Democrats announce runs for newly drawn Salt Lake City congressional district

Two Democrats have announced campaigns in a Utah congressional district with improved chances for their party after a judge adopted a new political map for the state.

Ben McAdams, who represented Utah’s 4th Congressional District covering south Salt Lake City and central Utah from 2019 to 2021, announced his run Thursday in the district centered on Salt Lake City.

“Too many Utah families are working harder than ever but still not making ends meet, and that’s a struggle I know personally,” McAdams, a former Salt Lake County mayor, said in a statement.

State Sen. Kathleen Riebe announced her run for the 1st Congressional District on Wednesday. Like McAdams, Riebe hit on an economic theme, saying on social media that healthcare costs had skyrocketed.

The district McAdams previously represented flipped in recent years between Republicans and Democrats. In 2020, McAdams narrowly lost to Republican Burgess Owens.

Owens was reelected in 2022, after the district was redrawn to include more rural areas, and again in 2024.

Now, as lawmakers in Texas, California and elsewhere scramble to redraw congressional boundaries for party advantages in next year’s midterm elections, Utah’s map is changing, too.

On Tuesday, a judge in a long-running redistricting case rejected a congressional map drawn by Republican lawmakers, saying it unduly favored Republicans over Democrats.

Judge Dianna Gibson adopted a map submitted by the plaintiffs in the case, the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government, creating a Democratic-leaning district centered on the Salt Lake City area. That’s where McAdams and Riebe are running.

Riebe served on the Utah Board of Education from 2017-2018 and in the state Senate starting in 2019.