The following is a transcript from Riley Owen speaking on air on Inside Utah Politics with Lindsay Aerts. You can watch the full video here, or listen to the Inside Utah Politics podcast here. Riley outlines why he's running, who he is, and how Republicans have a real shot in the race for CD1.

- You're watching Inside Utah Politics with Lindsay Aerts –

Lindsay: "Well, with the focus shifting to November's midterm elections, Utah Republicans are facing a new challenge. Running as underdogs, Utah's new congressional map creates what analysts expect to be a Democratic pickup in District 1. But with margins so thin in Congress, the GOP hopes to hold the line to protect a conservative majority for the rest of President Trump's term. Well, I'm joined today by the man who hopes to get that done. Riley Owen is the Republican nominee in CD1. Riley, welcome."

Riley: "Thanks for having me, Lindsay."

Lindsay: "Thank you for coming. Okay, as we mentioned there, this district in CD1 seems quite blue. Again, analysts really I've heard analysis of plus 14 to Kamala Harris. If that's the way people were voting, then why do you believe that a Republican can pick up this district?"

Riley: "Well, it depends what numbers you're looking at. If you look at the Trump-Harris race, obviously the numbers are going to be really different. But if you actually look at the governor's race in 2024, if you combine all the conservative votes, remember Phil Lyman ran a write-in campaign, got eight points in that race." 

Lindsay: "Mhm."

Riley: "So if you combine those votes with the votes for our now Governor Cox, Republicans only lost this district by three three and a half points. To me, that's a swing seat."

Lindsay: "Interesting. Okay. So, yeah, depends what numbers we're looking at, I suppose. Um, and there are actually more Republicans in Salt Lake County than Democrats. Why do you believe that people are assuming that this district is going to go to Democrats?"

Riley: "Well, I think they look at those Trump-Harris numbers and and they also just look at their neighbors and people that they're already talking to, but as you pointed out, the reality is is that 35% of registered voters in this district are Republican and trailing shortly behind, it's Democrat and then independents in the high 20s. Now, a lot of those are probably Democrat voters who are cross-registered so that they can vote in closed Republican primaries. I'm not naive to that fact that we'll probably see a shift, especially after this primary and how voter registration works."

Lindsay: "Mmm there's a lot of independent voters definitely in Salt Lake County."

Riley: "Absolutely. And I I think Utahns are unique that way in that they just want to vote for leaders they trust that they can relate to and that are offering common sense solutions and that's what we we offer."

Lindsay: "So if people have never heard the name Riley Owen before, who are you? What what should they know about you?"

Riley: "Yeah. And I don't blame them. This is my first time running for office. I've I've been involved in in politics and and military service, but this is my first time actually raising my hand. I'm a seventh generation Utahn. Uh I studied at at Princeton and Oxford. I'm an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve and I served in the White House doing trade and manufacturing policy before actually going into industry, drones, ship building, trying to make a difference for manufacturing jobs in America. So, I've got experience across industry, across government service and in the military. You'll see our campaign's going to go quiet later this month. I don't love the timing of it, but I'll be on active duty for my Navy reserve time. That's a commitment that I'm I'm grateful and honored to have in my life, but we'll be serving later this month. So that's that's me in a nutshell."

Lindsay: "So you've got to take some time off the campaign trail to go serve."

Riley: "That's correct. The Hatch Act prohibits service members from campaigning when they're on active duty."

Lindsay: "So an entire month you're going to be a couple weeks. Okay. 

Riley: "We'll be back hitting it hard in August. Most people don't want to hear politics in July anyways. [laughter] So we'll be hitting the doors and community events in August."

Lindsay: "It's the Fourth of July. We're just celebrating. Right. All right. So you're running uh largely against former Congressman Ben McAdams. Obviously, there's a libertarian in the race, too, but the two major parties here have, you know, the Democrats have a high name profile. How do you plan to beat him?"

Riley: "Yeah, for us, there's a three-pronged approach. And number one is going out to demographics that feel ignored or forgotten about. In the past few months, I've been spending a lot of time in in the west side, Magna, Kearns, Taylorsville, and I've heard from a lot of these community leaders and constituents that they feel forgotten about, even during the times when my opponent was the county mayor. So, it's going out to these demographics in these communities that feel ignored and giving them a voice and helping them to feel heard. Number two is is getting other demographics that might not be going out to vote, young people. That's where I can relate and engage a lot of voters who care about it and are willing to go and hold signs and march and protest and they talk politics with their friends, but they might not get involved in a campaign or show up at the polls. We can really truly motivate them and show that it's time for a new generation of leaders to get involved. And third, I I want to recognize that a lot of Utah conservatives have left the party or or maybe not voted for conservative leaders in in the last decade or so because they've been frustrated with a lot of the rhetoric and and the approach that's been taken. I can understand that and at times I I could even relate to that and that's one of the reasons why I raised my hand to run in the first place is because I didn't see someone that I wanted to vote for. So, I thought it was my turn to raise my hand and get involved."

