Utah 2020 Election Results

Utah held its general election on November 3, 2020, deciding 90 legislative seats and 5 statewide offices led by the governorship. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Republicans kept their two-thirds supermajorities in both chambers, with Democrats netting one seat, and Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox (R) won Utah's first open governor's race in nearly three decades.
• Cox beat Christopher Peterson (D) by more than 30 points to succeed Gov. Gary Herbert, who chose not to seek reelection. The race was less a contest than a statement of tone: the two nominees appeared together in an ad urging that Utahns can disagree without hating each other, and on election night Peterson thanked Cox for a respectful campaign.
• Democrats' lone gain came in House District 38, where Ashlee Matthews (D) unseated the House's longest-serving Republican, Eric Hutchings (R), by about 400 votes. In other House races, late-counted ballots widened narrow Republican edges and eroded early Democratic leads, leaving a string of near-misses:
  • Steve Eliason (R) held House District 45 over Wendy Davis (D) by fewer than 80 votes.
  • Jim Dunnigan (R) kept House District 39 over Lynette Wendel (D) by fewer than 90 votes.
  • Craig Hall (R) held on in House District 33 over Fatima Dirie (D) by about 150 votes.
  Democrats also narrowly kept the open House District 22, where Clare Collard (D) beat Anthony Loubet (R) by fewer than 300 votes.
• Republicans swept the other statewide offices: Deidre Henderson (R) was elected lieutenant governor on Cox's ticket, Attorney General Sean Reyes (R), Treasurer David Damschen (R), and John Dougall (R), state auditor since 2013, won new terms.
• Of the 90 legislative races, no other incumbent lost, the Senate's partisan split was unchanged, and the 4 House races above were the only ones decided by less than two points.
• Voters approved all 7 constitutional amendments on the ballot, including Amendment C, which removed the slavery exception for criminal punishment, and Amendment G, which changed how education is funded by letting the state's Education Fund also pay for programs serving children and people with disabilities; it drew the most opposition of the group. The others: Amendment A (gender-neutral language), Amendment B (legislator age qualifications), Amendment D (municipal water), Amendment E (right to hunt and fish), and Amendment F (session start date).

Legislature

• House (75 seats): 16 D, 58 R, 1 other or vacant before the election, 17 D, 58 R after; control stayed with Republicans.
• Senate (29 seats): 6 D, 23 R before the election, 6 D, 23 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Statewide races

Legislative races

Ballot measures