Utah’s candidate filing period ended at 5 pm on Thursday. Here are some interesting nuggets we noticed:
There are a whopping 19 candidates vying to replace Sen. Orrin Hatch, including 12 Republicans and 4 Democrats.
Mia Love is the only Republican House member without an intra-party challenger. Rep. John Curtis has 4 Republicans challenging him for the nomination, including Chris Herrod, who lost to Curtis in the 2017 special election.
Rob Bishop has a GOP Challenger, while Rep. Chris Stewart has 2 Republicans trying to knock him off the ballot.
There are 5 Democrats who are racing for the right to take on Mia Love. Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams is the frontrunner.
Holy crap! SD 2 drew 8 Democrats who want to replace Sen. Jim Dabakis. The winner of that nomination will be heavily favored, but there is one Republican running in the district, Chase Winder.
Sen. Majority Whip Stuart Adams is the only Senator who is running unopposed this year. He automatically wins another 4-year term in the Senate.
SD8 will be a hot race this year. Sen. Brian Zehnder, R-Cottonwood Heights, has a GOP rival for the Republican nomination, as well as two Democrats and a member of the United Utah Party.
Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, surprised many observers when she filed to run for another term as she was widely expected to retire. She has two Republican challengers, Rep. Keith Grover, R-Provo, and Emily Ellsworth. There’s no Democrat running in that district.
There are only 3 members of the House who are running unopposed this year. In 2016, there were 20 uncontested seats.
Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, gets another free ride this year as he did not draw a challenger. He was unopposed in 2016. The others without an election opponent this year are Rep. Travis Seegmiller, R-St.George, and Rep. Adam Robertson, R-Provo.
Rep. Cory Malloy only drew a Republican challenger, so whoever wins the nomination will be unopposed in November.
The battle to replace Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck in HD24 will be an intense race. 6 Democrats are vying for the nomination. The Republican in the race, Scott Rosenbush, could make this an intriguing race. He served as the Mayor of Morris Township in New Jersey.
Rep. Mike Winder and former Rep. Fred Cox will face off again for the GOP nomination in HD30.
Rep. Steve Eliason flirted with running for SD9, the open seat formerly held by Senate President Wayne Niederhauser. He originally withdrew from HD45, but thought better of it and will run again for his House seat. He will have a rematch against Democrat Nikki Cunard.
Phil Lyman, who was sent to jail for leading an ATV protest through Recapture Canyon, is running to replace Rep. Mike Noel on the Hill. He has a Republican challenger for the nomination, but there’s no Democrat in the race.
Third party numbers:
- The United Utah Party led the way with 18 candidates.
- The Libertarians had 15 candidates file for office.
- The Independent American party tallied 9 candidates.
- The Constitution Party had 5, while the Green Party saw 4 candidates file for office.
