Watch: Utah’s gubernatorial debate

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox will defend his record against criticisms from Democratic state Rep. Brian King and Libertarian attorney Robert Latham Wednesday tonight during the first and only debate in the race for Utah governor.
The candidates will appear on stage at 6 p.m. before a live audience in the Salt Lake Community College Grand Theatre. It will be broadcasted by ABC4, FOX13, KSLTV, KUTV and PBS Utah. You can also find the debate on the Utah Debate Commission’s Facebook page.
Cox, King and Latham qualified for the debate based on the results of an independent poll conducted by Lighthouse Research, a Salt Lake City polling firm. To make the debate stage, candidates needed to meet a 10% threshold that took into account the poll’s margin of error of 4.31%, meaning a candidate could qualify for the debate after receiving at least 5.69%.
Cox, who is seeking reelection after his first term in office, received 48.1% in the commission’s poll. King received 27% and Latham received 6.8%. Write-in candidate state Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, did not qualify after receiving 4.25%.
A recent Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll found Cox leading by 40 percentage points in a two-way race with King, and in four-way race with Latham and Independent American Party candidate Tommy Williams.
Cox beat Lyman in the June Republican Party primary for governor by 9 percentage points, or 37,500 votes. Both King and Latham advanced to the general election after receiving their party’s nomination in a closed convention. The general election is Nov. 5. Registered voters will receive their mail-in ballots beginning the middle of October.