A Republican critic of former President Donald Trump who voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 misplaced Tuesday’s particular election for a Utah congressional seat.
Former state legislator Becky Edwards completed narrowly behind congressional staffer and Nevada GOP delegate choose Celeste Maloy. Maloy was endorsed by Republican Rep. Chris Stewart, whose resignation to take care of his sick spouse set into movement the Sept. 5 particular election for Utah’s reliably conservative 2nd Congressional District. She now advances to the Nov. 21 normal election in opposition to Democrat state Sen. Kathleen Riebe.
Edwards, who led her opponents significantly in a single public ballot of the race, appeared near turning into the solely member of the Home GOP caucus to confess to voting for Biden, placing her at odds with Republicans who’re itching to question the president. Edwards additionally broke with the GOP’s place on the Supreme Courtroom’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, saying she didn’t see a “compelling” purpose to revisit the landmark abortion case.
However she confronted blowback for refusing to debate her opponents and for not supporting Trump, and couldn’t muster the help of delegates on the state GOP conference in opposition to Maloy, a former authorized counsel in Stewart’s congressional workplace. Unofficial outcomes reveal that Edwards did finest in and round Salt Lake Metropolis, whereas Maloy earned a lot of her help within the rural swath of the district extending to Utah’s southwestern border.
Maloy confronted a lawsuit to maintain her off the poll because of her inconsistent voting report, although a decide dominated in her favor, permitting her to proceed within the race.
Low-turnout particular elections are usually poor predictors of broader electoral tendencies, comparable to whether or not the GOP citizens will reject Trump after his 4 felony indictments. Polls of the presidential major subject recommend that’s not the case.
Help for Trump is particularly robust within the GOP-controlled decrease chamber, which has a number of the former president’s fiercest allies on the Hill. Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) struggles to maintain the assorted factions of his unwieldy caucus on the identical web page, particularly because the right-wing amps up its requires impeachment. It’s unclear whether or not Maloy has voted for Trump — she didn’t vote in Utah in 2020 — and sidestepped questions on who she helps for president in 2024.
Edwards, who mounted an unsuccessful major in opposition to hard-line conservative Sen. Mike Lee in 2022, has urged Republicans to not vote for Trump, at present the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination. Edwards additionally stated that Trump deserved to be impeached for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, a place that made a pariah out of any Republican who dared to interrupt with the previous president. All however two Home Republicans who voted in 2021 to question Trump misplaced their seats or declined to run the following 12 months.
Stewart introduced in Might that he was stepping down after a decade in Congress. His district is one among 4 protected Republican seats in Utah, a deep-red state the place Republicans have nonetheless embraced Trump critic, Mitt Romney, the state’s junior senator, and Evan McMullin, a third-party candidate who managed to peel away vital help from Trump within the 2016 presidential race.
