Meet the candidate: Derek Brown, running for Utah attorney general

As Election Day nears, KSL NewsRadio is interviewing candidates to get their stance on today’s issues. Keep an eye on our election coverage as we continue to speak to the 2024 General Election candidates.

SALT LAKE CITY —  Derek Brown is the Republican candidate for Utah attorney general. He graduated from Brigham Young University and received his law degree at Pepperdine School of Law. Brown practices law in Utah, and served as a law clerk with the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He is the former chair of the Utah Republican Party and represented District 49 in the Utah House of Representatives from 2011 to 2014.

Derek Brown is also a former host of KSL At Night.

Brown spoke with KSL At Night hosts Leah Murray and Rusty Cannon on Oct. 15, 2024. A partial transcript of that interview is below, as is the full podcast.

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KSL NewsRadio modified this interview for brevity and clarity.

HOST RUSTY CANNON: Derek, what plans [do] you have to continue the work of the attorney general’s office?

GUEST DEREK BROWN:  The attorney general’s office is the largest law firm in the state. They provide legal advice for every state agency … The attorney general’s office needs to be effective, efficient, and it needs to be run in a way that provides really quick, solid legal counsel to the government. [It also interacts] with other states and with the federal government … but ultimately the attorney general is the one person in the state who is authorized effectively to represent the state in a lawsuit. 

HOST LEAH MURRAY:  Priorities?

BROWN:  I can’t tell you how many businesses and business leaders [bring up] the same theme, over and over, and that is the degree to which the federal government is intruding on their business or their lands. While we can argue about the policy, the real problem is the people making those decisions are not members of Congress passing bills. They’re the unelected bureaucrats that nobody knows about, and these agencies are exceeding their authority.

We all spend a lot of time and energy and resources campaigning and voting for members of Congress, [but] that’s not where the rubber meets the road in the year 2024. It’s the administrative agencies, and there’s only one person in Utah authorized to formally push back on behalf of the state, and that’s the attorney general.

Candidate Derek Brown on the Chevron Doctrine

CANNON:  The Chevron Doctrine was overturned by the Supreme Court. Are there specific instances, now teed up [because of that decision] that if the [Utah attorney general] is Derek Brown, he can go after?

BROWN:  You can pick literally any industry and agencies are making it more difficult to operate. I just met with a large home builder, and the current regs from from HUD, that they’re imposing on home building right now will increase the price of a starting home. The EPA is trying desperately to shut down our power plants. … Those are just two examples.

MURRAY:  Can you talk about your plan for fighting for Utah land use?

BROWN:  There are over 60 specific lawsuits the state of Utah has dealing with giving the people that live here the authority to control the land. My concern is that the people making [land use] decisions are tucked away in the middle of Washington, DC. They’re unaccountable. They’re not elected. The only way to … figure that out is to file specific lawsuits. That’s what the state has done in this most recent land issue case involving the Supreme Court. I would continue moving those forward.

Please listen to the podcast below for the entire interview.

 

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