Democratic voters in Utah’s 1st Congressional District will still have a long ballot come June. Four candidates are headed to the primary after party delegates chose their picks on Saturday.
It took five rounds of voting for Liban Mohamed to eke out a majority. He managed to secure 51.5% of the delegate vote at Jordan High School in Sandy.
“A majority of Democrats in Utah have made their decision, and their decision is that it's our time to lead,” Mohammed said after results were announced shortly before 8 p.m. “It's progressives’ time to lead. It's the working class's time to lead.”
While Mohamed bested former congressman Ben McAdams, who received 48.5% of the vote at the end of balloting, McAdams also secured enough votes to head to the ballot based on the convention results.
A political neophyte, Mohamed got key endorsements from progressive organizations and House Minority Leader Angela Romero in the run-up to the convention. He thinks it was his campaign's focus on “tangible outcomes for our communities and not headlines” that tipped it in his favor.
“We needed this moment to send a signal of our viability, and I believe that that was the only thing that was stopping us,” he said. “Every single time I got the privilege of interacting with voters. They got excited. They were inspired.”
McAdams’ speech to delegates was briefly interrupted by a heckler who repeatedly shouted that he was a liar over the issue of Israel’s war in Gaza. The person was escorted from the auditorium, and McAdams was able to finish his speech to loud applause.
After the first round of balloting, McAdams led the field with just over 40% of the delegate vote, with the rest largely divided between Mohamed and state Sen. Nate Blouin.
McAdams saw the end result as a “big confidence boost” heading into the primary.
“We had solid support all throughout each round of voting,” he said. “We've already started going door to door and talking to primary voters. So this is just the next milestone in the campaign.”
Despite pulling in front at the convention, Mohamed’s path to secure the Democratic nomination is not over. Three other candidates — McAdams, Blouin and Michael Farrell — have enough verified signatures to appear on the 1st district primary ballot.
Campaigning ahead of the convention was also marred by scandal as two prominent candidates found themselves under the microscope.
Blouin has been dealing with the fallout after offensive internet posts from over a decade ago resurfaced. He apologized, but despite calls to drop out of the race made by fellow Democrats, he chose to stay in.
Salt Lake City councilwoman Eva Lopez Chavez was accused by four people of unwanted sexual advances just days before the convention. Lopez Chavez denies any wrongdoing and said she would fully cooperate with an investigation into the claims and continue both with her campaign and her position on the city council. She did not address the controversy in her speech to delegates and was eliminated in the first round of balloting.
In spite of the cloud of scandal, the mood at Jordan High School was electric with delegates packing the school's auditorium past capacity. For the first time in years, the party has a real chance to send a representative to Congress.
First-time delegates Shalesse and Rebecca Huff said they felt an energy they haven’t experienced in years.
“It's just wonderful to feel like you have a voice finally,” Shalesse said. “And it's great to see people actually coming, acting, engaging, being part of it. … We went to the progressive caucus, and they were saying, ‘We've had years where we've had four people show up, and this year the rooms are packed.’”
Rebecca recently moved to the state from Virginia, where she was also politically engaged, but said she feels more enthusiasm here.
“It's actually been really refreshing to get involved in a place where it's a struggle,” she said. “I've actually really appreciated that and feel more involved than ever.”
In fact, they said many of their conversations before the event began were with fellow first-timers. According to state party Chair Brian King, there were nearly 2,500 delegates at the convention.
That enthusiasm from a fresh crop of delegates was reflected in the words of Salt Lake County Democratic Party Chair Michele Rivera, who said the share of Democratic delegates from the state’s most populous county has shrunk, and that’s not a bad thing.
“Everyone expected me to be upset about that,” she told a cheering crowd. “I said, ‘Hell yes, that is what we need to be doing!’ Salt Lake cannot be the only county that is getting the people elected.”
In the other congressional districts, Democratic delegates chose Peter Crosby for the second, Kent Udell for the third and Jonny Larsen for the fourth.
The primary will take place June 23.
