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Final County Canvasses Show Matheson Narrowly Wins 4th Congressional District

Congressman Jim Matheson, D-Utah
U.S. House of Representatives
Congressman Jim Matheson, D-Utah

Official results from county canvasses released today show that Jim Matheson maintained his victory over Mia Love in the Utah 4th congressional district race.

After county clerk’s offices spent two weeks counting provisional and absentee ballots Democratic Representative Jim Matheson narrowly beat Republican Mia Love for the 4th congressional seat by 768 votes. That’s considerably lower than the 2,646 vote lead Matheson had after election night. Matheson says the fact that he won in a year with a Mormon running for president, what seemed like unlimited funds pouring into the campaign, and strong voter turnout shows that Utah voters are willing to vote on principle and not just party.

“And I survived that perfect storm and in doing so, that actually gives me a lot of confidence moving forward because I don’t think the moon and the stars will ever line up against me as significantly as they did this time,” he says 

Love picked up more provisional and absentee votes than Matheson in every county, but in the end not enough for the victory. A margin of 488 votes or fewer would have triggered an automatic recount. Love did not respond before the deadline for this story.

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