Chris Stewart is probably better known as an author of 14 novels than as a 6-term member of Congress from Utah. A vicious homophobe and kind of a crackpot, he’s the chair of the House Anti-Socialism Caucus. He denies that man's role in Climate Change is real, wants to abolish the estate tax, and still wants to repeal Obamacare. At one point he was probably Trump’s biggest supporter among Utah politicians. He’s resigning from Congress to tend to his wife’s undisclosed health issues.
His district, UT-02 includes nice blue Salt Lake City. But take a look how the counties that make up the congressional district voted last year when Stewart was reelected in a landslide against Democrat Nick Mitchell, 154,883 (59.7%) to 88,224 (34.0%)
And even though UT-02 saw Trump’s weakest performance in Utah, he still beat Biden 56.7% to 39.5%. It is also the least red congressional district in the state— R+11 with an R+23 partisan lean… so still plenty red. The special election to replace Stewart is November 21 (making McCarthy’s ability to get anything done this fall even more difficult). Over the weekend, a Republican Party nominating convention rejected MAGAt and former Utah House Speaker, Greg Hughes and narrowly (52.1%, by 31 votes) chose Celeste Maloy, a Stewart DC staffer, on the 5th ballot. (Someone can still challenge her for the nomination by triggering a September 5 primary by turning in 7,000 valid signatures. Former state Rep. Becky Edwards is sure to do just that and two other Republicans probably will as well.)
Stewart, as well as former Congressman Rob Bishop, both endorsed Maloy, who is relatively unknown in Utah. But winning the primary is tantamount to election in this district. Maloy is likely to face Democratic state Senator Kathleen Riebe, the minority whip, who defeated a Republican incumbent to win the first time she ran.
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