Utah Democrats nominate an anti-Biden congressional candidate — only because he promises to step aside

Utah Democrats on Saturday nominated an anti-Joe Biden candidate for Utah’s 2nd Congressional District who has already promised he will step aside and let the party pick a replacement to take his spot on November’s ballot.

Brian Adams came under fire from a variety of Democratic organizations, including the Young Democrats of Utah and the Disability Caucus, for claiming Jan. 6 rioters were being “politically persecuted” and criticizing President Biden for facilitating an invasion at the southern border.

Opponents were pushing the party to not nominate a candidate and leave the spot on the ballot vacant, since Adams was the only Democrat to file to run for the office, currently held by U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy.

[READ: Trump endorses Trent Staggs for Senate ahead of Utah GOP nominating convention]

But Utah Democratic Vice Chair Oscar Mata said at Saturday’s State Nominating Convention that Adams had committed to withdrawing from the race if he is nominated. In the past, the party could only pick a replacement if a candidate died or withdrew because of health issues, but because of a recent change to the law, the party can now pick a replacement if a nominee drops out for any reason.

Adams confirmed to The Salt Lake Tribune on Saturday that he would withdraw after he is nominated.

“Everyone seems to agree with the course of action,” Adams said in a text message. “I agreed to it and told them I was happy to help.”

Some delegates wanted Adams to confirm in writing that he would resign before he was nominated. But Brad Townley, the past Democratic Party parliamentarian said Adams committed to notify the lieutenant governor’s office that he was withdrawing on Monday. If he does not, Townley said, the party’s constitution would let the central committee vote to remove Adams.

Adams owns a renewable energy company in Clearfield and, according to his campaign website, was a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army.

On his campaign Facebook page, Adams leans into election security memes, trashes Biden and rails against the influx of immigration. And, he said, many of the Trump supporters who were present for the Jan. 6 riots were being “politically persecuted” and should not be charged.

On Friday, after there were demands in Democratic circles that the party not nominate him, Adams didn’t back away from his positions and said he “would see” how the situation would unfold at the nominating convention.

“My response would be: Do I have to think like them in order to represent people well? I thought diversity was our strength,” Adams said in an interview Friday. “And I’d also say, that’s not very inclusive of them.”

Until last year, a nominee could only be replaced on the ballot if they die or are incapacitated. But the Legislature changed the law last year after Democrats sued to prevent the Republican Party from replacing Rep. Joel Ferry on the ballot after Ferry dropped out of the race to take a job as Gov. Spencer Cox’s director of the Department of Natural Resources.

Gleich nominated for U.S. Senate race

While Republicans at the Salt Palace fought early issues with election software and arguments if paper or electronic ballots should be used, the Democrats at Cottonwood High School opened their convention with a few minutes of meditating. Later, a candidate for U.S. Senate sang his pitch to delegates.

Still, as the convention dragged into its sixth hour, plus several hours of mingling with candidates at their booths beforehand, fatigue began to set in.

In the end, Caroline Gleich becomes the third woman to win a nomination from one of the two major parties in Utah history. During her speech, she credited Ted Wilson — who died earlier this month — for setting her on a path to politics when she worked for him in Gov. Gary Herbert’s administration.

“He taught me how to take my seat at the table — at the head of the table — and how to bring together people with differing viewpoints to create strong policy,” she said.

Gleich said, as a senator, she would fight to address housing affordability and homelessness, move to clean energy to stem the climate crisis, promote good jobs across the state and “fiercely defend reproductive freedom.”

“This issue is deeply personal to me,” she said. “A year and a half ago, I froze my eggs and embryos and they are in a freezer in Provo, and the latest Republican attacks on IVF are sickening. As Utahns, we are tired of being political pawns in these increasingly extremist games. It’s time that we get the government to stop policing our bodies, our bathrooms and books.”

Rudy Bautista received 65% of the vote to be the attorney general candidate. Bautista, who ran as the Libertarian Party’s nominee in 2022, will go against the eventual Republican nominee. Frank Mylar, Rachel Terry and Derek Brown are vying for that spot.

“We constantly see the attorney general take the puppet position of doing whatever the legislature, the governor wants. Well, they pass laws all the time that are unconstitutional. They pass laws all the time that take our individual freedoms,” Bautista said. “As attorney general, I will not stand for that. I will not just go into court and defend the legislature’s positions.”

In a contested race for state House District 23 — a Salt Lake City seat currently held by Rep. Brian King — Hoang Nguyen, a restaurateur and co-owner of a medical cannabis dispensary, beat out Jeff Howell, a tech consultant and former congressional staffer. Both candidates had already gathered enough signatures to qualify for the June primary.

Claudia Bigler, the artistic director for Cache Children’s Choir, beat out Chris Reid to run against Republican Thomas Peterson for state House District 1.

King, Catherine Voutaz and Neil Hansen are the party’s uncontested nominees for governor, state auditor and treasurer, respectively.

Voutaz said in her nearly 30 years of being an accountant, one thing she learned is that there must be “trusted oversight,” and added Utah has a legislature without “real” oversight.

Bill Campbell was the uncontested nominee in the 1st Congressional District and Glenn Wright was the uncontested nominee in the 3rd District.

The crowd cheered when Wright mentioned Republicans at the Salt Palace were celebrating former President Donald Trump.

“Trump can kiss my a–-,” he said.