After a yearslong fight over who gets to draw Utah’s congressional districts, and how they get to draw them, voters in crimson Utah are only months away from potentially sending a Democrat to Congress for the first time since 2020.

In November’s general midterm elections, Utahns will also consider the reelection of three incumbent U.S. representatives in three solid Republican districts.

On the state level, June’s primaries saw the stunning losses of several incumbent Republican lawmakers, including Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams, whose downfall came amid outcry about a proposed hyperscale data center in the northern part of the state. Those primaries, and the frustration they captured, preempted dozens of legislative elections this fall that will determine who Utah’s lawmakers will be for the next two years.

Voters will also decide whether or not to retain a suite of judges and will vote on two constitutional amendments — one of which would change Utah’s ballot initiative process.

Here’s what to watch in the state and what Utah voters should know:

1st Congressional District

Centered on Salt Lake City, the newly-drawn 1st Congressional District is the first Utah district to favor Democrats — beyond merely being competitive — in decades.

Former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams is the Democratic nominee after handily winning the June primary. He faces Republican Riley Owen, a 27-year-old intelligence officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve who works in the defense technology industry.

McAdams, an attorney, served in Congress under a different congressional map from 2019 to 2021. During that term, he voted to impeach President Donald Trump, to which he attributes his reelection loss to retiring U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens in 2020.

Prior to his time in Washington, McAdams served as mayor of Salt Lake County and as a state senator.

This year, McAdams’ campaign has focused on bringing down the cost of living, protecting public lands and “defending democracy, the rule of law, and the will of the voters.”

“I will always stand up to Trump’s corruption, oppose the weaponization of the Justice Department, and restore American leadership abroad,” he says on his campaign website. “I am also committed to ending ICE’s lawless and dangerous raids that intimidate communities and make neighborhoods less safe.”

Owen won the Republican nomination at April’s state Republican convention with 71% support. He is campaigning on, among other things, strict immigration enforcement and the modernization of governmental systems with artificial intelligence. Owen also says he wants to convene local and national partners to discuss saving the Great Salt Lake.

The new district was created amid a court battle, spanning years, over who gets to draw the state’s congressional districts, after lawmakers overrode a voter-passed ballot initiative to create an independent redistricting body and outlaw gerrymandering in 2018. Though the districts are settled for now, GOP lawmakers in the state have said they will continue to fight for the right to control the drawing of the districts.

Also on the ballot is Libertarian candidate Jesse West, whose campaign slogan is, “A vote for me is a vote to ski, not war.” His website describes him as a family law practitioner and Brighton season pass holder. In addition to his anti-war platform, West is advocating for ending the death penalty, legalizing weed and creating “clear, accessible, legal pathways to citizenship.”

And unaffiliated candidate Elias Henry Montgomery is running on a platform largely focused on making housing more affordable in Utah by prioritizing local buyers over corporate investors and building more duplexes, townhomes and apartments.

2nd Congressional District

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Blake Moore won the Republican nomination for Utah’s new 2nd Congressional District after a heated primary. He is facing Democrat Peter Crosby, a corporate analyst and adjunct Utah State University professor.

Moore currently represents the 1st Congressional District, which contains large portions of the new 2nd District. He is Utah’s only member of congressional leadership, serving as the House Republican conference vice chair. He sits on the House Ways and Means Committee and House Budget Committee and has made issues of taxation and addressing the national debt central to his time in Congress.

Crosby has built his campaign around addressing affordability, including the high cost of housing in Utah, as well as preserving the drying Great Salt Lake. He is also against a controversial hyperscale data center project backed by celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary in the district.

Moore was endorsed by President Donald Trump, as well as U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana. Crosby has been endorsed by a number of Democratic candidates running at the state level in northern Utah, as well as a number of Democratic and labor-focused caucuses in the state.

Independent American candidate Carlton Bowen is running on a platform of addressing the national debt and “strengthening families.” He is strongly opposed to the proposed hyperscale data center in Box Elder County.

Bariatric surgeon and Libertarian candidate Daniel Cottam is on the ballot but does not appear to have a campaign website, and independent candidate Robert Moesinger is running a campaign focused on ending the two-party system.

The new 2nd District is expected to favor Republicans, making it likely that Moore will be reelected.

3rd Congressional District

In the Republican primary for Utah’s geographically largest and most rural congressional district, incumbent U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy pulled off a solid victory despite narrowly garnering the majority of delegates’ votes at the party’s nominating convention.

Now she faces Democrat Kent Udell in the contest to represent the 3rd Congressional District.

Udell is a mechanical engineer, professor and researcher whose work has primarily focused on the energy industry.

The only woman in Utah’s federal delegation, Maloy initially won a special election for the seat in 2023 when her then-boss, former Rep. Chris Stewart, announced he would step down to support his wife amid health challenges. Maloy served as Stewart’s legal counsel when he voted against impeaching Trump for efforts to overturn his 2020 loss.

