Burgess Owens maintains his lead in Utah’s 4th Congressional District

Republican Burgess Owens maintained his lead over Rep. Ben McAdams for the fifth day in a row on Wednesday as new ballot results were posted from Salt Lake County.

Owens now has a 1,697 vote advantage over McAdams, with 47.50% of the vote to the Salt Lake City Democrat’s 47.03%. It may not be clear who’s won the race until the final canvass Nov. 17.

McAdams, the former Salt Lake County mayor, took the lead on Election Day and held onto it for much of last week. But Owens, a former NFL player and frequent Fox News commentator, pulled ahead Saturday and has remained the top vote getter since then. On Tuesday, he was ahead by 1,780 votes.

Voters in Utah’s 4th Congressional District are no stranger to long elections. The 2018 race between McAdams and Republican incumbent Rep. Mia Love lasted until the final canvass that takes place two weeks after ballots are cast, when McAdams ultimately won by fewer than 700 votes.

The 4th District straddles Salt Lake and Utah counties and also includes portions of the much smaller Juab and Sanpete counties. Owens has performed better in the latter three counties, while McAdams has earned a higher percentage of the votes in Salt Lake County, where he served as county mayor before his election to Congress.

But possibly spelling trouble for McAdams is that he’s seen his advantage in Salt Lake County dwindle over the past few days. While he was previously averaging about 54% of the vote from Salt Lake County, he had 51.93% on Wednesday. Owens has earned 42.54% of all votes in the county.

In the more conservative Utah County, McAdams has brought in 26.67% of the votes while Owens has earned 67.06%.

Utah County, which did not post any new ballots Wednesday, has previously estimated there were a few hundred votes remaining to be counted in the 4th Congressional District.

from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/32BgQMQ