SALT LAKE CITY (AP) —
The Latest on Tuesday’s midterm election in Utah (all times local):
11:20 p.m.
Republican U.S. Rep Chris Stewart has won re-election to a fourth term in Congress by defeating Democratic challenger Shireen Ghorbani.
Stewart represents Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, which covers a large portion of the state, including most of Salt Lake City west to the Nevada border and south to the Arizona border.
He is a former Air Force pilot and author who was first elected in 2012.
Ghorbani works in communications at the University of Utah and championed access to affordable health care. A first-time candidate, she criticized President Donald Trump and GOP-backed tax cuts.
Stewart, meanwhile, said he supports most of Trump’s policies but isn’t afraid to challenge him on things like tariffs and family separation at the border.
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11:10 p.m.
Republican U.S. Rep. John Curtis has won his first full term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The former Provo, Utah, mayor defeated Democrat college professor James Singer and United Utah Party candidate Tim Zeidner on Tuesday.
Curtis joined Congress after winning a special election last year to replace Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who stepped down and is now a Fox News commentator.
Seen as a moderate Republican, Curtis fended off a pro-President Donald Trump rival in the GOP primary. His victory means he’ll continue to represent the 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from the suburbs of Salt Lake City to the state’s rural southeast corner.
Singer, his Democratic rival, had championed affordable health care. Zeidner represented a new, centrist third party.
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10:50 p.m.
Utah voters have rejected a ballot measure that would have boosted education funding in a state that has the lowest per pupil spending in the nation.
The ballot question that failed in Tuesday’s election was crafted as part of a compromise between lawmakers and an education group that initially wanted to take a different plan to voters.
Under the plan, a 10-cent gas tax increase would have given public schools about $100 million more annually, or about $150 per student.
The Utah chapter of Americans for Prosperity, founded billionaire conservative David Koch, opposed the plan. The group argued that lawmakers should me more efficient with existing funds rather than raising taxes for residents.
As part of the compromise, lawmakers have already taken different steps including a property tax increase to increase education funding.
9:12 p.m.
Republican Rep. Rob Bishop has bested two opponents to win re-election to a ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Bishop defeated Democrat Lee Castillo and Eric Eliason of the new United Utah Party on Tuesday.
His opponents tried to paint him as a career politician beholden to special interests, a charge Bishop denied while touting his long experience in government.
Bishop serves as chairman of the powerful House Natural Resources Committee and is a key player on many public lands bills. A former history teacher and state lawmaker, he was first elected to the House in 2002. He has said this will be his final term.
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9:02 p.m.
Officials say some Utah County voters have waited in long lines to cast a vote in the 2018 midterm election.
Utah County Clerk Bryan Thompson told the Daily Herald on Tuesday that he estimates voters at dozens of locations have waited an average of about an hour.
U.S. Rep. Mia Love spokeswoman Sasha Clark says she’s been told some voter are waiting three hours or more.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports more than 700,000 Utah voters had cast ballots by noon on Tuesday, compared to nearly 578,000 in the last midterm election in 2014.
Midterm election years generally see a lower turnout compared to presidential years, but Love’s campaign manager Dave Hansen says this year’s turnout appears to be breaking that pattern.
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8:55 p.m.
Mitt Romney says his Senate victory in Utah is a call for greater respect, regardless of gender, race or place of birth.
Romney said during an acceptance speech Tuesday that his success affirms that “we are equal, not only in the eyes of God, but also in the respect and dignity we are due from government and from our fellow Americans.”
He also said he expects to work with members of both parties on his priorities like balancing the budget, reforming the immigration system and pushing back “against the heavy hand of federal government.”
Romney easily won the race to replace retiring fellow Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch after more than 40 years, defeating Democrat Jenny Wilson.
He moved after his 2012 presidential loss to Utah, where he is a beloved adopted son.
Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney handily won a U.S. Senate seat in his adopted home state of Utah on Tuesday after a campaign where he backed off his once-fierce criticism of President Donald Trump.
He will replace longtime Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, who is retiring after more than 40 years.
Romney was the heavy favorite to win the seat in conservative Utah, where he holds near-celebrity status as the first member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to be the presidential nominee from a major party.
He defeated Democrat Jenny Wilson, a member of the Salt Lake County council.
Romney denounced Trump as a “fraud” and a “phony” during the 2016 campaign, but has since changed his tone, saying he approves of many Trump policies and predicting he will win another term. Trump, for his part, has endorsed Romney’s Senate run.
But Romney has also pledged to continue to speak out if Trump does something significant that is “divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions.” Last week, he pushed back against Trump’s depiction of the media as an “enemy of the people.”
Romney, 71, moved after his failed 2012 presidential run to Utah, where he’s also known for running the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. His past criticism of Trump wasn’t a serious liability in Utah, where many voters are wary of the president.
With polls heavily in his favor, Romney has been campaigning for other Republican candidates in Utah and Arizona.
The former Massachusetts governor argued during the Utah campaign that his political profile would be a boon to Utah’s standing in Washington.
He won a primary against a state lawmaker in a landslide in June before turning to face Wilson in the general election.
Wilson, 53, has a political pedigree as the daughter of a former mayor and worked with Romney at the 2002 Olympics, but she had an uphill climb since the race began. The last Democrat Utah sent to the U.S. Senate was Frank Moss, who was defeated by Hatch in 1976.
