Meet the candidate: Andrew McCullough, 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 — Andrew McCullough is running as a Libertarian for the office of Utah attorney general.

McCullough graduated from Brigham Young University in political science and sociology. McCullough received his law degree from the University of Utah and has served as an attorney in Utah since 1973. He has also served as state treasurer for the Utah Young Republicans and chaired the Utah Libertarian party, according to Ballotpedia.

McCullough ran for Utah attorney general in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2014. He ran for Utah governor in 2010. In each instance, McCullough ran as a Libertarian.

He spoke with KSL At Night hosts Greg Skordas and Rusty Cannon on Oct. 24, 2024. We have provided a partial transcript and the complete podcast below.

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KSL NewsRadio has modified this interview transcript for brevity and clarity.

HOST RUSTY CANNON: Tell voters more about why you’re running and what you’d like to do if elected as attorney general.

GUEST ANDREW MCCULLOUGH: The first time a client of mine, I felt, was very badly abused by the police, I complained about it and I actually got an audience with the attorney general at the time, Jan Graham…

She told me that they were right and I was wrong, and I was going to have to live with that. The next week, I filed for attorney general to see if I could unseat her. I did not unseat her, but I had a lot of fun trying.

HOST GREG SKORDAS: Tell us about your campaign. Tell us what you’re doing in the 12 days before the election.

MCCULLOUGH: Well, you know, I run a smaller campaign … I’ve got a lot of campaigning online with Facebook. … To some degree, I guess I rely on my reputation people know who I am, and you know they either like what I do or they’re horrified…

This year they invited me to the debate. My opponents … [are] all very nice people. I just don’t agree with them. And I want to be heard.

Andrew McCullough on the major issues in Utah

CANNON: So what do you think some of the major issues are facing Utah today, as far as the attorney general perspective?

MCCULLOUGH: Right now, I see the office as terribly politicized. There is an organization called the Republican Attorneys General Association, and the current attorney general is very active in that. I don’t like that. We have work here to do in Utah.

We’re surrounded, for instance, on three sides, by legal marijuana states. Yet we still spend an awful lot of time and effort and money and harass an awful lot of people for smoking marijuana in Utah.

I think we are over-pushy about taking children out of people’s homes. I think the war on drugs is a terrible failure and needs to be completely reassessed. And I see interference in personal lives as something that should be minimized. 

[On abortion] I really feel strongly that women should be allowed not to be harassed by the government.

SKORDAS: One of your opponents wrote an article that was published recently that said the attorney general’s race should be non-partisan. How would you weigh in on that?

MCCULLOUGH: I don’t know that I’m terribly bothered by the non-partisan label. Because I do think that the current people have been terribly, far too political. … A Libertarian simply thinks differently than a Republican.

And you don’t have to call me a Libertarian to note that I think differently. … We could take the labels away and still talk about the important issues, about personal freedom.

Listen to the full interview from KSL at Night below.

Related:

• Meet the candidate: Derek Brown, running for Utah attorney general
• Meet the candidate: Michelle Quist, running for Utah attorney general
• Candidates for Utah attorney general debate at Southern Utah University

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