Lindsay: "Before we get to some of the issues Congress is facing, what type of Republican do you describe yourself as? Because the Republican party has some factions to it. There's a MAGA wing. There is a populist wing. There's a more mainstream, a more moderate wing. How do you see yourself?"

Riley: "I'm a common sense conservative. I'm raising my hand and running to represent a constituency and to defend a constitution, not to fight for a president or a party. At the end of the day, I just want common sense solutions that that we're all working towards. Every Utahn and every American. A lot of people are struggling to pay their rent, to find affordable housing, to afford raising families, and they just want happy, strong, healthy communities. And so I'm willing to work with anyone who has that agenda in mind and is willing to push policies and solutions that will improve the freedom and prosperity of every American."

Lindsay: "Can you name one policy where you disagree with President Trump?"

Riley: "Yeah. Um, there's an an approach. I'm glad, for example, foreign policy with NATO. I'm glad that President Trump has gotten a lot of our NATO allies to step up and pay their fair share. It hasn't been fair to the United States that we've essentially been bankrolling the security of Europe for for decades. However, I think the approach with which that's been done, we've lost a lot of, you know, track 2 diplomacy, soft power, respect. Grad school for me was overseas. I lived in Denmark for two years. And hearing the way our European allies talk about us and and view us, to me, that's that's a little frustrating. There have been some good things to come out of it, but we could have maybe taken a different approach and maintained that that respect and the way the world looks to America for leadership."

Lindsay: "So his approach criticizing NATO for not doing more in the Ukraine Russia situation is what?"

Riley: "Well, I I think we could have gotten our European allies to step up to the plate." 

Lindsay: "The Ukraine situation, right? Or Iran?"

Riley: "Right."

Lindsay: "Yeah. Interesting. Let's talk about another uh topic. Congress may need to tackle AI policy. Where do you stand on AI data centers? um some of your fellow uh you know Republicans are trying to walk this fine line of states rights versus what the Trump administration wants to do with AI. How do you see what what's the bright line for you in terms of regulations?"

Riley: "Yeah, it's a good question and first we need to step back and realize that AI offers just unmatched unparalleled potential for human flourishing. But that's only going to happen if we regulate it and implement it in the right ways. And to do that we need the the infrastructure data centers among them to be able to do that. I also want to recognize that for the US to lead the AI race, so to speak, that's critical. Not just from an economic security perspective, but national security as well. I worked in the drone industry. The AI is is impacting the way we fight our wars, the way students are going to be educated, the the structure of our economy, the way we talk to each other. It's going to be everywhere. And it is critical that the United States wins this race. We can't afford to fall behind. So, I'm trying to be pragmatic about it and realizing we need data centers. Now, should we put them in a desert where there's already a water shortage? I'm not sure that's the best idea in in my career and and different things I've been involved in. I I took an investor delegation up to Greenland and they were exploring opportunities for uh cryptocurrency infrastructure and data centers. Why? Because that's a colder climate. There's an excess of energy and an excess of water. Why don't we look at other geographies and localities where there's maybe more public support where we can put that infrastructure that we are going to need to win the AI race?"

Lindsay: "We only have about 30 seconds left, but what else would be on your agenda if you get elected to Congress?"

Riley: "Yeah, there's a few things. Number one is banning congressional stock trading for members and their staffers. I think right now a lot of Americans look at their institutions and think it's not working for me. So, that's number one."

Lindsay: "Do you have any stocks you want to disclose? Cause some people have ties to data centers. So, if you want to air it out right now, go for it, [laughter]"

Riley: "I've already filed my disclosure and and I do make a commitment whether there's legislation or not. day one in Congress. Before I even get there, I will sell every individual stock that I hold and only ride ETFs for the duration of my time in Congress. But the other things that we're trying to do are expand the business tax credit for businesses offering paid maternity leave. And we also want to protect young people from the the negative impacts of addictive social media. I'm considering putting an age verification requirement at 16 and up on social media. Some countries around the world have done this. And I think we're watching generations of Americans waste away and get addicted to their phones and to screens. And they're not learning how to engage, think for themselves, communicate, and interact with other people. To me, that's not just a cultural issue. It's again, it's an economic security issue. That's our labor force. That's our future leaders.

Lindsay: "Sorry to interrupt you. It sort of seems antithetical to Republicans who want government out of the way of, you know, business of type of things, but you're saying that industry needs some regulation."

Riley: "Yeah, don't get me wrong. I'm all for limited government every day of the week, but the role of government is to come in and intervene when an individual citizen or a family or even a state government can't combat a threat to people's freedom and prosperity themselves. And I think every American would agree with me that big tech has gotten a lot more powerful than the American family, than the American citizen and even a lot of state governments. And so I do think it's the responsibility of the federal government to take a vested interest in in the next generation and and their relationship to social media and AI and make sure that our young people are thinking for themselves. They're getting out there, making relationships, becoming educated so that they can be the future leaders, CEOs, representatives running for office themselves, just like I'm doing right now."

Lindsay: "We're going to have to leave it there because we're out of time. Riley Owen, appreciate your time today. Thank you."

Riley: "Thanks, Lindsay." 

Lindsay: "The Republican candidate in CD1."