- Thousands of Utah delegates will meet Saturday to nominate congressional candidates.
- Democratic 1st District race is heated with controversy involving Nate Blouin and Eva Lopez Chavez.
- In the 2nd District, Karianne Lisonbee challenges incumbent Blake Moore for the GOP nomination.
SALT LAKE CITY — Thousands of state delegates will convene in Orem and Sandy on Saturday to decide which congressional candidates will earn the backing of their respective parties going into primary election season.
Utah's dual path to the primary ballot allows candidates to qualify by collecting signatures, so the convention results won't necessarily finalize the party nominees. But they could significantly shrink the pool of candidates vying for party nominations.
Most of the action in past conventions has been on the Republican side, but with a new map that favors Democrats in the 1st Congressional District, more eyes will be on the Democrats' convention at Jordan High School.
Here's what is at stake Saturday in the races for Utah's four congressional seats:
1st Congressional District
Utah's new Democratic-leaning district garnered interest from a slew of candidates, many of whom have already qualified for the ballot. Those include attorney Michael Farrell, former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams, tech employee Liban Mohamed and state Sen. Nate Blouin.
The Democratic race was already sure to be heated but has been rocked by controversy in recent weeks. First, news reports last week detailed posts Blouin made more than 10 years ago denigrating The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and making crude jokes about women and sexual assault.
Blouin said there was "no excuse" for the posts, saying his comments were "vulgar, stupid, and reflect a version of me in my early 20s that I'm ashamed of and have thankfully evolved past."
This week, several women came forward and accused another candidate, Salt Lake City Councilwoman Eva Lopez Chavez, of Various forms of misconduct. An attorney for Lopez said she "denies any wrongdoing" and that she has not "had any malice or sexual intent in anything she's done."
Lopez has not met the signature threshold — she was 1,002 signatures short as of Thursday evening — and will likely need to earn at least 40% of the delegate vote in order to stay in the race. That's also the situation facing Luis Villarreal, another Democrat who has not met the signature threshold.
One Republican, Riley Owen, has already qualified for the primary ballot, but Stone Fonua, Jonathan Lopez and Dave Robinson also face elimination at the GOP convention at Utah Valley University in Orem.
Libertarian Jesse West is also running.
2nd Congressional District
The race to watch in the 2nd Congressional District is between incumbent Rep. Blake Moore and state Rep. Karianne Lisonbee on the GOP side. Moore has already qualified for the primary by collecting signatures, but Lisonbee has gone all in on appealing to the more conservative convention crowd.
She will need to get 40% of the delegate vote on Saturday to force a primary.
Colton Hatch is also running as a Republican and needs delegate support in order to advance.
None of the four Democrats running in the 2nd Congressional District — Peter Crosby, Tyler Farnsworth, Jarom Gillins and Ian Parrish — have met the signature threshold, so the field will be narrowed to at most two candidates, unless one secures the nomination outright by winning more than 60% of the vote.
Carlton Bowen and Neil Hansen are running as members of the Independent American Party, and Daniel Cottam, a Libertarian, is also vying for the seat.
3rd Congressional District
Rep. Celeste Maloy is fending off an intraparty challenge from former state Rep. Phil Lyman in the conservative-leaning 3rd District. Maloy has already punched her ticket to the primary election, but Lyman and two other Republicans — David Harris and Tyler Murset — are looking to avoid being eliminated on Saturday.
Democrats Steve Merrill and Kent Udell are both hoping to keep their campaigns alive Saturday at the convention. Udell decided to compete only at the convention, and Merrill fell short of the signature threshold.
Libertarian Michael Stoddard and Constitution Party candidate Cassie Easley are also in the race.
4th Congressional District
Rep. Mike Kennedy is up for reelection for the first time in his new congressional career and faces several GOP challengers: Isaiah Hardman, Scott Hatfield, Tyrone Jensen, Pasitale Lupeamanu and Seth Stewart.
None of the candidates have collected signatures, but Kennedy has been a popular pick with the delegates and boasts better name recognition than any of his challengers.
On the Democratic side, Jonny Larsen and Archie Williams each face elimination at Saturday's convention.
Libertarian Taylor Wright is also running for the 4th District, as is unaffiliated candidate Steven Burt.
