Utah Democrats were set to pick a nominee Tuesday in a four-way primary for a newly redrawn congressional district centered on Salt Lake County that election forecasters say leans strongly Democratic.
The new district — drawn after a Utah court invalidated lawmakers’ 2021 congressional map — is centered on Salt Lake County, including Salt Lake City and nearby suburbs that have long been the state’s Democratic stronghold.
Election analysts at the Cook Political Report rate the district as D+12, meaning it has voted about 12 percentage points more Democratic than the nation in recent presidential elections.
Four Democrats are on the ballot:
- Ben McAdams, the former one-term congressman and the most recent Democrat to represent Utah in the U.S. House, has argued for a pragmatic approach aimed at building coalitions.
- Nate Blouin, a Democratic state senator, has positioned himself as a progressive and has backed policies such as Medicare for All.
- Liban Mohamed, a political newcomer, won the most support at the Utah Democratic Party’s April nominating convention, edging McAdams with just over 51% of delegate votes after multiple rounds of ranked-choice voting.
- Michael (Mike) Farrell, a tax attorney, is also seeking the nomination.
Party leaders and political observers have described the contest as a test of what kind of Democrat primary voters prefer in a rare Utah district where Democrats see a realistic path to breaking the state’s all-Republican House delegation in November.
