{"id":2082,"date":"2026-06-19T06:41:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T06:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=2082"},"modified":"2026-06-19T06:41:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T06:41:27","slug":"the-kind-of-democrat-utahns-want-to-send-to-washington-d-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=2082","title":{"rendered":"The kind of Democrat Utahns want to send to Washington, D.C."},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>KEY POINTS<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Ben McAdams has raised $2 million, compared to Nate Blouin&#8217;s $644,000, Liban Mohamed\u2019s $288,000 and Michael Farrell\u2019s $43,000.<\/li>\n<li>A pro-AI innovation super PAC has spent more than $1 million on advertisements in support of McAdams, ranking third-highest in country.<\/li>\n<li>Blouin, Mohamed and Farrell have put forward a progressive agenda of free healthcare and childcare funded by taxing billionaires.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Utah is about to learn what kind of Democrat the newly created 1st Congressional District will send to Washington, D.C., with the first test for the House seat pairing big money with a bold lurch to the left for the Beehive State.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=2080\">Opinion: As we celebrate Juneteenth, let\u2019s also celebrate the courageous woman who made it possible<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The four Democratic primary contenders have repeated liberal talking points, often veering into economic populism, reflecting confidence that a Utah district where Kamala Harris won by 24 points is ready to leap into progressive politics. <\/p>\n<p>As state Sen. Nate Blouin competes with 27-year-old tech policy advocate Liban Mohamed and self-funded attorney Michael Farrell over the democratic socialist lane, former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams has secured establishment support.<\/p>\n<p>This has translated into a huge fundraising advantage, with McAdams pulling in nearly $2 million, including $368,500 over the past two months, dwarfing Blouin\u2019s total of $644,000, Mohamed\u2019s $288,000 and Farrell\u2019s $43,000.<\/p>\n<p>Utah\u2019s rare competitive Democratic primary has also become a proving ground for artificial intelligence special interests, as political action committee money floods voters with more ads, texts and mail than they know what do with. <\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, 1st District Democrats \u2014 plus the Republican and unaffiliated voters who requested a ballot in the open primary \u2014 will send a message about the representation they want during a tumultuous moment for the country.<\/p>\n<h3>What messaging tells us<\/h3>\n<p>According to Robert Jensen, a Democratic voter in Sugarhouse who has already cast his ballot, the 1st District nominee should be able to address Democrats\u2019 two biggest concerns: federal dysfunction and executive overreach. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think both of those are important \u2014 you\u2019ve got to be able to work with the other side, or politics doesn\u2019t work, but you\u2019ve also gotta be willing to take a stand and fight for what we\u2019re trying to get in our agenda,\u201d Jensen said. <\/p>\n<p>This is the balance McAdams has been trying to strike from the beginning of his campaign: touting his vote to impeach President Donald Trump in 2019 \u2014 which may have cost him his reelection in 2020 \u2014 and his eagerness to reach across the aisle.<\/p>\n<p>While his opponents echo the anti-capitalist rhetoric of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, McAdams recognizes \u201cUtah progressives,\u201d not \u201cSan Francisco progressives,\u201d will decide his race, Utah political strategist Reed Galen said.<\/p>\n<p>Convention delegates who narrowly nominated Mohamed over McAdams in April, are about as representative of the primary-voting electorate as those who call into radio talk shows are of the audience, Galen told the Deseret News.<\/p>\n<p>A fundraising advantage frees McAdams from relying on the activist base, according to the Lincoln Project co-founder. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoney doesn\u2019t buy you victory in politics, but it certainly does buy options \u2014 and he seems to have the most options right now,\u201d Galen said of McAdams. \u201cAnd you can see it in his messaging.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>McAdams\u2019 moderate tone combined with a campaign centered around pragmatic coalition-building on LGBTQ non-discrimination, affordable housing and the Great Salt Lake is exactly what appeals to Linda, a resident of Taylorsville. <\/p>\n<p>Linda, who did not want to share her last name, does not appreciate the name-calling or demonization rampant in both parties. She believes McAdams will find productive compromises in Congress like he did during his first term. <\/p>\n<p>But \u201call indications\u201d are that Utah\u2019s court-ordered 1st District is not so moderate, according to Josh Ryan, a professor of political science at Utah State University who researches Congress, redistricting and Utah politics. