Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs has conceded in his race against Jenny Wilson for Salt Lake County mayor.
In a Facebook post Thursday evening, Staggs wrote that given the latest ballot count, it was clear his campaign had come to an end.
“I have called Mayor Jenny Wilson to offer my congratulations and wish her well in her first full term,” the Republican candidate wrote. “I’m incredibly proud of the race we ran and the phenomenal effort of my team, donors, and supporters. With 200,000 phone calls, 70,000 door knocks, 4000 campaign signs, and 500,000 text messages sent directly to voters on top of mailers and advertising, I’m not sure there is much more that could have been done to change the results.”
As of 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the Salt Lake County Clerk’s Office reported Wilson at 54.55% of votes counted and Staggs at 42.62%. Green Party candidate Michael Cundick had 2.83%.
In a tweet, Wilson wrote that she’s looking forward to the next four years.
Wilson, a long-time council member, was facing her first mayoral test in a general election after Democratic Party delegates elected her as county mayor in 2019 in order to replace Ben McAdams, who was elected to Congress.
Wilson’s campaign declined to provide further comment.
While Wilson won a convincing victory and Council member Shireen Ghorbani was holding onto a lead in her reelection bid, Democrats running for two open County Council are falling further behind and it appears Republicans will retain their 5-4 majority.
Deborah Gatrell lagged Republican Dave Alvord, a former South Jordan mayor, by 9 points in District 2 and Terri Tapp Hrechkosy had a nearly 5 point gap to close with Republican Dea Theordore for District 6.
Ghorbani maintained a tight 3.8 percentage point edge over GOP challenger Laurie Stringham.
