SALT LAKE CITY – This past weekend state Democrats gathered at Cottonwood High School to select their candidates for the general election in November.
As expected, they accepted Brian King as their gubernatorial candidate by acclamation. King is a state lawmaker and former House minority leader.
In other uncontested races, the Democratic delegates endorsed the candidacies of Catherine Voutaz for state auditor and Neil Hansen for state treasurer.
In the contested race for the Democratic nod to replace U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, the delegates selected Caroline Gleich as their candidate.
Gleich won in the first round of ranked choice voting, capturing 795 ballots (92 percent) compared to 48 votes for Laird Fetzer-Hamblin and 16 votes for Archie Williams III.
Gleich is a social media influencer and an environmental advocate.
As their candidate for attorney general, the Democrats selected Rudy Bautista to represent their party. In the first round of balloting, Bautista won 511 votes (64 percent) compared to 282 votes for David Carlson.
In a contest in which only three ballots were cast, Claudia Bigler won the Democratic nod in Utah House District 1, more or less by default.
Leading off other races of local interest, Bill Campbell will carry the Democratic standard in the race for U.S. House District 1 and Utah State University professor Nancy Huntly won the delegates’ endorsement in Utah Senate District 2.
Both of those candidate ran unopposed and were selected by acclamation.
Finally, the convention delegates chose Clare Collard in the second round of balloting and Brad Townley in the third round to represent Utah on the Democratic National Committee.
King will face off against the Republican candidate for governor in the November general election. That opposing candidate will depend on the victor of balloting in the GOP primary between incumbent Gov. Spencer Cox and rival candidate state Rep. Phil Lyman (R-Blanding).
It’s also unclear who Gleich will face in the November balloting. Trent Staggs, the mayor of Riverton, emerged as the state GOP convention’s pick over the weekend. But Staggs must still win the GOP primary against former Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson, U.S. Rep. John Curtis and businessman Jason Walton.
In a similar fashion, Campbell will compete for the seat in Congress belonging to U.S. District 1 against either incumbent Rep. Blake Moore or GOP convention pick Paul Miller.
The GOP primary that will decide those general election races is set for Tuesday, June 25.