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe truth is, if the district is as Democratic as everyone believes it to be, McAdams would likely be too conservative for the district,\u201d he said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t the old 4th in which the legislator had to appeal to both Democrats and Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whether he likes it or not, McAdams is seen as the choice of the party \u201cestablishment,\u201d Ryan told the Deseret News. <\/p>\n<p>But that might be a calculation primary voters are willing to make to have a candidate who is more likely to get things done and who has a better chance at surviving the future redistricting battles that are sure to come, Ryan said. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=2078\">Will this be America\u2019s best birthday celebration, or perhaps, the worst?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>McAdams\u2019 opponents have done all they can to speak to the dissatisfaction of the district\u2019s Democratic demographic.<\/p>\n<p>Blouin, Farrell and Mohamed have each backed a similar vision of radical change, calling for tax hikes on wealthy Americans to fund Medicare for all, universal childcare and federal action to counter climate change. <\/p>\n<h3>Is big money a big deal? <\/h3>\n<p>This approach, reminiscent of New York City\u2019s socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani, is exactly what Murray resident Shaun Paddock was looking for. Her top issues include aggressive resistance to Trump and the elimination of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. <\/p>\n<p>After consulting candidates\u2019 campaign material, Paddock said she decided to vote for Mohamed. She said her red flag for McAdams came early as her mailbox and Instagram feed filled up day after day with super PAC-funded ads. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know who\u2019s bankrolling him but I\u2019m over it,\u201d she said. \u201cI think you can get your point across without spending.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Out-of-state PACs, which cannot legally coordinate with campaigns, have dropped more than $2.6 million on ad placements in support of McAdams this election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission filings. <\/p>\n<p>This includes more than $1 million from New Democrat Majority, which aims to elect \u201cpragmatic\u201d candidates focused on \u201ceconomic growth\u201d; and more than $1 million from Think Big, which backs \u201cpro-AI\u201d candidates. <\/p>\n<p>Think Big is part of the Leading the Future network funded with $100 million from OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and techno-optimist investor Andreessen Horowitz to limit government regulations that stunt rapid AI innovation. <\/p>\n<p>With the latest Think Big expenditure on Wednesday, McAdams became the third-ranking candidate in the country in terms of pro-AI innovation PAC money spent to support him, according to the Transformer campaign finance tracker.<\/p>\n<p>Special interest dollars pouring into the race is producing a response among Democratic voters skeptical of AI and Silicon Valley giants, said Jamie Carter, the outreach director at the pro-Democratic nonprofit DemCast. <\/p>\n<p>Up against the pressures of a party primary, McAdams has emphasized progressive stances on abortion and minimum wage, according to Carter. But she said voters are more interested in who is funding candidates\u2019 campaigns. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWanting big money out of our politics \u2026 that\u2019s where I think you\u2019ll see the backlash,\u201d Carter said. <\/p>\n<p>But, ultimately, the political realities of superior name recognition will likely rule the day, according to Matthew Burbank, a professor of political science at the University of Utah, who specializes in urban political participation. <\/p>\n<p>With every candidate emphasizing progressive views, the deciding factor in the 1st District race could be McAdams\u2019 name ID as a former representative, and the funds he has to reinforce that name ID, Burbank told the Deseret News. <\/p>\n<p>One Democratic voter, Sierra, said she is taking all of these factors into account before she votes next week. <\/p>\n<p>The Sugarhouse resident, who preferred not to share her last name, said since her activist youth she has become disenchanted with \u201c100% idealistic leftist candidates,\u201d because they rarely are able to bring about real change. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI see who aligns better with my politics, and then I try to look at it through a lens of who can actually win, and then who can actually get things done,\u201d Sierra said. <\/p>\n<p>The 1st District Democratic primary will take place on June 23. The district covers most of Salt Lake County \u2014 including Salt Lake City, West Valley City and Murray \u2014 but excludes the more Republican-leading southern part of the county. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=2076\">Sarah McLachlan reflects on her \u2018Toy Story\u2019 moment: \u2018One of the most beautiful songs ever written\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pro-AI PACs spent more than $1 million to support former Rep. Ben McAdams against progressive opponents Nate Blouin, Liban Mohamed and Michael Farrell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-utah"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The kind of Democrat Utahns want to send to Washington, D.C. - American Movers Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=2082\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The kind of Democrat Utahns want to send to Washington, D.C. - American Movers Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pro-AI PACs spent more than $1 million to support former Rep. 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