Washington County Democratic candidates discuss power, development and transparency at community meetings – St. George News

Washington County Democratic candidate Jeff Lipe speaks in St. George, Utah, Sept. 2, 2026.
Washington County Democratic candidate Sarah Anderson speaks in St. George, Utah, Sept. 2, 2026. 
Washington County Democratic candidate Gail Koske speaks in St. George, Utah, Sept. 15, 2026.

Washington County Democratic Party candidates have hosted multiple community meetings to discuss hot-button issues such as ensuring access to power during outages and the desire for transparency in the Utah State Legislature. 
Two of these meetings were recently held at the St. George and Santa Clara libraries. They featured question-and-answer sessions with three local Democratic candidates. 
Those candidates included Jeff Lipe, who is running for Utah State House District 74, as well as Sarah Anderson and Gail Koske, both running for seats on the Washington County Commission. 
Journalist Marianne Hamilton moderated these recent talks. 
During the St. George meeting, Lipe answered a question about how he would try to address quality-of-life issues in the district, and he referenced the recent power outages that affected Indiana and Utah. 
Washington County Democratic candidate Jeff Lipe speaks in St. George, Utah, Sept. 2, 2026.
“So, we had a power outage recently,” Lipe said to laughs from the crowd, “and I’ll be honest with you, it sort of freaked me out, because we knew that, up in Indiana, they’ve been without power for two weeks, right up in Gary. And so, my first thought was, is this a cyber attack? And then my second thought was, ‘Are we Gary up in here?’”
Lipe said the area’s electrical power system is “vastly overlooked” and taken for granted.
“And that’s something that people have been warning about for decades,” he said. “It takes like three years, four years, to replace a transformer now. That’s how long it takes to get one built.”
“When you get these kinds of outages, can you imagine if we actually were like Gary and it was out for two weeks?” he said. “Can you imagine? So I think one of the things that really is important from a quality-of-life perspective that we need to do at the state level is make sure that we have backup plans for our infrastructure and particularly that of electricity.”
This led to the topic of energy, and Anderson responded to audience questions about developing solar farms to bring more renewable energy to the area. 
“When solar panels first came out, it was before I was born,” she said. “But as early as a few decades ago, they were very weak. And now, they’re a lot stronger.”
Some in the audience argued that renewable energy and solar power will inevitably become more popular. 
“Now here’s the thing, though,” Anderson said, “we have to make it look cool. It’s like riding the bus. You can have a great bus system, but if nobody wants to ride it that doesn’t really matter.”
She said changes like this cannot be forced, but should be presented as an opportunity that could lead to bigger things. 
Washington County Democratic candidate Gail Koske speaks in St. George, Utah, Sept. 15, 2026.
“And this is also what I keep hearing the youth screaming for,” she said. “Everyone wants to engage the youth, and they’re screaming ‘We want sustainability!’ and they’re like ‘Shh! We’re trying to fight about what to do with you!’ This will engage the youth, who will also be our future legacy.”
Anderson said she believes this could be done in “a way that is very easy for people to jump on board.”
“This is not a ‘You did it wrong and so we’re going to do it this way,’” she said. “This is like ‘Hey, why don’t we try this,’ you know?”
This led to a discussion about whether the area could afford or maintain the data centers some want built for artificial intelligence. 
During the Santa Clara meeting, Koske addressed data centers, citing a recent example from politics in another state. 
“This may seem a little dramatic for people who are generally polite,” she said, adding, “They stopped meeting and prevented a data center from going in, because they had this public meeting. The public showed up — with a guillotine — and they canceled the meeting and it hasn’t gone in there yet.”
Koske said it shouldn’t take such extreme measures for the people to get their voice heard. 
Washington County Democratic candidate Sarah Anderson speaks in St. George, Utah, Sept. 2, 2026. 
“And I think that’s what the alternative people you’re voting for now can offer you,” she said. “I’m going to listen to you just because I’m polite. I’m going to listen to you with or without a guillotine. I would find the guillotine amusing. But what is going on to affect development is way behind curtains a couple layers back, substantiated with NDAs, and that’s going to be a tricky thing to fight.”
While discussing the likelihood of adequately addressing these goals at the St. George meeting, Anderson drew on her career experience. She has spent 20 years as a social worker and cited the need for cooperation and belief in each other. 
“And I have learned just from working with people, boots on the ground, you can trust people,” Anderson said. “Whether you’re a Republican or whether you’re a Democrat, you can trust people. People know what they want, and, if you listen, you oftentimes find the common ground, and it’s a lot easier than we imagine.”
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