Midterm election results in Utah were finalized on Tuesday, marking the end of a historic election season. The unprecedented and expensive Senate race was won by Republican incumbent Sen. Mike Lee. Republicans kept and expanded their supermajority in the state legislature, while some Democrats were able to take seats in county councils and district attorney offices.  

U.S. Senate Race

Networks called Lee the winner against Independent challenger Evan McMullin when only 50% of votes were counted on Nov. 8. The final results had Lee with 53% of the vote and McMullin with 43%, however, this year’s senate race was unprecedented, as Republicans typically win the Utah Senate seats with little to no challenges.

The Utah Senate Race garnered national attention, as Lee has been a senator of Utah since 2011 and voted for McMullin during his failed 2016 presidential campaign. McMullin challenged Lee’s questioning of the 2020 election results and his support for former President Donald Trump.

In April, a series of texts between Lee and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was leaked, in which the two discuss how Trump could win the election. Lee texted, “We need something from state legislatures to make this legitimate and to have any hope of winning.”

Lee has denied any involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Lee said, “I encouraged the Trump campaign, and the president himself, to acknowledge that he’d accept whatever the outcome of the Electoral College was.”

U.S. House District Races

All four House seats were up for election this year, and the incumbent Republicans kept all four seats. In House District 1, Republican incumbent Blake D. Moore defeated Democrat challenger Rick Edwin Jones. Moore obtained 67% of the vote, while Jones received 33%.

In House District 2, Republican incumbent Chris Stewart defeated Democrat Nick Mitchell. Stewart took 60% of the vote, while Mitchell took 34%.

House District 3 GOP incumbent John Curtis won 65% of the vote against Democrat challenger Glenn J. Wright who received 29% of votes. Libertarian Michael R. Stoddard had 3% of the vote.

Republican incumbent Burgess Owens of House District 4 defeated Democrat challenger Darlene McDonald and United Utah candidate January Walker. Owens won with 61% of the vote, while McDonald held 32%. Walker had 7% of the votes.

Owens was the center of controversy in October when he withdrew from a debate between McDonald and Walker sponsored by the non-partisan Utah Debate Commission. Owens withdrew because he objected to the debate being moderated by the executive editor of The Salt Lake Tribune, citing what he called a “racist” cartoon published by The Salt Lake Tribune in August 2021.

County Offices

Salt Lake County’s District Attorney was won by Democrat incumbent Sim Gill. Earning 58% of the votes, Gill defeated Republican challenger Danielle Ahn, who had 42% of the votes.

Democrat Suzanne Harrison defeated incumbent Republican Richard Snelgrove in the Salt Lake County Council at-large B race. Harrison flipped a Republican seat on the council and had 55% of the vote, while Snelgrove held 45%.

Democrat Lannie Chapman will be the new Salt Lake County Clerk and defeated Republican Goud Maragani. Maragani was criticized for denying the results of the 2020 Presidential election and for calling Democrats “commies” and “Marxists” on social media.  

Constitutional Amendment A failed with 64% of voters voting no. The amendment would have allowed the Utah State Legislature to spend 5% of the state’s budget during emergency legislative sessions rather than the previous 1%.

State Legislature

The State Senate 9 seat went to Democrat Jen Plumb with 99% of the vote. Vance Hansen earned 1% of the vote as a write-in candidate.

The State House 22 seat was won by Democrat Jen Dailey-Provost, who had no challenger.

Republicans expanded their supermajority in the State Legislature. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Republicans flipped three seats giving them a 61-14 majority, partly due to last November’s redistricting measure. One seat was automatically awarded to a Republican due to redistricting and kicked Democrat Suzanne Harrison to run for State House in a neighboring district, however, she decided to run for Salt Lake County Council.

For more information on Utah election results visit The Salt Lake Tribune’s midterm election results page.

[email protected]

@vanessachrony