Challengers call Owens ‘cowardly’ for pulling out of debate
By SAM METZ
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The two candidates challenging U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens in a suburban Utah congressional race laid into the first-term Republican on Wednesday evening for announcing at the eleventh hour he wouldn’t participate in the sole general election debate.
Democrat Darlene McDonald and United Utah Party’s January Walker both accused Owens of being a coward for skipping it and cast doubt on his reasoning — that he took issue with the moderator.
Owens’ absence reflects a trend emerging in politics nationwide; while running attack ads and speaking to friendly media outlets, candidates and their consultants are deciding to minimize debate appearances or shirk them altogether.
Owens said Wednesday afternoon he wouldn’t participate because the commission had chosen Salt Lake Tribune editor Lauren Gustus as moderator.
He was outraged in April 2021 when the newspaper published an editorial cartoon satirizing remarks he made about immigration and people crossing the border illegally. The sketch likened his remarks about immigrants entering people’s neighborhoods after crossing the border to Ku Klux Klan rhetoric. The cartoon garnered pushback from Utah’s entire congressional delegation.
“I will not, in good conscience, have anything to do with the racist Salt Lake Tribune,” he said in a statement published on Facebook and YouTube.
McDonald and Owens are both Black. Owens is one of two Black Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and often speaks about experiencing racism during his childhood in the segregated South, noting it was controlled by Democrats at the time.
In response to a question about immigration and the cartoon, McDonald said the commentary on Owens’ statements was warranted. His remarks, the Democrat said, “mimics the statements that were made by the KKK about people who look like me and people who look like him.”
“For him to pull out of this debate tonight citing racism over a statement that he himself made is cowardly,” she added.
Walker largely agreed.
“His choosing to not show up to this debate has absolutely nothing to do with the cartoon and everything to do with not being able to speak clearly and concisely,” she said.
Owens also skipped a commission-organized primary debate amid Republican complaints about the format.
The Salt Lake Tribune declined to comment. The Utah Debate Commission stood behind its choice of Gustus as moderator and said it was disappointed Owens wouldn’t participate.
“We believe the moderator’s questions will be fair and professional, representing the Utah Debate Commission in an independent, non-partisan matter,” Erik Nielsen, the commission’s executive director, said.
