Nate Blouin says he will drop out if he is not leading progressive against McAdams

SALT LAKE CITY — Nate Blouin says he will drop out of the race for Utah's newly redrawn 1st Congressional District if he is not the leading progressive challenger against former Rep. Ben McAdams — but he urged the other progressive candidates to do the same if he is the top opponent.

Blouin announced that he would commission an independent poll in the new Democratic-leaning district and vowed to drop out of the race if he is not the top progressive candidate. But Blouin pressed his other opponents to do the same, arguing they should instead consolidate progressive support to defeat McAdams in the June primary.

"To beat Ben McAdams, which has been my goal all along, is to see a progressive win in a progressive district," Blouin told the Deseret News in an interview. "We've seen in other races around the country where progressives have split and lost, and I am not interested in being responsible for that happening here.

"Whether that's me or someone else, that is something I take very seriously, because I do not think we can afford to send the most conservative member of the Democratic Party in Congress back to Congress in a seat that is so progressive that Bernie Sanders, who has endorsed our campaign, has carried by very wide margins in the past."

The petition comes one week before ballots are scheduled to be sent out for the June 23 primary.

Blouin hopes to release a poll by June 1, just one day before ballots will begin going out. It's not entirely clear whether the candidates' names can be removed from the ballots before they are sent to voters, given the short time frame. The Deseret News contacted the lieutenant governor's office for comment.

Blouin acknowledged names would likely still be printed on the ballot even if some of them suspend their campaigns, telling the Deseret News it would be up to the candidates to inform voters who is still in the running.

"Progressives (would have to) rally behind the strongest candidate, and to make sure that voters know that that's who is representing the progressive movement," Blouin said. "It's not going to be a perfect strategy, it's not going to capture every vote from every other candidate, but certainly to have a trusted progressive on the ballot that people can believe in, I think is important, and hopefully we can send that message."

Blouin said the poll will present the candidates side by side with just their names, omitting any written bios, campaign stances or additional context. More than 400 primary voters will be surveyed.

Other candidates reject Blouin's strategy

Blouin said he initially planned to commission a poll in conjunction with the other progressive campaigns, but those plans experienced some delays.

"People want answers here because they want to rally behind a campaign that can win, and it's pretty clear from everything we've seen that that's not going to happen with multiple progressives," Blouin said. "I tried to bring others into the fold on this. It's such a late juncture, there's just not more time to wait. If you don't have a strong campaign built out on the ground already, like we do, it's hard to imagine how you would be able to build that literally in several days before ballots go out."

The other campaigns, though, appeared to reject Blouin's strategy to consolidate the progressive vote against McAdams.

Liban Mohamed, who pulled off a surprising upset over his challengers at the Democratic nominating convention in April, suggested that Blouin should be the one to step aside without polling results.

"I welcome consolidation within the progressive movement behind the only campaign that has defeated Ben McAdams in a district-wide, representative contest: the Utah Democratic Convention," Mohamed told the Deseret News in a statement. "The timing of this poll speaks for itself. It's being pushed before the debate because Nate fears the trajectory of his candidacy once voters see us side-by-side, just as the delegates did at convention."

Michael Farrell, the third progressive candidate in the race, told the Deseret News that Blouin was "unwilling to agree to anything but his own self-imposed deadlines" and rejected his and Mohamed's request to wait until after the primary debate.

"Nate has been trying to bully Liban Mohamed and me into agreeing to a poll with an exploding deadline for the past few days now in a text thread," Farrell said in a statement. "I am not surprised that Nate went ahead without either Liban or me being supportive or on board."

Farrell accused Blouin of bullying the other progressive candidates and criticized his campaign — making it likely he wouldn't back Blouin's bid if he were the next highest polling candidate.

"Nate continues to think he is the best candidate in this race, but he has proven time and again that is not the case," Farrell said. "People aren't looking for someone who couldn't pass a single bill after four years in office, whose colleagues loathe him, who can't read or understand the instructions on a financial disclosure report, and who spent his 20s (and I'd bet good money well into his 30s) posting online like a petulant child, insulting women, Mormons, those with intellectual disabilities, and so on."

There hasn't been much public polling for the Democratic primary over the last few months. The only survey that's made headlines is an internal poll from Blouin's campaign in March that saw McAdams as the clear front-runner.

However, that poll showed Blouin ahead of McAdams after answering questions about the candidates, although it's unclear what information was shared with voters during the survey.

The poll follows the Democratic nominating convention in April, when Mohamed had a surprising upset over his challengers.

The candidates are set to face off in a four-way primary debate on Wednesday.

In response to Blouin's call, McAdams' campaign pointed to his most recent ad buy, which launched on Tuesday, highlighting his vote to impeach President Donald Trump while he was in Congress.

McAdams sought to keep his focus on how he would work against the Trump administration rather than name or attack his opponents.

"Donald Trump is destroying our democracy each and every day, and we need leaders in Congress who will stand up to him for his corruption and his self-dealing, so that we can make government work for Utah families. I have a record of doing that, even when I knew it would cost me my seat in Congress," McAdams said a statement. "In this moment, we need representatives who don't just talk, but who act and do the right thing, even when it's hard. Utah can count on me to always do just that."

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