For the first time in eight years, deep red Utah elected a Democrat to the House.
asserted
Utah → elect → House
Former congressman and Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams trounced Republican Riley Owen with more than 70 percent of the vote.
asserted
McAdams → trounce → vote
Instead, his election is the result of nearly a decade of unglamorous work by good-government groups to force Utah to give up partisan gerrymandering.
asserted
election → force → gerrymandering
For more than two decades, Republicans have used their legislative supermajority to draw congressional maps that disenfranchised many Democrats who live in Salt Lake City and the surrounding metro area.
asserted
who → use → City
The state, which claimed one of the most extreme partisan gerrymanders in the country, hasn’t sent a Democrat to Congress in eight years, despite many liberal strongholds where Democratic presidential candidates have for years won by wide margins.
asserted
candidates → claim → margins
But in 2018, voters narrowly passed a ballot initiative that required the state to create an independent redistricting commission that would draw fair voting maps.
asserted
that → pass → maps
Republicans, including the current governor Spencer Cox, have fought the initiative tooth and nail, through legislation and litigation, all of which failed.
asserted
all → include → which
Over the past year, state GOP lawmakers blew up the state’s nonpartisan judicial selection process to undermine the courts that upheld the fair maps.
asserted
that → blow → maps
They also personally attacked two women on the state supreme court who were part of the unanimous decision upholding fair maps, one of whom resigned because of the attacks.
asserted
one → attack → attacks
“We’re coming for you,” Utah GOP Chair Rob Axson warned the judges during the party’s state nominating convention in April.
asserted
Axson → come → April
We don’t want you anymore.”
asserted
We → want → you
As I explained in June:
The mere possibility of Utah voters sending a single Democrat to Congress has sparked a fierce and desperately devious backlash from state Republicans hell-bent on making sure such an outcome never happens again.
asserted
outcome → explain → Republicans
Emma Petty Addams, co-executive director of nonpartisan faith-based Mormon Women for Ethical Government, says, “There was, and continues to be, a sense among our [Republican] leadership in particular that an un-gerrymandered outcome was not favorable to their political future.”
asserted
outcome → base → future
McAdams’ victory may be short-lived, as Republicans will no doubt try to undo the current maps in the newly stacked courts.
uncertain
Republicans → live → courts
But in the meantime, Utah’s first non-gerrymandered election this century is showing why fair redistricting and competitive elections are so important for state residents and democracy writ large.
asserted
redistricting → show → residents
In 2020, McAdams narrowly lost his congressional reelection race to Republican Rep. Burgess Owens, a Fox News commentator and former NFL defensive back who’d played for the Oakland Raiders when they won the Superbowl in 1981.
asserted
they → lose → 1981
Despite his endorsement by President Donald Trump, his credentials for Congress were slim: He’d suffered a series of bankruptcies.
asserted
He → suffer → bankruptcies
He’d published a heavily plagiarized book called Why I Stand: From Freedom to the Killing Fields of Socialism.
asserted
I → publish → Socialism
When he announced his run for Congress in 2019, Owens hadn’t lived in the state for long and hadn’t registered to vote there until 2014.
asserted
Owens → announce → 2014
His only real tie to Utah was his adult daughter, who actually did live there.
asserted
who → live → Utah
He put her on his campaign payroll as a consultant.
asserted
He → put → consultant
He lived in a house owned by one of his donors.
asserted
He → live → donors
Shortly before he announced his run for Congress in 2019, with funding from a local real estate developer, he attempted to prove his local bona fides by starting a youth charity.
asserted
he → announce → charity
It folded less than three years later.
asserted
It → fold → ?
During his 2020 campaign, Owens endorsed President Donald Trump’s plan to restart nuclear testing in the state—an issue that any local would know is anathema to Utah residents, who were poisoned by radioactive fallout during the open-air nuclear tests in the 1950s.
asserted
who → endorse → 1950s
In later campaigns, he dodged debates even as he worked the conservative media circuit and blasted President Joe Biden for running a “dictatorship.”
asserted
he → dodge → dictatorship
Owens was such a bad candidate that his tenure might have been restricted to one term—except that in 2020, the legislature redrew his once-competitive district to give it a 30-point Republican advantage.
uncertain
legislature → restrict → advantage
The former Fox host never suffered a significant challenge again, and he governed like someone who didn’t have to worry about getting reelected.
asserted
who → suffer → someone
Since taking office, Owens’ most notable achievement has been introducing a bill to force DC’s overtaxed National Airport to allow more direct flights to Salt Lake City, so, as he told the Deseret News, his children and grandchildren could visit him in DC more often.
uncertain
children → take → DC
Despite FAA warnings that it would be unsafe, Congress added 10 additional flights to the busy airport.
asserted
Congress → add → airport
The move came under fire after the January 2025 crash of an American Airlines fight coming in to land at DCA that killed 64 people.
asserted
that → come → people
Owens spent a fair amount of time in office focused on important Utah concerns such as attacking what he saw as the leftward drift of the NFL, as evidenced by Bad Bunny performing at the Superbowl.
asserted
Bunny → spend → Superbowl
Last year, Owens, who is Black, made headlines by suggesting that Beyonce’s Grammy award for best country album was “the closest thing to DEI we’re going to see right now.”
asserted
we → make → DEI
He also compared the “fairness” of her win to the basic unfairness of transgender women playing in women’s sports.
asserted
He → compare → sports
Owens spent a lot of time getting people to try on his Superbowl ring.
asserted
people → spend → ring
He co-
asserted
He → co → ?
Owens, a man who went through bankruptcy multiple times to avoid paying off hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, fought Biden-era attempts to help student loan borrowers.
asserted
who → go → borrowers
Last year, he suggested that students drowning in school debt who are barred from discharging it in bankruptcy court should simply work harder and “go out and get a second job.”
uncertain
who → suggest → job
Nonetheless, he was reelected twice and might have made it a third time this year except that the Utah supreme court upheld the nonpartisan congressional maps that would redraw his district for the 2026 election.
uncertain
that → reelect → election
That was enough to inspire Owens, 75, to announce his retirement.
asserted
That → inspire → retirement
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
