CEDAR CITY, Utah — Andrew McCullough couldn't hide his excitement.
"We don’t generally get invited to these things," the Libertarian candidate said at the beginning of Tuesday night's televised debate in the Utah Attorney General's race.
McCullough and United Utah Party candidate Michelle Quist both appeared on the debate stage at Southern Utah University opposite their Republican and Democratic counterparts. This year, more third-party candidates have made it onto the debate stage, helped by generous polling thresholds set by the Utah Debate Commission. The Utah Attorney General's race is unique in that two candidates from outside the major parties qualified.
"This year three Libertarians out of three Libertarians are on the debate stage and I’m excited as I can be," McCullough told FOX 13 News after the debate.
Libertarian candidate J. Robert Latham debated incumbent Republican Governor Spencer Cox and his Democratic challenger, Brian King, last month. Libertarian candidate Daniel Cottam will debate incumbent Republican Congressman Blake Moore and Democrat Bill Campbell in an upcoming debate. In the open U.S. Senate seat to replace retiring Sen. Mitt Romney, Republican Congressman John Curtis will debate Democrat Caroline Gleich and Independent American Party candidate Carlton Bowen.
Quist believes voter attitudes are changing, especially when it comes to the troubles that have haunted the Utah Attorney General's Office.
"The fact that I got enough support to get onto the debate stage shows Utahns recognize there’s a problem and want a change in the office," she said following Tuesday night's debate.
Quist once served in leadership in the Utah Republican Party. But when she filed to run for office earlier this year, she filed under the United Utah Party ticket, which bills itself as a more centrist alternative to Republicans and Democrats.
"I am a moderate. I’m the same person. But the Republican Party became something I didn’t recognize anymore," she told FOX 13 News of why she decided to join the United Utah Party, touting its platforms on ethics and transparency in government.
Mary Weaver Bennett, who heads the Leavitt Institute for Politics & Public Service at Southern Utah University, said voters appear to be starting to give a little more consideration to third-party candidates.
"I think it’s influenced, of course, by the national level. I think people see the division between the two major parties nationally and they’re looking for an alternative," she told FOX 13 News. "And they’re more open to exploring a third party candidate and really listening to the difference in ideas and perhaps trying to find a middle path."
While their polling is still very small compared to Republicans and Democrats, the United Utah Party is hoping to offer a place for voters fed up with political polarization. Ladd Johnson, the party's chair, said they are actively recruiting candidates in local races and partnering with other parties and groups that share their values. Seeking to break from the label that some third parties have of being "fringe," the United Utah Party recently hosted an event called "Meet the Moderates."
"These are mainstream candidates," Johnson told FOX 13 News. "These are folks who serve in the community who have been on the PTA, help with their cities and they’re strong candidates."
At Tuesday night's debate, the Republican and Democratic candidates said they welcomed their colleagues to the stage. Rudy Bautista, the Democratic candidate in the race, said he would have liked to have included all who filed to run for Attorney General.
"Ms. Quist... she was registering when I was. I told her if I had any say in this I would ensure that all participate in this. I am so glad they expanded and included them," he said following the debate.
But Republican candidate Derek Brown, who is the former chair of the Utah GOP and the frontrunner in the Utah Attorney General's race, did not believe that this is a sign of things to come.
"Not at all. I’ve done my own internal polling and the poll the Debate Commission did was wildly out of wack with the internal polling of mine and others I've seen," he told FOX 13 News, adding: "That being said, I'm more than happy to debate anyone and I have been since day one. I welcome the participation of everybody."
