Kathleen Anderson, a Republican activist, on Friday announced her bid to reclaim the 4th Congressional District for the GOP.
"I'm not a politician. I'm a conservative. I'm an outsider. And I'm ready to be a voice for those who are not being heard," Anderson said in YouTube video introducing her candidacy.
The congressional district is currently represented by U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams, a Democrat who unseated Republican Mia Love last year. Anderson, who has lived in Utah for 34 years, said in a news release that McAdams does not represent the state’s “traditional values” in Washington, D.C.
Her video is a bit more pointed, characterizing McAdams as a politician who "blindly follows an extreme liberal agenda."
Anderson, 51, wife of former state GOP party Chairman Rob Anderson, has never held elected office and calls herself a “conservative outsider.” As a Bountiful resident, she’s also an outsider to the 4th Congressional District, which follows Interstate 15 from Millcreek to just south of Nephi. (McAdams also lives outside the district.)
She has served as secretary of the Davis County Republican Party and, according to her LinkedIn page, has worked as the communications director for the Utah Republican Party. A short biography provided by her campaign said she attended Brigham Young University and then worked for about a decade in the insurance industry before leaving the private sector to raise her four children.
She’s the first Republican to enter the race for the hotly contested congressional seat. Utah Rep. Kim Coleman, a Republican from West Jordan, has also said she’s exploring a run.
Love, who served two terms before McAdams knocked her out by the thinnest of margins last year, has shown no indication of running for her old seat.
“She is presently not looking at the race but has not totally ruled out anything,” said Dave Hansen, a top adviser who helped run Love’s campaigns.
Anderson’s campaign staff said she is not ready to be interviewed and that the announcement video and news release “stand for themselves.” The authority line on the video indicates it was paid for by “Kathleen for Utah," but a search of that name on the Federal Election Commission website turned up no results.
An email from her campaign said she intends to open a campaign committee shortly in accordance with campaign finance regulations.
The only candidate currently registered with the FEC is McAdams, who reported $283,434 in his campaign account as of the last report, March 31.
