SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Utah Democrats’ decision to support an independent party rather than nominate a member of their own party to take on Republican Mike Lee changed the race for the U.S. Senate of a foregone conclusion in a closely watched brawl.
Independent Evan McMullin, an anti-Trump former Republican best known for his highly anticipated 2016 presidential bid, raised millions in outside spending in his campaign against Lee. He forced the Republican for the second term to engage with voters more than in previous elections and emphasize an independent streak and willingness to antagonize leaders of his own party.
But in the end it didn’t even come close. Lee is on his way to a double-digit win.
That sparks a debate: Has Democrats’ strategy created a blueprint to get Republicans to campaign hard, compete for moderates, and spend resources in future races? Or does the hefty loss prove that the Republican grip is impenetrable in the near term, regardless of strategy?
The answers may include lessons for both red and blue states unaccustomed to competitive elections.
Some Democrats say it was worth backing McMullin — it changed the political conversation, made the race competitive and forced Lee to spend nearly double what he spent in his 2016 campaign. But other Democrats say the strategy hurt downside candidates who didn’t have a strong top candidate to help boost them.
“Building my bank in that sense will be so much more difficult. How do I convince candidates, in the future, that the Democratic Party will support them?” said Katie Adams-Anderton, president of the Democratic Party in Utah’s second-largest county.
Utah is one of the fastest growing states, and Democrats hope they can compete as the electorate gets younger and more urban. Still, Republicans currently have Senate seats as well as all four congressional seats, occupying every state office and expanding their supermajorities in the legislature this week.
Four years after running for the U.S. Senate herself, Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson backed Democrats’ decision to support McMullin. She credits it with making Lee sweat. Though McMullin lost, she said, she rallied behind an independent, favored voter by making the race competitive. She hopes being on Lee’s heels will affect how he rules and votes in the US Senate.
“This was a unique moment, and I really think we missed an opportunity by not choosing Evan to help break some of the hardened partisanship,” she said, noting that whether supporting an independent one good strategy depended largely on the circumstances .
The votes are yet to be counted, but Lee is well on his way to beating McMullin by double digits. That’s a smaller margin than his 2016 win of 41 percentage points over grocery store clerk Misty Snow, but bigger than McMullin’s team had anticipated.
McMullin won 100,000 more votes than Utah Democrats’ four congressional candidates combined, but preliminary results don’t suggest his campaign against the two-party system gave voters enough energy to boost turnout significantly.
Independents have won Senate races in Vermont and Maine, but in scarlet states like Utah, partisan politics remains entrenched and important to voters.
To assemble a fragile coalition of Democrats, Republicans and Independents, McMullin focused heavily on threats to democracy. Rather than campaign on traditional election issues, he attacked Lee’s November 2020 text messages to the Trump White House chief of staff about ways to challenge President Joe Biden’s victory.
Both Lee and Democrats skeptical of his candidacy criticized McMullin for being unclear on issues like abortion or infrastructure spending.
“You say you want to put the country above the party. I respect that,” Lee said during a debate in October, addressing McMullin. “But parties are an important proxy for ideas. You see, because it’s more ideas than parties telling people how you’re going to vote.”
Kael Weston, the Democratic Senate candidate who lost the party’s support when they sided with McMullin, acknowledged that it would have been difficult for a Democrat to defeat Lee. But he said McMullin’s focus came at the expense of local concerns, such as water or the closure of post offices in rural areas. Focusing on those kinds of issues is the way to make elections competitive in red states, not to become “Republican lite,” he said.
While outside spending from Democratic donor-funded PACs and conservative groups like Club for Growth reflects how the race was more competitive than usual, Weston said, McMullin’s attempts to distance himself from Biden and Democrats affected Democrats lower on the ballot. harm.
“If all you see for three months is that Joe Biden is bad and Democrat is a four-letter word, it has that effect,” he said, pointing out that the anti-McMullin television ads could hurt Democratic candidates for seats in the state house.
