{"id":15092,"date":"2025-10-31T18:16:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T18:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/centrist-democrats-see-a-rare-opportunity-in-utah-house-race\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T18:16:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T18:16:58","slug":"centrist-democrats-see-a-rare-opportunity-in-utah-house-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/centrist-democrats-see-a-rare-opportunity-in-utah-house-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Centrist Democrats see a rare opportunity in Utah House race"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A former member of Congress, who pulled off a rare win for a Democrat in Utah, is drawing early support from an influential national political action committee as new political boundaries offer an unexpected chance to pick up a seat in the deep-red state.<\/p>\n

Former Rep. Ben McAdams is being touted by Welcome PAC, which backs more moderate candidates over progressives, for what is expected to be a newly created district, according to an email obtained by Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

\u201cPast performance doesn\u2019t guarantee future results. But it\u2019s usually the best clue we\u2019ve got,\u201d says the fundraising email, which was expected to be distributed to Democrats nationwide on Friday. \u201cBen McAdams is a superstar.\u201d<\/p>\n

The email offers<\/a> the early contours of a race that could help Democrats as they try to retake the House in the midterms \u2014 an effort that has been complicated by a nationwide redistricting war set in motion by President Donald Trump\u2019s push to have Texas draw new congressional boundaries.<\/p>\n

Democrats could pick up one or two seats under newly drawn lines in Utah under a redistricting fight that was underway before Trump pressured Texas and set off a wave of gerrymandering in states led by Republicans and Democrats, including Indiana and California. <\/p>\n

The court-ordered map in Utah would provide Democrats with a somewhat improved chance of victory in the state: A Salt Lake Tribune analysis<\/a> pegs the most competitive redrawn districts at R +6 and R+11, well below the 23+ point margins Democrats faced in federal races in 2024.<\/p>\n

In 2018, McAdams unseated the late Rep. Mia Love, who won her previous election in the district by 12 points. In 2020, he lost by 1 percentage point to Republican Burgess Owens. <\/p>\n

McAdams has not launched a campaign, but filed a statement of candidacy<\/a> earlier this month with the FEC, allowing him to begin raising money. He is expected to announce a bid once a map is finalized, according to two people with direct knowledge of his thinking. The former lawmaker declined to comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s clearly the strongest candidate Dems have had anywhere in nearly a decade,\u201d said Liam Kerr, co-founder of Welcome PAC. \u201cWe want to take this bigger platform we have and clearly say that he should run \u2014 and that people who are listening to our view of the party should show that encouragement by contributing to his campaign account.\u201d<\/p>\n

McAdams isn\u2019t the only name in the mix. The slate of potential primary candidates includes 2024 Senate candidate Caroline Gleich, state Sens. Kathleen Riebe and Nate Blouin, and 2022 Senate candidate Kael Weston. None have formally entered the race.<\/p>\n

Welcome PAC has been making waves in center-left politics since Trump’s reelection. Their WelcomeFest conference in June featured swing state and district Democrats like Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Maine Rep. Jared Golden. Earlier this week, they issued an expansive report<\/a> on how Democrats can rebuild after their 2024 failures.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople read the report and are like, \u2018What should we do?\u2019 And it\u2019s like \u2018well, shit, here\u2019s a clear example,\u2019\u201d Kerr told Blue Light News, about supporting McAdams.<\/p>\n

As a member of Congress, McAdams was part of the Blue Dogs \u2014 the PAC and coalition now helmed by Golden and Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, both Democrats serving in districts Trump won \u2014 and the New Democrats caucus. Before Congress, he was mayor of Salt Lake County.<\/p>\n

Utah\u2019s new congressional map is not yet final. In August, a district judge ruled the current map \u2014 which divides blue Salt Lake County between four districts \u2014 ignored the intention of a 2018 ballot initiative calling for an independent commission to draw the boundaries. The GOP-controlled state legislature drew a new map that favors Republicans<\/a> \u2014 but still gives Democrats a better shot than the current map.<\/p>\n

A district judge has until Nov. 10 to approve the new map for it to be in place for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, Democrats are focused on winning,\u201d said a Utah Democratic strategist, granted anonymity to speak openly. \u201cWe realize this is a huge opportunity to get serious.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former member of Congress, who pulled off a rare win for a Democrat in Utah, is drawing early support from an influential national political action committee as new political boundaries offer an unexpected chance to pick up a seat in the deep-red state. Former Rep. Ben McAdams is being touted by Welcome PAC, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}