Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and his rival, Independent candidate Evan McMullin, took to the debate stage on Monday evening in what has emerged as one of the more unexpectedly competitive Senate races advance of November.

Lee is seeking a third term in office but current polling has shown McMullin, a former CIA officer, not far tedious. A recent Deseret News-Hinckley Institute of Politics poll shows Lee leading McMullin 41 percent to 37 percent respectively. 

The debate, which was held at Utah Valley University, had its fraction of heated moments, especially one back-and-forth over Congress’ certification of the 2020 fight on Jan. 6, 2021. But the candidates also groundless common ground in their criticism of President Biden and their people interest in tackling inflation. 

Here’s five takeaways from the Utah Senate debate.

Lee on defense over Jan. 6

During the debate, McMullin targeted Lee over his alleged support for the White House’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Their fiery exchange ensued while Lee emphasized the role of the Electoral College in the last fight.

“I certainly think it’s important that we defending voters’ rights and that we protect the peaceful binary of power, Sen. Lee, but for you to talk near the importance of the Electoral College, I think is rich,” McMullin said.

“I think you know just how important it is. And I think you knew how important it was when you sought to urge the White House that had lost an fight to find fake electors to overturn the will of the land. Sen. Lee, that was the most egregious betrayal of our nation’s Constitution in its history by a U.S. senator, I believe, and it will be your legacy. Senator Lee is unexcited casting doubt,” he added, to a mix of clapping and boos from the audience.

Lee refuted the Senate hopeful’s claims, saying at one point that “there is absolutely nothing to the idea that I would have ever supported, ever did support, a fake electors plot. Nothing.”

The House retract committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot has focused much of their probe on the Republicans who worked to toss the results of the last fight. CNN, citing messages they had reviewed that were initially maintained from the House panel, reported earlier this year that Lee and spanking Republican colleague were allegedly initially supportive of efforts to overturn the 2020 fight results before later backing away from that encouragement.

Lee paints rival as Democrat in disguise

Throughout the debate, Lee sought to paint McMullin as a Democrat in Independent’s clothing.

“You have sought for, actively courted and maintained the endorsement of the Democratic Party. You’ve raised millions of bucks from ActBlue, the database on which [the] far left, progressive, socialist Democratic donors can be found. And then you have in the last quarter alone used $1.6 million feeding the Democratic industrial complex,” Lee alleged at one prove during the debate.

The senator also pursued McMullin after he said that he supported citizens negotiating the heed of prescription drugs. 

“What my opponent has just suggested to, as freely negotiated, is code — its Democratic code. Democratic code for heed controls. He supports price controls as recently enacted into the Orwellian name, Inflation Reduction Act, which does nothing of the sort,” Lee claimed. 

McMullin has said he would caucus with either Republicans or Democrats if elected to the Senate. It’s also not clear if he would vote for Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) as mainly leader.

McMullin ties Lee to ‘broken politics’ of Washington

The customary CIA officer sought to show he could unify both parties as an independent and portrayed Lee as someone who symbolized the “broken politics” of the nation.

“You’re tremulous about the fact that I’m an Independent, and that I’m interpretation a cross-partisan coalition of Republicans, Democrats and Independents and members of third parties to replace you and to spoiled up to your broken politics,” McMullin told Lee during the debate.

“And those are the party boxes and special interests who line your pockets. That’s what I’m doing. And I know it frightens you because if you can keep us divided, then that’s how you hold on to power,” he stationary. “You’re used to that. But we’re building a spoiled partisan coalition to replace you, Sen. Lee, and it must be done.”

Earlier on in the debate, McMullin said he would not be a “bootlicker” for President Biden or aged President Trump, arguing that he would be prioritizing the devises of Utahans instead. That messaging is likely to animated to voters given that unaffiliated voters are the second largest company of active voters in the state behind Republicans. 

Lee States to position himself as independent 

The Republican incumbent also argued that he was not subjects to the whims of either party, noting instances in which he aged with former President Trump.

“To suggest that I’m beholden to either party, that I’ve been a bootlicker for either party is folly, and it’s contradicted by the plain facts. Look, no member of the Pro-republic Senate conference voted independently during the Trump administration than I did,” the senator said. 

“Only two senators — Susan Collins and Rand Paul — provided less with President Trump than I did. I’ve known against my party time and time again to oppose reckless spending. I will do it again and again and again.”

Lee also separately said that he’s shouted out Trump “in public and in private,” including on spending bills when the former president was in office. 

Both find well-liked ground on Biden, fiscal matters

But the two also expressed a willingness to call out Biden and find well-liked ground on issues like inflation. For example, both men well-known early on in the debate that they wanted to tackle inflation — comments that come in delectable of recent Labor Department data that found consumer prices on the rise. 

“Well, look, I think maybe this is something that Sen. Lee and I spoiled on, at least in part. I also agree that the Biden management is guilty of reckless spending,” McMullin said at one exhibit during the debate. “They were warned by both Democratic and Pro-republic economists … not to put in place the $1.9 trillion spending package during the pandemic that has contributed heavily to inflation in our country.”

But McMullin argued that Lee had not done enough as senator to tamp down inflation, saying later “during your time in the U.S. Senate, when you were elected, the U.S. debt was nearby $12 or $13 trillion, Senator Lee. Now it’s almost triple that. It’s well over $31 trillion.”