has burned a lot of bridges.”
Kitchen flatly denies burning any bridges.
“The district that I represent has to have a strong voice against abuses of power,” he says. “That’s who I am.”
Kitchen praised Plumb for her advocacy on opioid abuse, but says the claim he has got nothing done is absurd.
“Dr. Plumb can’t identify who I’ve burned bridges with and she’s having a hard time explaining why she’s running against me,” Kitchen says. “I want to stand up for Utah and my city. I know what it’s like to breathe bad air. I know what it’s like to rent in the city. I am the only queer person and the only Millennial in the senate and that sets me apart…It’s important that Democrats invest in each other.”
Democratic voters will make their District 2 investment June 28.
District 13: Sen. Gene Davis vs Nate Blouin
At 76, Sen. Gene Davis is not only the oldest member of the Utah Senate, he is the longest-serving state legislator, logging 36 years.
“That comes with a bit of respect on the other side,” he says. “I’m able to talk with (Republicans) and say, ‘this is bad policy.’ I’ve been representing this area for over 20 years. I know the people. I work with the cities to make sure they get what they need. I have passion.”
Forgive Davis for sounding somewhat defensive. During last month’s county convention, he got walloped by baby faced Nate Blouin, who got an eye-popping 73 percent of the delegate vote despite an experience gap stretching more than four decades.
“We worked very hard and I expected to have a strong showing at the convention,” explains Blouin, who turns 33 this month. “But no, I couldn’t have been more surprised to see 73 percent vote in my favor.”
Both candidates will be on the June 28 ballot after Davis, who insists Covid kept many delegates home, secured the necessary number of signatures.
Besides age and the delegate tally, plenty separates the two Democrats on the policy front, which effectively frames the race as a potential changing of the guard.
Blouin is a runner, road biker, skier and outdoor recreation enthusiast, who completed a master’s degree in public policy at Brown to later serve as a consultant promoting renewable energy. His catchy campaign slogan of “Clean Air, Clean Energy, Clean Elections” has resonated with a wide range of Democratic groups who have endorsed the newcomer.
“People are concerned about the winter inversions, they’re concerned about the smoke in the summers and now they’re concerned about a drying lake and the dust storms and those are not going to go away,” Blouin says. “My other focus is protecting the vote by mail system that everyone I speak with feels is secure. I look forward to being a strong voice for the redistricting commission and making sure that is not killed off.”
Davis, who spent 12 years in the Utah House in addition to his lengthy tenure as a state senator, says the reality of the job is to get in the trenches with other lawmakers to do the work.
“It’s not just an exercise in debate,” he says. “It’s not about being an AOC and screaming and hollering. You have to work with the other side and make compromises.”
Some of those compromises, Blouin argues, are a bridge too far. He takes issue with Davis for not supporting a resolution focused on the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Davis counters that the resolution didn’t carry any real weight of law and was essentially calling for the stakeholders to sit down and talk. “I’ve voted on enough of these resolutions — they mean absolutely nothing,” he says. “It didn’t tell the federal government to cut it down in size, it called for having discussions about minerals, which ranchers care about.”
Blouin also blasted Davis for supporting a bill that he claims empowers parents to complain about objectionable books to get them removed from public schools. Davis says he cast the vote after getting assurances from Sen. Kathleen Riebe, a classroom teacher, who told him the bill was innocuous.
Continuing with receipts, Blouin criticized the veteran senator for not supporting Utah’s medical marijuana initiative. In response, Davis explained that he heard from a number of doctors who said they’d never studied using marijuana as medicine and would struggle with what dosage to prescribe. “That resonated with me,” he recalls. “Plus, if you look at the initiative language…people growing what they wanted — well that’s recreational.”
Davis says he supports a commission looking at a seed to sell model that could keep the price low enough in order “to beat the street.”
“I’ve based my whole career on the premise that I’m going to be honest with you,” he says. “That’s what I will continue to do.”
Blouin is not entirely new to politics. He first got involved during a 2016 legislative campaign and later worked for the Jenny Wilson senate campaign against Sen. Mitt Romney. Blouin has also worked with Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall.
He’d like to extend Free Fare February for public transportation and see more tax revenue invested on education and clean energy. “We don’t need revolutionary fixes — we have the tools,” Blouin says. “We can get up to 80 percent emissions reduction with wind and solar. Utah is not doing anything on that front. We are way behind Colorado and Nevada and we’re missing out on some big economic opportunities.”
Regarding the “clean elections” portion of the campaign slogan, Blouin takes issue with Davis for not fighting harder for the independent redistricting maps, that were ultimately dismissed by Republican lawmakers.
Davis pushes back, noting he spent 18 months negotiating with Republicans and the key stakeholders underwriting the independent redistricting process to ensure one would actually occur. “When it didn’t go the way they wanted, then I got blasted for not voting for it,” he says.
When the independent maps were defeated on a lopsided party line vote, Davis says he spoke very pointedly against legislative maps.
“I’m a Democrat and there’s no getting around that,” Davis says defiantly. “I take probably a thousand votes during the session and he’s picked a couple votes he disagrees with? You can’t win them all.”
