Election night 2020 was mostly a ho-hum affair in Utah. Most of the races went as expected, with Republicans President Donald Trump and the now Gov.-elect Spencer Cox leading the charge for the GOP in the deep-red state.
But there are a few races that remain close with plenty of ballots to be counted that could easily tip the results. That’s mostly because Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden outperformed Hillary Clinton’s results in Salt Lake County by more than 15 points on election night, which is boosting Democrats in a handful of races. There’s roughly 190,000 Salt Lake County votes to count, so this may take a few days. Many county clerks will provide another update Thursday afternoon.
[Track the vote: You can see the state results for yourself here.]
4th Congressional District
Rep. Ben McAdams finished election night ahead of Republican Burgess Owens by about 3.5 percentage points, but Owens leaped into the lead by 2,284 votes on Thursday afternoon, mostly on the strength of ballots from Utah County, which is his largest base of support.
But, despite unprecedented turnout from Utah County this year, he’s just not getting the percentage of the vote he needs to maintain that lead over McAdams. Owens is still running about 6% behind Mia Love’s pace from two years ago in Utah County. Owens is pulling in the same percentage of the vote in Utah County as President Donald Trump, but that’s far behind other Republican candidates there. For instance, Rep. John Curtis is getting 76% of the vote, which is nearly 9 points higher than Trump and Owens. Spencer Cox is at 74%, which is also markedly better than Owens.
Most of the remaining vote is in Salt Lake County, where Owens is doing about 4% worse than Love from four years ago. He’s also far behind Trump and Cox in the county, which suggests that many Republicans are splitting their votes between those Republicans and McAdams.
The two third-party candidates on the ballot have hoovered up more than 13,000 votes, nearly six times the gap between McAdams and Owens.
State House District 22 (Magna, West Valley City, West Jordan and Herriman)
The race to replace Rep. Sue Duckworth, D-Magna, who retired after seven terms in the House, is among a list of legislative nail-biters.
Democrat Clare Collard increased her lead over Republican Anthony Loubet to 537 votes after Thursday’s update, which suggests this seat will remain in the Democratic column.
House District 31 (West Valley City)
Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Weight is pulling away from Republican Matt MacPherson after Thursday’s vote drop. She now has a 908-vote lead.
Weight is seeking her third term in the House.
House District 33 (West Valley City)
Perennial endangered Republican Rep. Craig Hall widened his lead over Democrat Fatima Dirie by a handful of votes on Thursday. He now leads by just 189 ballots.
This race looks to be closer than 2018 when Hall won by 1,190 votes. But, a result like 2016, when Hall hung on by just 119 votes, is not out of the question.
Clinton carried this district in 2016, her largest margin of victory in any GOP-held Utah House seat that year.
House District 38 (Kearns)
Democratic challenger Ashlee Matthews picked up just three votes on Thursday and now leads Republican Rep. Eric Hutchings by 506 votes. Democrats have come close to knocking off Hutchings several times in the past decade. He was able to hang on in 2018 by just 118 votes.
This is another GOP-held seat carried by Clinton in 2016.
House District 39 (Taylorsville and Kearns)
The contest between Republican Rep. Jim Dunnigan and Democrat Lynette Wendel tightened up on Thursday as Wendell’s lead dropped to just 175 votes. Dunnigan picked up 61 net votes.
Dunnigan has been in the crosshairs of Democrats since he was one of those who led the charge to scale back the voter-approved Proposition 3 that expanded Medicaid coverage in the state.
House District 43 (West Jordan)
Republican Rep. Cheryl Acton continues to pull away from Democrat Diane Lewis after Thursday’s vote total update. Acton added another 168 votes to her column, increasing her lead over Lewis to 724 votes.
This race is a rematch of the 2018 contest in the district, but Acton is doing much better this time around, almost doubling her margin over Lewis.
House District 45 (Midvale, Cottonwood Heights and South Jordan)
Republican Rep. Steve Eliason is seeing his chances at another term in the House fading away as Democrat Wendy Davis added another 34 votes to her column on Thursday. Davis now leads by 674 votes.
Eliason was unopposed in 2018.
Clinton carried this seat by 2% in 2016.
House District 49 (Sandy and Draper)
Rep. Robert Spendlove increased his lead over Democrat Siamak Khadenoury on Thursday to 306 votes, adding 71 ballots to his total.
Spendlove barely won reelection four years ago by 553 votes.
Salt Lake County District 6
This race appears to be over as Republican Dea Theodore padded her lead over Democrat Terri Tapp Hrechosky to more than 3,300 votes on Thursday.
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