After months of campaigning and jockeying for position with Democratic voters in Utah’s new, blue-leaning 1st Congressional District, former congressman Ben McAdams was the overwhelming choice.
In the end, it was not even close.
“Tonight belongs to every Utahn who looked at this race and said we need someone with the courage to stand up and to stand alone and the courage to reach across differences to get it done,” McAdams told supporters after the race was called. “We still have work ahead for us Utah Democrats.”
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The Associated Press called the primary for McAdams just 24 minutes after polls closed. He easily bested a crowded primary field of four candidates, including state Sen. Nate Blouin, Liban Mohamed and Michael Farrell.
McAdams is an attorney and is no stranger to Democratic politics in Utah. He’s been involved at almost every level, starting as a Salt Lake City government policy advisor almost two decades ago. He later served as a state senator, mayor of Salt Lake County and was the last Democrat to represent Utah in Congress in the former 4th District from 2019-2021.
Of the four candidates in the race, McAdams is widely seen as the more centrist choice and faced scrutiny over past votes throughout the campaign. One analysis ranked him as the most conservative Democrat in the single term he served in Congress. Today, he describes his politics as pragmatic.
“Voters know me as somebody who stood my ground … but voters also know that I'm somebody who delivers results,” he said. “Being progressive has to mean making progress. The people who are counting on us, they don't care what someone promises, what somebody posts online, they care what actually changes and they know that I've delivered results time and again.”
He also took heat from his opponents for a financial stake in a data center project near Delta in Millard County. McAdams later clarified that he was compensated in stock options for consulting work he did on the project two years ago.
Candidates in the new district have tried to outflank one another on the left. With the newly redrawn 1st District centered around Salt Lake County, that marks a departure from decades of Democrats trying to appeal to Utah's mostly conservative electorate.
Blouin largely ran on his endorsement from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and at one point tried to pressure the other progressive candidates to drop out of the race so as not to split the vote.
“I think if we'd have had a one-on-one race, it would have been an extremely different scenario,” he said.
During his campaign, Blouin made pointed statements about McAdam's campaign finances, and when asked what he thought made the difference in the race, he held the same stance.
“Money, I mean, like the resources were just on an entirely different scale,” Blouin said.
McAdam’s received over $1.9 million in campaign contributions to Blouin’s $643,881.81, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Blouin plans to work with other progressives in local and national races now that his bid is over.
“There's a lot of other great progressives running here in Utah and in surrounding states as well, and I want to see if I can use the platform I've built to help them out too,” he said.
Mohamed, a former Meta and TikTok employee, was a breakout star at the state’s Democratic convention earlier this year, where he emerged victorious after five rounds of ranked choice voting to earn the party’s backing in the primary over McAdams.
Along with lawyer and political newcomer Michael Farrell, none of the self-proclaimed progressive candidates were within striking distance.
“Given the results, clearly folks are supportive of Ben pushing forward, so I don’t see an issue with that,” Farrell said.
McAdams later extended an olive branch to his primary challengers, saying the party and state were better for their strong campaigns and invited them and their supporters to join his campaign.
“The energy and the passion that your campaigns brought to this race is exactly what we need heading into November,” he said.
McAdams will be strongly favored in the fall to defeat Republican Riley Owen. The intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve was chosen during the state GOP's spring convention.
Nationally, Utah’s 1st Congressional District race could be crucial for Democrats, who need to gain only a few House seats in November to take control of the narrowly divided chamber.
In a statement, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said the party “is ready to help organize and mobilize voters to elect McAdams, flip the House, and ensure Utah has a leader who will always put working families first.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
