Bob Stevenson edges past Trevor Lee at convention, but both on GOP primary ballot

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Bob Stevenson garnered more votes than Utah Rep. Trevor Lee at the Davis County Republican Party convention but both advance to the GOP primary.
Lee is "ready to dominate" the primary for the District 16 seat while Stevenson, a Davis County commissioner, will focus his campaigning on his experience.
Check altering allegations against Lee last week threw a twist into the campaign.

SYRACUSE — The primary battle between Utah Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, and Davis County Commissioner Bob Stevenson in the House District 16 race — the focus of dramatic charges against the incumbent last week — now enters a potentially tumultuous homestretch.

Stevenson mustered more support at the Davis County Republican Party convention on Saturday, 55% to 45% for Lee, a controversial firebrand seeking his third term. That's a big shift from party conventions in 2024 and 2022, when Lee garnered 73% and 64.1% backing, respectively, against his Republican foes from GOP stalwarts.

Lee, though, is undeterred. The District 16 seat in Davis County covers part of Layton and areas abutting the city, and the ultimate GOP winner will face Democrat Abigail Treasure in November. "We're excited and ready to dominate the primary!" Lee told KSL.

He charged, without elaboration, that Stevenson "stacked" delegates at Saturday's convention and suggested his GOP challenger was involved in the effort launched last week to discredit Lee. Two businessmen unveiled a website last week charging Lee with abuse of power as a lawmaker and, more than 10 years ago, altering checks.

"Yes, of course, they're involved with all of this," Lee said, referencing his belief that the Stevenson campaign is involved in the online effort against him. "They're actively spreading and pushing it all over instead of making it a non-issue."

Daniel Woodruff, KSL

Lee has admitted to altering multiple checks from an employer in 2013. He "deeply regretted" the incident, he said, and has "made restitution." He said the other charge that he offered to help a company get a government contract after receiving $93,000 in cash advances from the firm is "completely false."

Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz has asked the attorney general's office to investigate the allegations. A spokesperson for Attorney General Derek Brown on Monday declined to comment.

Stevenson said he was "pleased" with the 55%-45% edge over Lee in the voting at Saturday's convention, when GOP stalwarts provided their preferences ahead of the party primary, set for June 23. Lee stresses his "conservative leadership" in campaign materials, but still couldn't garner majority support from the Davis County Republican Party delegates, who Stevenson says typically lean more to the right than the county's overall population.

He denied Lee's charges that he was involved in the anti-Lee effort spearheaded by businessmen Jason Walton and Trent Spafford and rejected Lee's allegations that he spread their charges as part of his campaign.

"We are not involved with that in any way," Stevenson said.

In campaigning ahead of the primary, the challenger, the mayor of Layton before his election as Davis County commissioner in 2022, plans to stress his focus on business issues and experience as a public servant.

"We can go into the Legislature very well prepared to understand a whole lot of issues. Working with the county, you do get a lot of learning and understanding and knowledge," Stevenson said.

No GOP endorsement

Late last week, Stevenson filed a complaint against the Davis County Republican Party related to a review of the selection last March of some of the Republican delegates, the party representatives who voted at Saturday's convention. Party leaders conducted the review in response to complaints from multiple sources about how absentee ballots were counted in some contests.

The selection of some delegates spurred Lee's charges that they were "stacked" for Stevenson.

One delegate was ultimately changed, according to Don Guymon, chairman of the Davis County Republican Party. Otherwise, the issue didn't emerge at Saturday's convention. Convention participants were free to bring forward any concerns about the delegate-selection process at the convention, he said, but no challenges materialized.

Though Stevenson garnered 55% backing at Saturday's convention, it wasn't enough to earn the endorsement of the Davis County Republican Party. Because he also gathered signatures on petitions to secure a place on the primary ballot, he needed 70% backing at the convention to get the official stamp of approval from the party, according to party bylaws.

Contributing: Daniel Woodruff

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.