Utah is choosing a new AG after the last three faced charges and lawsuits
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Sean Reyes, Utah attorney general, appears on a computer screen during a speech in 2020. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images
GOP primary voters will pick the likely replacement for Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes on Tuesday, filling an office beset by more than a decade of scandal.
The intrigue: All three candidates have focused their campaigns on corruption after three consecutive AGs left office in controversy.
Driving the news: Voters will choose between Derek Brown, Rachel Terry and Frank Mylar.
- Brown is a former state GOP chair and senior staffer for U.S. Sen. Mike Lee.
- Terry is the director of the state's risk management office and former civil rights attorney for Reyes' office.
- Mylar is a Cottonwood Heights attorney who previously served as attorney for Utah's departments of corrections and health.
State of play: Brown has received the lion's share of endorsements from Utah's Republican establishment, including Sen. Lee, Gov. Spencer Cox, former Gov. Gary Herbert, former U.S. Rep. Mia Love and several state lawmakers.
Yes, but: Brown, like Cox, was defeated at the party's April convention.
- Utah GOP convention delegates typically vote to the right of primary voters, forcing more moderate candidates to collect signatures to appear on the ballot.
Catch up quick: Reyes came under fire last year over his ties to embattled anti-sex-trafficking crusader Tim Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), the nonprofit Ballard founded.
- Reyes announced in December that he would not seek re-election, saying that sexual abuse allegations against Ballard "weighed into" his decision to leave office.
- A November lawsuit accused Reyes of using his clout to silence critics of Ballard and OUR — but the plaintiff dropped her claims against Reyes after he apologized and promised not to run for office again.
- Reyes also faced scrutiny over his luxury travel expenses and refusal to release his calendar in a public records fight.
What they're saying: In a debate earlier this month, Terry criticized Brown's connections to Facebook's parent company, Meta, and the tobacco lobby — parties in ongoing state legal action.
- Those ties conflict with Utah's need for "someone in the office who doesn't bring scandal, who doesn't bring conflicts," she said.
- Brown, for his part, responded that he proposed legislation to enhance transparency when he was a state representative from 2011 to 2013.
- Mylar, who received the most convention votes, said he hasn't sought campaign funds from large corporations because "you're beholden to them."
Flashback: Reyes' two predecessors also left office under a cloud of allegations.
- AG John Swallow resigned in 2013 amid investigations into an alleged pay-for-play scheme.
- Swallow and his predecessor, AG Mark Shurtleff, were arrested in 2014 on charges relating to public corruption. Prosecutors dropped their case against Shurtleff in 2016 and in 2017 Swallow was acquitted by a jury.
What's next: Whoever wins on Tuesday will face Democrat Rudy Bautista, a Salt Lake City criminal defense attorney who ran for AG as a Libertarian in 2020.
- Civil rights attorney Andrew McCullough is the Libertarian candidate, and business litigator Michelle Quist is running for the United Utah Party.
The bottom line: Despite Utah's series of embattled AGs, Republicans have held the office since 2001.