St. George incumbents are one step closer to reelection.
Preliminary primary election results, as of Aug. 13, show St. George Mayor Michele Randall (43.3% of the vote) and challenger Jimmie Hughes (37.6%) received enough votes to advance to a two-person contest in November’s general election.
Randall became the southwest Utah city’s first female mayor in 2021. She has been at the helm during a time of rapid growth for St. George, with major projects such as constructing a new city hall, expanding the airport and building out the city’s water infrastructure to stretch its strained supply.
Her tenure has also seen controversy. St. George was sued over denying a permit to drag show performers, for which the city ultimately settled and apologized. Randall also faced protests in 2023 when she temporarily instituted a policy that prohibited in-person public comments at city council meetings.
Hughes has been on the city council since 2011 and lost to Randall in the 2021 mayoral election.
The result doesn’t surprise Vince Brown, who directs Utah Tech University’s Institute of Politics. And he said it likely sets up a competitive race between Randall and Hughes this fall.
“It'll be close,” Brown said. “I doubt it would be a blowout for either side. That would very much surprise me, because they're such well-known figures.”
Since both have been city leaders together for several years, the big challenge may be to differentiate themselves in the eyes of the voters. Thus far, Brown said, Randall’s strategy has been to tout her accomplishments as mayor while Hughes has leaned into his personal story.
In the St. George City Council race, incumbents Michelle Tanner (22.6% of the vote) and Natalie Larsen (20%) are also poised to advance. Both are first-term members of the five-person council.
Tanner and Larsen would face off against two challengers for the two open seats in the general election.
Jami Leavitt, a photographer whose mother is a former mayor of Midway in Wasatch County, got 18.2% of the vote. Semi-retired construction contractor, Greg Aldred, came in fourth with 14.8%. Aldred unsuccessfully ran for city council in 2023, 2021, 2019 and 2017.
That result would make Leavitt the only true newcomer to break through, something Brown attributed to her seemingly strong social media presence and canvassing campaign. She also may have been helped by some high-profile endorsements, including from former Gov. Gary Herbert.
“From a political science standpoint, we don't always give endorsements a great deal of weight,” Brown said. But it might have made a difference in this case, “especially for someone who's introducing themselves for the first time.”
Voter turnout was 23% in Washington County, according to state data. That’s a sharp decline from the municipal primary two years ago, when more than 39% of St. George voters cast a ballot. It remains higher than the 2025 turnout in other parts of the state, though, including Utah County (17%) and Cache County (19%).
The reason turnout dropped in Washington County may be connected to the tone of this year’s races. Brown described it as “softer” than 2023 or 2021.
“There seems to be less of an argument over the culture of St. George and more about the policies of the city,” such as housing, traffic and the water supply, he said. “When you're having a debate over policy, it's less a debate over personality.”
In 2023, some candidates highlighted issues outside the council’s purview, such as the renaming of Dixie State University, or broad cultural issues that had seeped in from national politics.
The friction led to some heated moments in the campaign, but also to unusually high voter engagement. When Brown organized a public meeting with the candidates during the 2023 primary, he said 1,000 people showed up.
“That's extraordinary” for a city of around 100,000, Brown said. “There was an intensity last time that I've rarely seen in local politics — that is, outside of somewhere like New York City or Chicago.”
The 2021 election came on the heels of the pandemic, when debates about COVID closures, vaccine mandates and personal freedoms heightened the general angst among St. George voters and also increased turnout.
In Brown’s view, those unique conditions made the 2023 and 2021 races anomalies.
“I think [2025 is] actually a return to what's normal,” he said. “Municipal elections tend to bore people — even though they're some of the most important elections, in terms of how your daily life is affected by government. But people don't pay much attention to them.”
The candidates who didn’t make the cut in the St. George mayoral race were Brannon Razo, a cook who is part of the Shivwits Band of Paiutes, and Aros Mackey, who works as a human trafficking investigator. Mackey unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the city council in 2023.
Council challengers who fell short include Nathan Caplin, who directs the Higher Education for Incarcerated Youth program at Utah Tech University, aviation professional Shane Losee and Bryan Thiriot, who has been executive director of the Five County Association of Governments since 2013.
While all the St. George incumbents appear to have sailed through to the next round, that wasn’t the case elsewhere in Washington County.
Preliminary results in the Hurricane mayoral race show city councilman Clark Fawcett gained more votes than Mayor Nanette Billings, although both are in line to advance to the general election. Mayor Billings stirred controversy in July when she admitted to removing campaign signs put up by one of her other challengers, Gary Sanders.
Hurricane City Council incumbent Kevin Thomas appears to have barely advanced to the general election, with the fourth-most votes in the primary. Finishing in front of him were former city power director David Imlay, former police chief Lynn Excell and hunting outfitter Michael Hirschi.
Ivins City Council members Lance Anderson and Mike Scott both ran for another term, but early results indicate only Scott gained enough votes to make it to the general election. He would be joined by three others: retired geoscientist Wayne Pennington, entrepreneur Dillon Hurt and Shad Johnsen, who owns a cabinet and closet business. Ivins Mayor Chris Hart isn’t seeking another term, and council member Kevin Smith is the only candidate running to replace him.
In Iron County, Cedar City Mayor Garth Green is also not seeking reelection. The field of four people vying to replace him seems to have narrowed to two: real estate agent Steve Nelson and construction company owner Phil Schmidt. Early results show city council incumbents R. Scott Phillips and Ronald Riddle are set to advance to the general election, along with two newcomers: retired Ford Motor Company executive Waldo Galán and Kathy Long, vice chair of the Iron County Democratic Party.
The general election is Nov. 4, 2025. Eligible Utahns can register to vote at vote.utah.gov.
