Meet Michelle Quist, the United Utah Party candidate running to be attorney general

Editor’s note: This is one of a series profiling the candidates running for attorney general in Utah this year. Read more about Republican candidate Derek Brown here and Democratic candidate Rudy Bautista as well as Libertarian Party candidate Andrew McCullough here.
Michelle Quist, the United Utah Party candidate for attorney general, used to be a Republican. She said she felt unwelcome by the party after former President Donald Trump took office and “started to alienate women and moderate voters.”
That and the E. Jean Carroll trial was what Quist said bothered her. But she also didn’t want to join the Democratic Party.
“I have never been completely sold on all of those policies either,” said Quist adding she is socially progressive and fiscally conservative. On issues like abortion, she does not believe the government should tell women what to do with their bodies.
Quist said one of her main goals with her attorney general run is to take a nonpartisan approach to the office. Republican candidate Derek Brown is in the lead, according to a September poll from the Utah Debate Commission. He is followed by Democratic candidate Rudy Bautista, and then Quist and Libertarian candidate Andrew McCullough. Unaffiliated candidate Austin Hepworth is also running.
When Ladd Johnson, United Utah Party chair, was asked why he thought Quist was the best candidate for the office, he said, “She’s just a quality person.”
“She’s just an amazing person — hard-working, successful single mom of seven kids,” said Johnson, adding he thought she has the right kind of experience and is the type of person who would compromise. “I think a broad level depth of experience really matters for attorney general and I love the fact that she has been a litigator at the biggest firms and handled the biggest litigation.”
Quist has been an associate at the international firm Milbank, a staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, a dean at Brigham Young University law school and of counsel at Holland & Hart. She has also volunteered to help immigrants with legal services through the Refugee Justice League. In the race, Quist is endorsed by former Utah Supreme Court Justices Deno Himonas and Christine Durham as well as former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams.
If elected as Utah attorney general, Quist said she would make her calendar public and work on restoring the public’s trust in the office. One of the ways she said she would do that is by “trying to reform the office to a nonpartisan office.”
Quist said, “Our judges aren’t elected. Our attorneys don’t go to court and proclaim their partisanship.” She said she has tried to build a coalition of voters across the political spectrum, especially from independents.
She also said to restore trust, she would be forthright about laws and lawsuits. Speaking about Utah’s landmark lawsuit on federal lands, she said the ad put out to illustrate the lawsuit with family in the RV not being able to access land for camping does not show what the lawsuit is trying to accomplish.
“The lawsuit asks the federal government to sell the land to private people,” said Quist. “That won’t allow RVs to come or Utahns to come and use the land.”
About the Utah Legislature, Quist said she wants to be concise and clear about what legislation they pass does, mentioning she thought the language for Amendment D was misleading.
In terms of managing the office, she said she wants to pay attorneys at a market rate and also get the office up to speed on technology. Instead of hiring outside counsel, Quist said if the office cannot handle its cases, the office needs to hire more people to do so.
Transparency, talent and tech are the three words she used to describe her office priorities.
“The talent is retaining them and that includes salary,” said Quist. “And it includes not hiring them if they leave. If they leave, I’m not going to turn around and hire them on a contract basis, at least not for a few years.”
Quist said the top law firms in the country are currently using artificial intelligence in their discovery process and in order to catch the Utah attorney general’s office up, she would too.
On the public lands issue, Quist said, “there are real issues that can’t be dealt with because of federal (government) and counties butting heads.” She said she was referring to roads where the federal government will not work with counties.
“And so in those instances, it is highly proper for the counties to sue the federal government for title to the roads,” said Quist.
As for combating the fentanyl crisis, Quist said she would show up with money and resources. “If we can spend $20 million on Paul Clement, then we can stop hiring Paul Clement and spend the money where it belongs.” (Clement is the former U.S. Solicitor General who is working on Utah’s landmark public lands lawsuit). She said litigating fentanyl cases needs to be decoupled from immigration and she would ensure county prosecutors get credit for what they do.
When asked about whether or not the office of attorney general should be appointed or elected, she said it may have been a good idea over a hundred years ago to have it be an appointed office, but now with a Republican supermajority, she does not see it as a good idea.
“We need to just keep as much separation of government as we can because they already have too much power,” said Quist.
As a third party candidate, Quist said she “can cut the office off from either of the political parties and the nontransparent funds that come with those national parties and just focus on legal issues that Utah voters care about.”