Utah News Dispatch
Incumbent Maloy well ahead of Lyman in GOP race for Utah’s House District 3
Rep. Celeste Maloy answers questions during the 3rd Congressional District GOP primary debate against Phil Lyman in Salt Lake City on Monday, June 1, 2026. (Pool photo by Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune)
Incumbent Rep. Celeste Maloy appears to have defeated challenger Phil Lyman by a 2-to-1 margin in the Republican primary race for Utah’s 3rd Congressional District, according to preliminary results released late Tuesday.
“I feel relieved,” Maloy told Utah News Dispatch by phone from Washington, D.C. “It’s always nice to have a primary race over.”
The vast, newly drawn district stretches from northern Utah’s Morgan and Summit counties down to the entirety of the Arizona border, the product of a long legal battle over redistricting in Utah that ended in a court-ordered congressional map.
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As they made their case to voters in the district, Maloy pitched herself as a problem-solver, while Lyman cast himself as an anti-establishment candidate.
The Associated Press called the race for Maloy shortly after 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Lyman, who trailed with nearly 33% of the vote, said he called Maloy to congratulate her Tuesday evening.
“I’m happy for her, and I look forward to some good things for CD3,” Lyman told Utah News Dispatch.
The results won’t be official until after the canvass period, when election officials work to verify the outcome before it’s finalized. After the election, counties have 14 days to canvass. The statewide canvass deadline is July 20.
Maloy, an attorney and former congressional staffer first elected in a special election in 2023 to represent Utah’s soon-to-be-former 2nd District, previously told Utah News Dispatch she has the experience to get things done and a plan for Utah’s future. She highlighted her role as chair of the Congressional Western Caucus, which is focused on rural issues.
Rural Utahns battle in GOP primary for Utah’s biggest new U.S. House district
In 2024, Maloy narrowly defeated Republican challenger Colby Jenkins. The race was close enough to go to a recount that shrank the razor-thin margin, and Maloy defeated Jenkins with 50.08% – or just 176 votes. Leading up to Tuesday’s primary election, some political observers had anticipated a closer contest than Tuesday’s early results suggested.
“I’m just glad that this one is called on election night. It’s a lot more fun to go to bed on election night, knowing the outcome,” Maloy said.
Her two years representing Utah’s 2nd District were “not a very long time in Congress, but it’s enough time to show people what I do in office and how I respond to my constituents,” she added.
Maloy said that based on her conversations with voters, issues of affordability, the availability of water and high government spending were top concerns.
Lyman is known for leading an illegal ATV ride through a closed Utah canyon in 2014 and waging unsuccessful legal battles in hopes of overturning his loss in the 2024 race for governor. In 2024, he waged an unprecedented write-in campaign for governor and raised unproven claims of election fraud.
At the Utah GOP’s nominating convention in April, party delegates were split on Lyman and Maloy, sending both to the primary ballot after neither reached the 60% threshold to secure the nomination. Maloy won 50.95% (482 votes) and Lyman received 49.04% (464 votes).
On Tuesday evening, Lyman led San Juan County, where he lives, with 67% of the vote. But he trailed in every other of the district’s 19 counties.
In an interview, he described Maloy as “very backed by the establishment.”
“I think the bigger issue in these counties is people looking and saying ‘well, this establishment candidate is probably going to get more done for us than the non-establishment candidate,’” Lyman said.
He said he doesn’t anticipate running for public office again, but also cautioned he’ll “never say never.”
Maloy is likely to claim victory in the deep red district come November, facing Democrat Kent Udell, Libertarian Michael Stoddard, Constitution Party candidate Cassie Easley, and unaffiliated candidate Ayden Scott.
Both Lyman and Maloy have experience working at the county level in southern Utah. Maloy was a former Washington County official and past lawyer for the area’s water conservancy district, while Lyman was a San Juan County commissioner. Both have attacked federal agencies’ strategies for managing public lands and called for greater transparency and recognition of community pushback in data center planning.
