Shireen Ghorbani at an election night event in November. (Credit: Spenser Heaps, Deseret News)
Recent congressional candidate Shireen Ghorbani formally announced her candidacy for Salt Lake County Mayor on Saturday.
Ghorbani declared her interest to voting members of the Utah Democratic Party Central Committee, who will select congressman-elect Ben McAdams’ replacement.
“I felt very strongly that the Central Committee members should know first,” Ghorbani said in a press release. “I have not been ‘considering” whether or not to run for county mayor, I knew the minute the results for Ben McAdams were final that I would run.”
Ghorbani, who won 67% of Salt Lake County in her 2018 Congressional bid for Utah’s District 2 seat, also announced her candidacy on twitter yesterday.
Ghorbani said she believes county government is an ideal venue to execute her campaign values.
“County government is where the rubber meets the road,” she wrote in a press release. “So many of the issues that impact our everyday lives start at a local, county level: access to healthcare, economic growth, affordable housing, keeping our neighborhoods safe and our open spaces open. I want to build on the progress we’ve seen at the county and move forward with new ideas and enthusiasm.”
Q. Dang, chairman of the Salt Lake Democratic Party, said he hopes to hold the special election on February 2, 2019. McAdams’ replacement will serve the two remaining years of his term.