Utah Republican House Primary Still Undecided After Third Day of Ballot Counting

Colby Jenkins, a former Green Beret and tech executive, has closed in on incumbent Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-Utah) within 1,000 votes as their June 25 Utah Republican Congressional primary remains undecided with thousands of votes still to be counted.

The delay in results is due to ballot adjudications in the 13-county Congressional District 2, spanning from Salt Lake City across southwest Utah, mainly in Salt Lake, Davis, and Washington counties.

Before being tabulated, ballots are processed through scanners to create “cast vote records.” Any ballots that the scanners are unable to read are set aside for review or adjudication.

Initially, Ms. Maloy held a 5-percentage point lead when the first returns were released after polls closed at 8 p.m. on June 25.

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By 11 p.m. on election night, almost 80,000 ballots had been counted with over 80 percent of precincts reporting.

However, the tabulation and reporting of results started to slow down with no updates being posted for several hours. As of 6:15 p.m. on June 27, the total number of ballots counted was 103,575.

Ms. Maloy was leading in 10 out of the 13 counties, including Salt Lake, Beaver, and Garfield. On the other hand, Mr. Jenkins had a significant lead in Washington County, where both candidates reside.

The Maloy-Jenkins race, one of the most closely watched contests between an incumbent and a fellow party member in the country, remains the only undecided race from the June 25 primary.

Ms. Maloy, a land-use attorney who was narrowly elected to the House in a special election in November 2023 following the resignation of Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.

Mr. Jenkins, a West Point graduate, former Joint Chiefs of Staff adviser, and Google executive, believes he is best positioned to advance a conservative agenda in a potential second Trump administration. He has been endorsed by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).

The winner of this primary will be heavily favored to defeat Nathaniel Woodward, a Democrat, the Constitution Party’s Cassie Easley, and independent candidate Tyler Murset in the November election.

In CD 3, state Sen. Mike Kennedy, a physician and attorney, emerged as the winner in a five-candidate race to secure the party’s nomination for the House seat left vacant by Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah), who won the GOP U.S. Senate primary on June 25 to succeed the retiring Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).

Mr. Kennedy will face former Summit County councilman and Vietnam veteran Glenn Wright in the general election. Mr. Curtis had defeated Mr. Wright with 66.5 percent of the vote in 2022. A Democrat has not won in CD 3 since 1996.

Incumbent Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah) easily defeated his primary challenger, electrician Paul Miller, in CD 1.

He is expected to secure a third term in the upcoming election against accountant Bill Campbell, a former GOP candidate for CD 1 running as a Democrat, and Libertarian Daniel Cottam, a surgeon and 2020 gubernatorial candidate.

In CD 4, Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) faced no primary opposition. The November election in this district will feature Katrina Fallick-Wang, a Democrat, and Vaughn Cook from the United Utah Party as the underdog candidates.