Utah Primary Election Results 2026: Winners and Losers

Utah voters had some things to say on Tuesday night, and their message wasn’t subtle. The most powerful Republican in the Utah Senate lost his seat. A conspiracy-minded county clerk appears headed for the exit. And once again, the signature-gathering path to the ballot saved candidates party delegates tried to bury. Here’s a look at who won, who lost, and who probably isn’t returning calls from the Utah GOP this morning.

Loser: Stuart Adams

The most shocking result of the night was Senate President Stuart Adams losing his primary election to Stephanie Hollist.

Adams had become the face of the wildly unpopular proposed hyperscale data center in Box Elder County. The center, which he helped push through as the chair of the Military Installation Development Agency (MIDA), blew up spectacularly in his face. His attempts to contain the fallout weren’t enough.

In every previous election, Adams secured the nomination at the convention, and then cruised to an easy victory in November. This was his very first primary election where he had to make his case to Republican primary voters, and they overwhelmingly rejected him. The “not Stuart Adams” vote outnumbered his vote total by nearly 2-to-1.

Adams is the first sitting Utah Senate President to lose his re-election bid since Republican Steve Poulton was upset by Democrat Patrice Arent in 2002.

It wasn’t just Stuart Adams that was dragged down to defeat by the toxic Box Elder data center. Two of the Republican Box Elder County Commissioners who voted in favor of the project, Lee Perry and Kevin Potter, were trailing as of Tuesday night.

Winner: Utah State Auditor Tina Cannon

One person likely not shedding any tears over Stuart Adams’ ouster is State Auditor Tina Cannon.

For the past two years, Adams has tried to evict her from her offices in the main capitol building to make way for more office space to house Republican senators.

Late in the 2025 session, the GOP majority introduced a bill that would have moved Cannon’s office out of the Capitol building. That bill failed to advance.

A few months later, the Capitol Preservation Board, which oversees the building, voted to move Cannon’s offices to the first floor of the Capitol. The board includes Adams, House Speaker Mike Schultz and other lawmakers.

Cannon sued, claiming the board did not follow its own rules, but later dropped the suit after the board held a second meeting where they took the same action.

Even though she still has to move, Cannon can take a measure of satisfaction knowing Adams won’t be in charge when those swanky new offices for Senate Republicans are built.

Loser: The Utah Republican Party

On the eve of the election, the Utah GOP blitzed voters in SD7 with scaremongering text messages attacking Stephanie Hollist as a tool of liberal billionaire George Soros.

“We have reviewed and validated that liberal groups funded by George Soros dark money have attacked Stuart Adams and supported Stephanie Hollist. The Hollist campaign has also openly used a Soros-backed group to recruit support,” the texts breathlessly claimed.

“It is our duty to officially notify voters of such activity by liberal, out-of-state, dark money groups meant to undermine our party’s primary elections.”

Now that Hollist has defeated Adams, it’s safe to say the relationship between her and state party officials is probably a little awkward.

Earlier this month, the Adams campaign sent out a press release making similar accusations about Soros-backed groups flooding the race with mailers, and that they had filed a complaint with the lieutenant governor’s office. No outlet bit, so they recruited the state party to be their attack dog.

Winner: Signature gathering candidates

Once again, the signature path saved several candidates who would have been out of the race if the decision was solely up to party delegates.

The biggest impact of the signature path to the ballot was in SD7, where Stephanie Hollist knocked off Senate President Stuart Adams. Hollist was eliminated on the first ballot at April’s state convention, but remained in the race because of signatures.

State Rep. Karianne Lisonbee would likely be cruising to an easy win and a seat in Congress after handily winning the delegate vote at the GOP convention. But, as in past years, Blake Moore collected signatures and won the primary in a rout.

Other Tuesday winners who would have been eliminated at the convention if not for signatures:

SD13 - Democrat Silvia Catten
HD29 - Republican Sheldon Birch
HD38 - Republican Chris McConnehey
State School Board 11 - Republican Tracy Nuttall

Overall, more than a dozen congressional, legislative and state school board candidates who collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot won their primaries on Tuesday night.

Winner: Convention only candidates

Six Republican candidates who took the convention-only path to the nomination won or were leading after Tuesday night’s results.

SD18 - Republican Doug Fiefia
SD21 - Republican Brady Brammer
HD14 - Republican John Taylor
HD44 - Republican Jordan Teuscher
HD59 - Republican Luke Searle
HD67 - Republican JR Bird
HD69 - Republican Logan Monson

Loser: Phil Lyman

Where does Phil Lyman go from here? Incumbent Republican Celeste Maloy routed him in Tuesday’s primary election, winning every county in the newly drawn 3rd Congressional District except for his home territory of San Juan County.

It wasn’t close. Maloy defeated him by nearly 35 percentage points overall. She won by at least 20 points in every county except for Grand, where her margin of victory was just under 18%.

This is the fourth straight election Lyman has lost since 2024. He was defeated in the GOP gubernatorial primary, then launched a write-in bid for governor where he finished in third place. Last year he narrowly lost the race for chair of the Utah Republican Party to Rob Axson.

Lyman kept his name in the news after filing multiple unsuccessful lawsuits challenging his 2024 election losses.

He’s already said he plans to run for governor again in 2028. Tuesday night’s primary results suggest that Republican voters may be tired of seeing Lyman’s name on the ballot.

Winner: Political normalcy

Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson, who has trafficked in conspiracy theories about election fraud and other fringe issues that bubble up from the far reaches of the right-wing fever swamp, looks to be on his way out after one term. He’s currently trailing Republican challenger Corey Astill.

Some highlights from Davidson’s tenure as the head of elections in Utah County:

In 2024, he tried to force voters to cast ballots in person by refusing to pay for postage on mail-in ballots. The problem with that plan was only nine cities within the county had in-person voting centers. That led to long lines and frustration for voters. The county even ran out of ballot paper and printer toner. The state had to arrange for a plane to fly to Arizona to secure the necessary supplies.
Davidson was investigated by the Utah County Attorney for tracking how politicians cast their ballots during the 2024 election. That led to lawmakers passing legislation the next year limiting what information government officials can access
Following the 2024 election, Davidson issued an open letter that raised doubts about the legitimacy of whether Gov. Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson qualified for the ballot, and called for Henderson to be prosecuted.
Earlier this year, Davidson hired far-right streaming personality Kai Schwemmer, who has no experience running elections, as a deputy clerk in the department. Schwemmer has said he doesn’t think married women should have the right to vote, and that women “do not have what it takes” to hold public office. Davidson said he hired Schwemmer to help with outreach to younger voters, but did not fully investigate Schwemmer’s background before hiring him.

It wasn’t all bad, though. During the Utah GOP’s attempt to collect enough signatures to put a repeal of Prop. 4, Utah’s anti-gerrymandering law, on the November ballot, Davidson flagged dozens of fraudulent signatures submitted to his office.