Celeste Maloy, a former staff member for U.S. Republican Rep. Chris Stewart, has won the GOP nomination to succeed him in the heavily red district.
Prior to a pending special election, Maloy, who served as Stewart’s top attorney in Congress, prevailed in a three-way GOP primary on Thursday. Six-term congressman Stewart made his retirement announcement earlier this year, citing his wife’s health problems.
“It’s exciting that we’re going to have somebody come out of this primary that represents rural and southern Utah. I think it’s time for that, and everybody’s ready for it,” Maloy said in a statement Thursday.
Maloy credited grassroots conservatives and dedication from rural Utah for her victory.
“I did debates in the rural counties. I showed up and held events in the rural counties,” she said. “We decided early on that our strategy was going to be to win the rural counties, and then get as much as we could in the more urban counties.”
Pro Trump , Pro Rural Candidate Wins in Utah Special Election https://t.co/C89Z0pHisP pic.twitter.com/CgNa4XQ0Bi
— Grace Chong, MBI (@gc22gc) September 8, 2023
Maloy faced opposition from former state representatives Becky Edwards and Bruce Hough, as well as other candidates.
Edwards, who came in second place, was well-known because of a previous attempt to unseat Republican Senator Mike Lee. Edwards, who calls herself a “common-sense conservative,” has harshly criticized former president Donald Trump and even expressed support for Vice President Biden in the 2020 election.
Although she expressed regret over supporting Biden, her message ultimately did not get through to primary voters.
Stewart and former U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop both endorsed Maloy, who also had the support of the Utah Republican Party.
On Tuesday night, a closely-watched special election in Rhode Island has been called as voters hit the polls to fill a vacancy in Congress.
When former Rhode Island Democrat Rep. David Cicilline left his post earlier this year to take over the largest philanthropy in Rhode Island, a high-profile position became available in the small, largely Democratic state.
Nearly a dozen Democrats ran for the seat and several of them had the endorsement of important national organizations. The 1st Congressional District, which includes Providence, has two Republican candidates on the ballot, but a Republican hasn’t won it in years.
Former White House aide Gabe Amo has been declared the winner.
“Rhode Island is smaller than probably most counties in the United States, and yet they have an outsized number of elected officials,” said Rich Luchette, a former adviser to Cicilline, who has not endorsed a successor. “All of them are ambitious, all of them look in the mirror and see a future member of Congress.”
There was an abundance of candidates because the state has a sizable Legislature and numerous small municipalities, the majority of which are run by Democrats.
“The front-runner had been seen as Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos, but a scandal involving forged signatures gathered on her behalf to get on the ballot may have mortally wounded her prospects,” NBC News reported.
“She has denied wrongdoing and blamed a rogue vendor for collecting the phony signatures, but her slow response to the controversy, the state attorney general’s ongoing investigation, and a lack of other major campaign developments this summer meant she suffered months of bad headlines,” the outlet added.
.@GabeAmo wins the Democratic nomination for #RI01: https://t.co/FI1ZRzFRDL pic.twitter.com/r0Em0AU9CH
— WPRI 12 (@wpri12) September 6, 2023
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