Voters reelected Maloy in 2024.

As she completes her first full term in Congress, Maloy sits on the House Appropriations Committee, where she is vice chair of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee, as well as the Natural Resources Committee.

The congresswoman, who was born in Cedar City, also chairs the Congressional Western Caucus.

She is an attorney who has largely focused on public lands policy, and in Congress her attention has remained fixed on the issue as she has sought to undo the Antiquities Act of 1906 that grants presidents the authority to preserve historic land, landmarks and “objects of scientific interest.”

When Trump slashed the sizes of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments last month, Maloy lauded the move, saying it showed the president is “listening to the people of Utah.”

Maloy, like Moore, has been endorsed by Trump and is likely to go on to win reelection again. The Cook Political Report rates her district “Solid R.”

Also running in the 3rd Congressional District are Constitution Party candidate Cassie Easley and Libertarian Michael Stoddard. Unaffiliated candidates Adonis Hooslyn and Ayden Scott will also appear on the ballot.

4th Congressional District

Freshman U.S. Rep. Mike Kennedy is the only member of Utah’s all-Republican federal delegation who did not face a primary election.

At the state party’s annual nominating convention, despite several intraparty challengers, Kennedy won more than three-quarters of delegates’ support. None of his opponents collected signatures to make the ballot, ending the primary contest there.

The doctor and lawyer, who was previously a state lawmaker, will compete against Democrat Jonny Larsen in November.

Larsen is a U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran who was twice deployed to Iraq, and on his website describes himself as a “Blue Dog Democrat” — a segment of the party that identifies itself as fiscally responsible and dedicated to “ensuring a strong national defense.”

Toward the end of his tenure as a state senator, Kennedy drew national attention for a bill to bar transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care. Kennedy is now pushing to ban access to such treatment nationwide.

Kennedy sits on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee; the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; and the House Natural Resources Committee, where he is vice chair of the Federal Lands Subcommittee.

On his congressional website, Kennedy says his focus in Washington is “restoring fiscal responsibility, securing America’s borders, and pushing back against federal overreach.”

He joined a handful of his colleagues on a visit to the Terrorism Confinement Center, more commonly known as CECOT, in El Salvador in April 2025. El Salvador agreed to confine hundreds of people the Trump administration had deported in the prison, which has been accused of human rights abuses.

In a statement, he told The Salt Lake Tribune what he observed showed Trump was “restoring order and protecting our citizens.”

Libertarian Taylor Wright, an elementary school teacher, is also competing in the race, alongside attorney and unaffiliated candidate Steven Burt, who previously worked in the solar industry.

Political analysts, like The Cook Political Report, estimate there is a solid likelihood Republicans will hold onto the district.

Judicial retentions

Additionally, voters will decide whether or not to retain about five dozen judges — including two who were involved in the controversial redistricting ruling that resulted in Utah’s new congressional districts and have been criticized by state Republican leaders.

They are: Supreme Court Justice Jill Pohlman was part of the court’s ruling that said the Legislature could not repeal a citizen-passed initiative banning gerrymandering, and Third District Court Judge Dianna Gibson, who, based on the high court decision, selected a new congressional map that included one seat favoring Democrats.

A third target, Justice Diana Hagen, stepped down earlier this year after Republican officials launched an investigation into allegations of misconduct.

Republican officials have urged voters to throw both justices off the bench, but it is unclear if the party will put resources behind a campaign for their ouster. GOP Chair Rob Axson did not respond to questions about the party’s plans.

Constitutional amendments

Lawmakers are proposing two amendments to Utah’s Constitution — one technical, while the other could significantly impact citizens’ ability to change laws through the ballot initiative process.

The latter would require any future ballot initiative that includes a tax increase to be approved by a two-thirds majority in order to take effect. The sponsor, Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, argued there should be a high bar if voters want to raise their neighbors’ taxes.

However, had the provision been in place a decade ago, two initiatives approved by voters would never have been possible.

One, a 2018 initiative, expanded Medicaid coverage under Obamacare and included a tax to draw down the federal dollars. The other, also from 2018, legalized medical marijuana, which is now sold in state dispensaries and taxed to keep the program running. Neither came close to a two-thirds majority.

The other amendment would remove a provision that has been in Utah’s Constitution since 1895 and requires the Legislature to publish the text of proposed amendments to the Constitution in newspapers at least 60 days before an election.

It became an issue in 2024, when Republican lawmakers tried to put an amendment before voters that would give the Legislature the power, in the wake of the gerrymandering ruling, to repeal citizen-passed ballot initiatives. The Supreme Court voided it from the ballot because it had not been published in newspapers, as required, and also because the justices deemed the question on the ballot to be misleading.

If passed, future amendments will be published in the manner lawmakers put in statute, presumably online.

For this election, however, both proposed amendments will have to be published in newspapers.

Note to readers, Aug. 25, 11:00 a.m. • This story has been updated to include additional third-party and unaffiliated candidates that will appear on the ballot.