SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Sen. Mike Lee won Utah’s Republican primary Tuesday, brushing off attacks from two challengers who criticized him for his unwavering loyalty to former President Donald Trump and uncompromising lawmaking style.
The second-term Republican and Trump loyalist now advances to the November election, where he’ll face off against independent candidate Evan McMullin. He ran for president as a conservative alternative to Trump in 2016 and received more than one-fifth of the vote in Utah, where voters tend to be uncomfortable with Trump-style politics. McMullin left the GOP after Trump’s ascendance and won backing from the state Democratic Party this year. He has kept pace in campaign contributions with Lee in this year’s Senate race.
Lee handily defeated former state lawmaker Becky Edwards and political operative Ally Isom, two well-funded opponents who didn’t vote for Trump and attempted to appeal to voters disillusioned with the direction of the Republican Party. They tried to frame Lee as a divisive politician who cares less about governing than he does television appearances and his allegiance to Trump.
Lee supporters gathered Tuesday at an event with about 100 people, many wearing shirts saying “I like Mike” while country music plays and conservative commentator Glenn Beck spoke.
A montage played on a projector splicing together images of families and children with assault-style rifles, sunsets, clouds and the kind of single family homes that Lee has proposed to build on rural federal land he wants to privatize.
On the campaign trail, they called Lee an obstructionist and drew attention to the leak of post-election text messages he sent to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The messages, they said, showed his early involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Lee encouraged Trump advisers to embrace discredited attorney Sidney Powell and later referenced his discussions with lawmakers in battleground states about appointing competing slates of electors to act contrary to the results, the messages showed.
Lee has responded to criticisms saying that he merely encouraged Trump’s team explore available legal avenues, noting that he ultimately voted to certify the results on Jan. 6, 2021. He’s mostly remained above the fray and not responded to other intraparty attacks, instead focusing on tried-and-true rhetoric about the U.S. constitution and criticisms of federal overreach.
Isom positioned herself as a conservative alternative to Lee, agreeing with his positions on most issues but disapproving of his uncompromising approach. Edwards staked out more moderate positions, rebuking Trump for continuing to spread disproven claims of 2020 election fraud and saying she disagrees with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
This contested primary was a drastic departure from Lee’s first reelection campaign in 2016. That year, no primary challengers came forward to challenge him in arch-conservative Utah, after the one-time Tea Party insurgent successfully consolidated support from both grassroots conservatives and establishment Republicans.
Lee remains overwhelmingly popular among party activists, but there are some rumblings of dissatisfaction among both Republican insiders and the party’s overall electorate. Many have publicly taken issue with his willingness to shut down the federal government and be the Senate’s lone “no vote” on proposed policies.
And this year, McMullin convinced the state’s outnumbered Democrats to eschew a nominee from their party and get behind him instead, hoping that consolidating support from Democrats, independents and disillusioned Republicans could help unseat Lee.
The race should test the extent to which criticisms of divisiveness and the increasingly polarized state of politics resonate in the state where the predominant faith is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the political culture is rigorously polite.
Congressmen defeat primary challengers
All four members of the U.S. House from Utah defeated Republican primary challengers Tuesday while the Democratic challengers they’ll face in November are running uncontested.
It is the first primary election since the GOP-controlled state Legislature bypassed an independent redistricting commission and approved political maps that critics decried as gerrymandered because they split up Democratic-leaning Salt Lake City, effectively shoring up Republican advantages in each of the state’s four districts.
In Utah’s four congressional races, first-term Congressman Blake Moore faced two challengers and Chris Stewart, John Curtis and Burgess Owens each faced one. At the state GOP’s April convention, party delegates, known for leaning further right than the party’s overall electorate, backed Moore and Curtis’ opponents, forcing the two to gather signatures to quality for the primary ballot.
The Republican primary winners will be favorites in the general elections in an overwhelmingly red state where none of the state’s congressional districts post-redistricting were rated as battlegrounds.
Here’s a look at Utah’s congressional races:
1ST DISTRICT
Conservative businessman Blake Moore is serving his first term representing the northernmost parts of the state, as well as stretches of eastern Utah, including the ski town of Park City. During his first run, Moore resided outside his district’s borders, yet redistricting drew the Ogden native into its borders.
He defeated two challengers — Andrew Badger and Tina Cannon. Cannon, a former Morgan County councilwoman, lost to Moore in the 2020 primary but hopes her fiscal conservative message will resonate amid inflation and skyrocketing cost of living. Badger, who won the delegate vote at the state party convention in April, focused on hard-right flashpoints, including anger over coronavirus mandates and how race, gender and sexuality are taught in K-12 schools. He also campaigned against Utah’s universal vote by-mail system.
Moore, by contrast, calls himself a “Big Tent Republican” and argues a moderate approach is most effective for the state. He initially voted for an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection and later invited Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney — who’s won scorn from many in the GOP for her remarks about former President Donald Trump — to fundraise for him.
Moore will take on Democrat Rick Jones, who faces no primary opponent, in November.
2ND DISTRICT
U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart defeated his first GOP primary challenger Tuesday. Stewart once criticized Trump but later became a staunch supporter. His opponent, Erin Rider, is an attorney from Salt Lake City who describes herself as a consensus builder and did not vote for Trump in 2020. Trump endorsed Stewart.
The district stretches from parts of Salt Lake City to the fast-growing southern city of St. George.
Stewart will take on Democrat Nicholas Mitchell, who was nominated at the state party’s April convention.
3RD DISTRICT
Rep. John Curtis, a moderate Republican known for founding the Conservative Climate Caucus, again defeated a former state lawmaker who has attacked him from the right. Chris Herrod is among the hard-right Republicans who derisively label opponents ” Mitt Romney Republicans ” and likens Curtis’ energy policies to the “Green New Deal.” Herrod won the delegate vote at the state party’s April convention.
The primary was the third face-off for the two men; Curtis has soundly defeated Herrod in the past primary elections. The 3rd District includes Provo, where Curtis previously served as mayor, and stretches to Utah’s southeastern corner, encompassing the tourist town Moab.
Curtis will take on Democrat Glenn Wright, who was nominated at the state party’s April convention.
4TH DISTRICT
Congressman Burgess Owens, a former NFL player, won the GOP nomination Tuesday as he vies for a second term in a district that spans south from Salt Lake City suburbs into right-leaning rural areas. A frequent Fox News guest and convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Owens toppled the state’s lone congressional Democrat in 2020 to become one of two Black Republicans in the U.S. House.
Owens, who received Trump’s endorsement on Monday, eschewed norms by skipping a routine annual meeting with legislative Democrats earlier this year and declined to debate his primary challenger, Jake Hunsaker.
Hunsaker has attacked Owens for what he’s called “extreme views” and said he agrees with many of Trump’s policies yet takes issue with how his rhetoric has polarized the political landscape.
Owens will take on Democrat Darlene McDonald, who faces no primary opponent.
Written by SAM METZ and LINDSAY WHITEHURST, The Associated Press
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