Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Cook Political Report, a national nonpartisan political analysis and forecasting publication, has declared the race in Utah's 4th Congressional District too close to call.
Cook revised its evaluation of the race, pitting incumbent Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams against Republican Burgess Owens, from leaning toward the Democrat to a toss-up contest. The new rating follows the publication of a Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll showing McAdams and Owens with identical 35% support levels among registered voters in the district, with 24% undecided.
Cook says the 4th is an R+13 district — that is, 13 percentage points more Republican than the nation as a whole. Nonetheless, McAdams eked out a narrow victory over then-incumbent Mia Love to claim a House seat in 2018.
He is Utah's only Democrat in Congress.
We revised our House outlook to a Democratic net gain between zero and ten seats.
— CookPoliticalReport (@CookPolitical) August 14, 2020
New House rating changes in #CA45#GA07#IL06#IL13#IL14#MN08#NH01#NJ02#NJ11#NY01#NC11#TX03#TX32#UT04#WA03
Full article (🔒): https://t.co/zFSiSSNecgpic.twitter.com/L1hl44WyHD
McAdams' job approval ratings have generally been strong; an April Deseret News/Hinckley Institute poll found 47% of registered 4th District voters either "strongly" or "somewhat" approved of his performance, with 24% unsure. But that same poll also found almost exactly even one-third splits between voters who wanted McAdams to receive another term, voters who wanted someone new, and voters who were unsure. It gave him a narrow two-point advantage over a generic Republican opponent before Owens healthily won the June Republican primary election.
McAdams has sought to position himself as a pragmatic, centrist Democrat with concerns about fiscal policy and the national debt; his opponents have painted him as allied with unpopular figures in Utah like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Owens, a former NFL safety, has closely aligned himself with President Donald Trump and campaigns as an outspoken religious conservative. He is part of a Latter-day Saints for Trump advisory board recently unveiled by the Trump campaign.
Cook's revision toward Owens bucks a national trend that is seeing the publication move more races toward Democratic candidates, Cook reports.
