Ben McAdams, a former Utah congressman who served one term before losing his seat in 2020, has won the Democratic primary in Utah’s newly drawn First Congressional District, positioning himself for a return to Washington in the November general election.
McAdams defeated three challengers in the June 23 primary, including a sitting state senator and two political newcomers, to claim the Democratic nomination. He will face Republican Riley Owen, an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve, in what is expected to be a competitive race in a state that leans heavily toward the Republican Party.
A candidate running on a record of independence
McAdams framed his primary victory as a mandate for a particular style of politics, one that he described as requiring courage to stand alone and the willingness to reach across partisan differences to accomplish things. The framing is consistent with the moderate positioning that has defined his political identity throughout his career, and it was clearly designed to distinguish him from the progressive candidates he defeated.
In his victory speech, McAdams highlighted work from his previous congressional term on healthcare expansion, public lands investment, and protections for the LGBTQ community. He also identified his vote to impeach President Donald Trump as the defining moment of his time in Congress, a decision he presented not as a political calculation but as an act of principle that cost him politically in a state where the former president remained popular.
A new district creates a new opportunity
The district McAdams won the nomination for is newly drawn, reflecting changes to Utah’s congressional map that created a geographic and political configuration that did not previously exist. The redesign gave Democrats an opportunity they have been working to capitalize on, and McAdams was the candidate the party’s primary voters chose to carry that effort into the fall.
The Democratic National Committee’s chair congratulated McAdams following the results, describing him as a commonsense champion for a range of kitchen-table issues including healthcare affordability, housing costs, job creation, small business investment, and civil rights. The DNC’s willingness to highlight McAdams prominently signals that the party views the district as a meaningful opportunity worth investing in heading toward November.
What the general election will look like
McAdams enters the general election as an underdog in a state that has not sent a Democrat to the House in a competitive race in recent memory. His opponent’s background in military and intelligence service is the kind of profile that tends to resonate with Utah voters, and Owen will likely emphasize his national security credentials throughout the campaign.
McAdams, for his part, will need to hold together a coalition of moderate Democrats and independent voters while making the case that his approach to governance, collaborative, independent-minded, and willing to defy his own party when he believes it is necessary, is what the district needs in Washington. His willingness to emphasize his impeachment vote rather than distance himself from it suggests a candidate who has concluded that authenticity about his record is a stronger foundation than attempting to reframe it.
The November contest will test whether Utah’s political landscape has shifted enough to give a Democrat a realistic path to victory in a newly configured district, or whether the state’s underlying preferences remain too firmly rooted for a moderate Democrat to overcome even in favorable geographic circumstances.
