Rep. Ben McAdams, and Republican challenger Burgess Owens both pictured in 2020 file photos. (Scott G Winterton and Steve Griffin, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s 4th Congressional District race has been a close one with both candidates taking the lead by small margins in a back and forth fashion. As votes still continue to be counted, the new election results from Utah County and Salt Lake County on Friday show that Republican Burgess Owens pulled ahead significantly by 2,095 votes.
This lead puts Owens ahead of McAdams 47.5% to 46.93% in the district that consists of parts of Salt Lake, Utah, Juab and Sanpete counties.
Although the race has not yet been called, Owens’ lead has already grabbed the attention of President Donald Trump and Republican Senator Mike Lee as they tweeted about it on Saturday morning.
Lee offered congratulations and said, “Looking forward to talking with you in DC next week!”
President Trump reposted an article from Breitbart News with the title that said, “Republican Burgess Owens Defeats Democrat Rep. Ben McAdams in Utah.” Following the title of the article in President Trump’s tweet, he said, “Great going Burgess, you continue to be a STAR!”
Utah’s 4th Congressional District race is still ongoing with Utah County’s 7,100 provisional ballots, and about 1,000 overseas and military ballots that have yet to be counted. According to a Deseret News article, Utah County Clerk/Auditor Amelia Powers Gardner estimated that about 20% of those ballots could be 4th District voters.
Gardner said that there are also 200 Utah County 4th District voters whose ballots can’t be counted until they are signed or other issues are addressed. They have all been contacted a second time per request of the McAdams campaign.
According to that article, Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said more than 9,000 of the 11,000-plus provisional ballots that have been verified along with 204 of the 2,000 ballots with signature problems or other issues that voters must fix. It is not clear how many of these ballots are from 4th district voters.
The next update from Utah County will not happen until Tuesday’s final canvass of the vote at 3 p.m.
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Burgess Owens, Republican for 4th District
Rep. Ben McAdams, Democrat for 4th District