Democrat Ben McAdams slightly widened his lead over Republican Mia Love in Utah’s 4th Congressional District on Thursday.
New vote totals released Thursday afternoon gave McAdams a 1,002 vote lead over Mia Love. However, that lead is tenuous as heavily Republican Utah County is set to update their election results on Friday.
Election forecast website FiveThirtyEight.com moved the race from “Lean D” to “Lean R” on Thursday after the new vote totals, noting Love’s better than expected performance in picking up votes from late ballots, which usually favor Democrats.
Going to Lean R in UT-4 as Love continues to outperform her Election Day vote in late-counted ballots. Opposite of most districts where the late vote has been more Democratic.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 16, 2018
There are thousands of ballots left to count, most of those are provisional ballots. It’s still unknown how many are in the 4th District, and how many will be accepted.
In other closely-watched races:
- Prop. 4, the redistricting reform measure, is now winning approval by 4,267 votes.
Democrats thought they had a shot at picking up a few more seats in the Legislature, but those hopes appear to be fading:
- Republican Steve Waldrip has taken the lead over Democrat Deana Froerer by 210 votes in HD8. Froerer led by 25 votes after election day.
- Republican Eric Hutchings appears to have narrowly held off a strong challenge by Democrat Edgar Harwood in HD38. Hutchings leads that race by 149 votes.
- Republican incumbent Cheryl Acton is the apparent winner in HD43. She leads Democrat Diane Lewis by 514 votes. Libertarian Shawn Curtis is playing a factor in the outcome, garnering 806 points.
- Republican incumbent Robert Spendlove has widened his lead over Democrat Anthony Sudweeks in HD49. Spendlove now leads by 625 votes.
