Ben McAdams won Tuesday's Democratic primary in Utah's 1st Congressional District with a clear majority in a multi-candidate field.
The former Salt Lake County mayor and one-term congressman now turns his attention to a November matchup against Republican Riley Own in a district where Democrats are favored, but not a lock.
We caught up with McAdams after his win for a wide-ranging conversation about his win and what he plans to focus on over the next five months.
On the data center debate that dominated Tuesday's results, McAdams drew a sharp difference between the controversial Stratos project in Box Elder County, a backroom deal rushed through without public input, and his own work advising a clean-energy data center project in southern Utah that spent six years going through a rigorous process. The distinction held up with voters.
He also weighed in on Senate President Stuart Adams' shocking primary election loss. McAdams didn't mince words, saying the Utah Republican Party has gotten "fat and lazy," relying on gerrymandering to insulate themselves from accountability, and what happened to Adams is what happens when voters finally get tired of being ignored.
Whoever wins CD1, according to McAdams, will have to build a coalition that crosses party lines, and that's actually the kind of race he's built for.
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