District 13, Davis notes, is nothing if not socio-economically complex, from the refugees settling in South Salt Lake to an aging Murray, and from a gentrifying Sugar House to West Valley City’s explosion in non-white growth.
“I love the way it’s changing,” Davis smiles, pouncing when asked if he’s still the right representative for the diversifying district? “Absolutely.”
And what of Blouin’s confidence just seven weeks from the primary election?
“I hope to be an accessible senator,” he says. “I want to create spaces at the capital for people who don’t always feel they have a place to speak loudly. I don’t think you can go wrong knocking on a lot of doors and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
District 14: Rep. Stephanie Pitcher vs Deondra Brown
After serving two terms, Sen. Jani Iwamoto is retiring, creating an open seat opportunity for Democrats in District 14. At first glance, candidates Stephanie Pitcher and Deondra Brown seem nothing alike.
Pitcher is a two-term Utah House representative, invested as a hands-on prosecutor in criminal justice reform. Brown, best known for her piano and singing career as a member of The 5 Browns sibling group, was drafted by a fellow Democrat to become an advocate at the legislature for victims of child abuse and sexual violence.
Turns out, both young moms with school-aged children are also passionate about education and the environment, espousing very similar goals for both. Brown garnered just over 55 percent of the delegate vote at convention, while Pitcher gathered the necessary signatures to land on the ballot.
Pitcher has positioned herself as a reform-minded prosecutor, sympathetic to people suffering with mental health issues or addiction. She ushered through a bail reform bill in 2020 that eliminated the ability of more dangerous felons to buy their way out while small-time offenders without financial resources would remain detained.
“What we had was a jail population that was defined by wealth, not risk,” she explains. “It was a huge win.”
Led by bail industry lobbyists, the bill we repealed in 2021 but roughly 80 percent of the language was restored in special session.
Brown, whose musical training came attending Julliard in New York City, was also a victim of child sexual abuse, along with her siblings. Rep. Angela Romero asked her to share her personal story on Capitol Hill, which eventually led to the inclusion of sexual abuse curriculum in Utah public schools.
“People are lucky to stumble across one passion in their lifetime — I’ve been lucky to have a passion for music and now a passion to advocate for underrepresented communities,” Brown says. “I realized through that process back in 2014 that there really was a place for someone like myself to help legislators understand the very personal experiences we live with…and how to work to better protect victims, to better protect children.”
As a parent of a 5th grade girl, Brown has continued her advocacy for victim’s rights and mental-health services statewide to combat self-harm and suicide. She’s also gained an appreciation for the dedication of teachers and vows to fight for education funding and more state grants for classroom supplies and training.
Pitcher, who has kids in the Granite District, is a big fan of dual immersion and hopes to become more vocal and engaged on education policy.
“I’m very optimistic that we can find common ground,” she says. “We cannot be up there to bomb throw. We cannot be up there to send message bills. We have to work on bipartisan bills to get things done.”
Pitcher is also adamant that the redrawn district — less blue in Sugar House but more moderate in Murray — could make District 14 more competitive in the general election. “No Democratic candidate should take it for granted,” she insists. “The Democratic candidate needs to work really hard to hold the seat because it’s not as blue as it used to be.”
If elected, Brown vows to put her musical prowess into practice as a cheerleader for arts education across the state. The arts add such a depth and unity to a community, Brown says, noting she’s uniquely positioned to bring that perspective to the Capitol as an artist and musician. “We have many important perspectives represented in the legislature — business, legal, real estate, etc. — but we need the perspective of an artist as well, someone whose craft is about communicating, listening, collaborating and finding ways to connect with others. I’m proud to offer that perspective.”
For her part, Pitcher started the Utah Women’s Coalition, a statewide, nonpartisan group looking to advance the status of Utah women through public policy. The group has backed legislation to secure greater legal protections for divorced mothers, equally accessible baby changing stations in public buildings, and accommodations for pregnant and breastfeeding women in the workplace.
Pitcher also has an advocacy background — for victims of domestic violence, fair housing and immigrant’s rights. On a personal aside, she is an International Candidate Master in chess and eight-time women’s state chess champion.
“The one thing that sets me apart is moving the needle on significant issues,” she says, pointing to an innovative live-to-work bill addressing childcare and an air quality bill that cracks down on people circumventing the vehicle emissions process.
Both Pitcher and Brown pledge to fight for clean air initiatives, including to better police vehicle emissions, and both express the urgency of restoring and preserving the Great Salt Lake.
“It’s unfortunate that the problem got so bad before the legislature did anything meaningful,” Pitcher says. “It’s a lot cheaper to try to prevent than repair.”
Brown applauded Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek, for his foresight in organizing helicopter flights in February over the Great Salt Lake, which lawmakers described as eye opening regarding the dangerously low water levels.
“Most people don’t understand the threats to our environment until they can see it with their own eyes,” she says. “It’s something I’m hoping more and more Republicans can come around to see the need.”
Very different backgrounds and skill sets, but the prosecutor and musical performer running for Senate District 14 seem to be singing a similar tune.
