McAdams leads on primary election night — poised for House Democratic nomination

Ben McAdams, the last Utah Democrat to serve in Congress, was leading the Democratic primary race for the state’s 1st Congressional District with 60% of the vote, according to preliminary election night results posted when the polls closed Tuesday night. 

Behind McAdams, state Senator Nate Blouin got 24%, the most support among a group of progressive candidates competing against McAdams.

The results are unofficial and will be updated until all votes cast are counted and canvassed. But McAdams has a clear lead in a crowded contest for the Utah Democratic Party, which has been energized by new congressional maps stemming from a yearslong anti-gerrymandering legal fight.

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX.

“We still have work ahead for us, Utah Democrats,” McAdams said minutes after the results were posted. “Families in this district, they are working harder than ever, and they are falling behind on the rent. The Great Salt Lake is disappearing. Our democracy is under attack. People are counting on us to stand up against corruption to stand up against the assault on our democracy.”

McAdams watched the results drop from a small party in Salt Lake City with a few elected officials, including Salt Lake City Council members Alejandro Puy, Victoria Petro and Erika Carlsen, and former challengers in the CD1 race, Sen. Kathleen Riebe and Derek Kitchen.

Other powerful Utah Democrats, like state party chair Brian King, also showed up in McAdams’ support shortly after the first batch of results came in. Many broke into cheers as he walked on stage with his wife Julie and two of his sons.

Blouin led in the group of progressives, but it wasn’t enough to beat McAdams, a moderate Democrat with strong name recognition in the state. Tech public policy analyst Liban Mohamed, who won at the Democratic Party’s nominating convention by a tight margin, got almost 12% of the vote on election night, and tax attorney Michael Farrell was last approaching 4% of votes.

The Associated Press called the race for McAdams shortly before 8:30 p.m.

The Democratic primary drew special interest after a judge ordered a new congressional map with a district encompassing heavily populated Salt Lake County, a blue dot in bright red Utah.

The race was also marked by controversy, with candidates pointing fingers at each other as they scrutinized each other’s donor lists, track records, past jobs and resurfaced old online comments. Even the state Democratic nominating convention was a little rowdy.

The results aligned with predictions made by pundits like Taylor Morgan, a political consultant with the Utah-based lobbying and public affairs firm Morgan & May, who estimated that with an open primary, moderate McAdams would prevail and the progressive vote would be split between Blouin, Farrell and Mohamed.

Utah voters, regardless of their political affiliation, were able to request a ballot to participate in Democratic primaries in their area, a tradition the party has held as part of its “big tent” strategy. That opened the door to thousands of Salt Lakers, including almost 238,000 registered Republicans and 187,700 unaffiliated voters, to potentially cast a ballot in the primary.

As of Monday there were approximately 7,500 ballots requested for the Democratic primary, according to Salt Lake County Clerk Lannie Chapman. 

“It’s huge compared to 2022 numbers,” Chapman said on Monday. “We only received about 1,300 requests for a Democratic ballot back then.”

More were expected to vote on Election Day. But that number is only a fraction of 103,488, the number of registered Democrats who automatically received a ballot for this election. 

Looking ahead of the CD1 primary

Because of the district’s political makeup, the CD1 Democratic nominee is expected to prevail in the November general election facing Republican Riley Owen and Libertarian Jesse West.

Can a progressive beat Ben McAdams? That’s the big question in Utah Democrats’ 1st District primary

Morgan, the political strategist, said the results of this election could matter beyond the next U.S. House term, since more litigation is expected to challenge the court-ordered congressional maps that came out of a yearslong court battle over Proposition 4, the 2018 voter-approved anti-gerrymandering initiative. If Republicans succeed in renewed litigation, McAdams “is highly competitive and viable as a Democratic candidate in at least two” of the potential future maps, Morgan said.

And that’s something McAdams is also counting on. 

“The Utah GOP has already spent millions to try and overturn fair maps, and they’re not done. They’ve got more tricks up their sleeve that they have told us that they are going to be working on to try and overturn Proposition 4 and fair boundaries, and I think we need our strongest candidate on the field to protect fair maps,” McAdams told Utah News Dispatch earlier this month.

McAdams thanked his challengers in his speech Tuesday night saying that the energy they brought into the race is what the party needs in the November election. He said he hopes that energy keeps running high for the rest of his campaign.

“This district exists because Utahns, like all of you, fought for fair maps and fought for the right to make your voices heard. That fight is not over,” McAdams said. “The same politicians who tried to silence voters before are still trying to protect their own power. They know what this district represents.”

During his tenure, McAdams was considered one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress. The “moderate” label, he said after a debate in late May, is one he’s not ashamed of.

“I’ve always been somebody who focuses on getting things done because I believe the people who are counting on us can’t afford for us to let a purity test get in the way of progress,” McAdams said then. “And so what I would say is I’m a pragmatist, and I prioritized moving the needle and delivering results for people who are counting on us.”

Progressive candidates celebrate despite disappointing results

Young voters filled Kiitos Brewing Sugarhouse Bar at Blouin’s election night event. Loud and lively conversations filled the space, and the energy didn’t falter when the race was called for McAdams. 

While Blouin secured the most votes out of the group of progressive candidates, he said he was hoping for a closer race.

“It just shows that money can do a lot of things in politics,” he said.

Through his campaign, Blouin pushed to send a progressive to represent Utah’s new congressional district, an effort that included a Hail Mary attempt to consolidate progressive votes behind a sole candidate to compete against the more moderate McAdams. He said he will keep working toward lifting up progressive priorities.

“I think there’s a mass movement that is just waiting to come together,” Blouin said. “In a perfect world, it could have been under the banner of this campaign. But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen elsewhere.”

As for McAdams’ future in Washington, Blouin hopes the likely winner of the November general election will stay accountable to voters. 

“I think the priorities of so many of the people that I spoke with are the right priorities,” Blouin said. “Focusing on a higher minimum wage, on protecting reproductive freedom for so many people, on saving the Great Salt Lake, and so we’ll keep fighting for those.”

At a more private event in Salt Lake City, more than 70 supporters, family members and friends cheered for Mohamed as he joined the watch party after election results began to post. 

“I stand tall, grateful, proud (and) overjoyed, not because of the results, but because of … what we built,” he told the crowd.

Immediately following Mohamed’s speech, supporters joined in dancing and continued celebrating the race. Attendees voiced a shared sense of pride for the community that gathered in support of Mohamed’s mission. 

Later, Mohammed told Utah News Dispatch his work is not done. 

“I will continue to serve, continue to organize (and) continue to be a part of community,” he said.

Farrell, who watched the first batch of results from home, said in a prepared statement he’s “excited for Utahns to finally have the Democratic Representative they want in Congress.”

“Today, the folks of CD-1 made their voices heard and voted overwhelmingly for Ben McAdams,” Farrell said. “Ben ran a great campaign, and I’m looking forward to working with him and down-ballot Democrats to push for Utah’s progressive ideals and policies.”

Contributing: Elle Crossley, Leo LeBohec

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE