Celeste Maloy, attorney and a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, won a hotly-contested and much-watched Republican primary for the open 2nd District U.S. House seat in Utah on Wednesday evening.
With roughly 82% of the ballots counted, the Associated Press called Maloy, legal counsel to GOP Rep. Chris Stewart, who resigned because of his wife's poor health, the winner in a three-candidate race by about 1400 votes out of more than 70,000 cast.
Maloy held a 38% to 36% advantage over former state legislator Becky Edwards, whose candidacy drew particular interest because she freely admitted voting for Joe Biden in 2020 and for her primary challenge to conservative Sen. Mike Lee last year.
"Becky was very effective in recruiting Democrats to re-register as Republicans to throw off the Republican primary voting base,” one GOP elected official in Utah told Newsmax.
There is also a strong case to be made that the conservative base in the primary was divided and this was most responsible for Edwards being a close second.
The third candidate in the race was Maloy's fellow conservative, former GOP State Chair Bruce Hough with 26% of the vote. Both Maloy and Hough are strongly pro-life and both said without hesitation they would support a pardon for Trump if he is convicted of a crime.
Both Maloy and Hough initially competed in a district-wide convention with other contenders. They ended up one-two among the conclave of party activists and proceeded to a primary. But Edwards skipped the convention and, taking advantage of a relatively recent law in the Beehive State, collected signatures on petitions, thus getting into the primary.
Edwards held comfortable leads in the two urban counties (Salt Lake and Davis) of the 2nd District. But Maloy rolled up the big leads in the ten rural counties in the district and that was enough to put her over the top.
Maloy is now considered a cinch to win the Nov. 21 special election over Democrat State Sen. Kathleen Riebe.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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