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SALT LAKE CITY — Republican Sen. Mike Lee and Democratic challenger Misty K. Snow couldn't be further apart philosophically, though those distinctions weren't always readily apparent during an hourlong debate Wednesday.
Lee called it a "nice discussion" where the two candidates identified some ideological overlap. Snow, the first openly transgender candidate to win a major party primary for U.S. Senate, said she hopes voters understand there are key differences between the two.
"There were a number of issues I would have liked to talk about that didn't get brought up," she said.
Snow and Lee took the stage at BYU for what likely will be their only debate before Election Day. The Utah Debate Commission sponsored the event.
Lee, who is seeking a second term, has a big lead in the polls. He canceled an appearance at a rally in Provo on Thursday, apparently to campaign for GOP colleagues in other states.
"I'm going to do everything we can to help make sure we keep the Senate," he told reporters after the debate.
Meantime, Snow has cut back her full-time job as a grocery store cashier to only Sundays so she can campaign six days a week. She describes herself as a working-class person who understands the needs of working people. She said her reduced paycheck covers her insurance premiums.
Despite not being able to squeeze in all her talking points, Snow managed to chide Lee on a few issues, including his role in the 2013 government shutdown, which she called "shameful." The shutdown, she said, was about providing health care for people, and Lee and other Republicans didn't offer an alternative to the Affordable Care Act.
Lee said President Barack Obama and then-Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, wouldn't allow Congress to vote on separate bills to fund government and the Affordable Care Act.
"President Obama shut down the government. You've been told otherwise by the media, but they are wrong," he said.
Snow countered that the Senate could have done more to prevent it, and it wasn't all Obama's fault.
Lee and Snow disagreed over the Senate's handling of Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy.
Snow said many Utahns feel that Lee is not doing his job because the Senate has refused to hold confirmation hearings until after a new president takes office. She said Lee could ask Garland questions in a hearing, and if he doesn't like the answers, he could vote him down.
The Senate acts when it holds hearings to vote a nominee up or down, but also acts and speaks when it chooses not to hold hearings or votes "because that's the same result as voting the person down," Lee said.
He said it's an open secret, a well-known fact that Garland would "predictably and reliably" side with the four liberal justices on the court if he were confirmed. Snow disagreed, saying Garland would be fairly moderate and one of the more conservative Democratic nominee in recent years.
The two candidates sparred a little over Lee's proposed First Amendment Defense Act, which he said would prohibit the federal government from discriminating against a religious institution or person based on a belief about marriage. He said it would also allow schools like BYU to keep their tax exempt status.
Snow said the problem with the bill is that it "pretty much legalizes discrimination in the name of religion." She told the story of a transgender man with ovarian cancer who died after being denied access to 13 hospitals.
Lee said the bill doesn't cover what Snow described. Snow replied that she would encourage religious institutions like BYU to treat all students equally regardless of their sexual orientation.
"I think that is the loving, humane, compassionate thing to do," Snow said, drawing applause from her supporters.
