A special election was held in the 3rd Congressional District of Utah for the U.S. House of Representatives. Provo Mayor John Curtis (R) defeated Kathie Allen (D) by 32 percentage points in the election to replace Jason Chaffetz (R), who resigned from office on June 30, 2017.^[1]^[2]

The general election featured a total of six candidates, including Libertarian Joe Buchman, Independent American candidate Jason Christensen, independent Sean Whalen, and United Utah Party candidate Jim Bennett faced each other for the seat.

A Republican primary was held on August 15, 2017, with John Curtis securing the nomination.^[3] Curtis took a plurality of the votes and won with 40.5 percent.

A total of 22 candidates, including 13 Republicans and three Democrats, initially declared their intent to run for Chaffetz's seat. The Democratic and Republican state party conventions were held on June 17, 2017. Kathie Allen won the Democratic Party's nomination and Christopher Herrod won that of the Republican Party.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

Election Updates

Polls: Curtis led his primary competitors, according to a poll released by Dan Jones & Associates on August 11, 2017.^[9]
Spending: As of August 15, 2017, six organizations have made independent expenditures totaling more than $880,000 in the race. The plurality of satellite spending—approximately 28 percent—went to opposition ads and direct mail campaigns against Curtis.
Most recent endorsement: Herrod was endorsed by Club for Growth on August 4, 2017.

What were the big questions for voters heading into November 7?

Will we see Democratic spending in the general election?
Will John Curtis' campaign strategy change between the primary and the general?

The special election was the sixth special election to the U.S. House in 2017 and the first special election for a U.S. House seat in Utah since 1930. Chaffetz was the first member of Congress in the state's history to announce a resignation from Congress.^[10] The district was ranked by The Cook Political Report as the 16th most Republican congressional district in the country.^[11] Further, Republicans have won the seat in every general election between 1998 and 2017 with a margin of victory of at least 25 percent, making the Republican convention and primary focal points of the special election.

Utah's 3rd Congressional District is located in the eastern portion of the state and includes Carbon, Emery, Grand, San Juan, and Wasatch counties as well as portions of Salt Lake and Utah counties.^[12]

Candidate Filing Deadline	Major Party Conventions	Primary Voter Registration Deadline	Postmark for primary mail-in ballots	Primary Election	General Election
May 26, 2017 (registered parties) and June 12, 2017 (unaffiliated)	June 17, 2017	August 8, 2017	August 14, 2017	August 15, 2017	November 7, 2017

Profiles of Republican primary candidates

The candidates listed below are in alphabetical order.

Tanner Ainge (R)

Political newcomer Tanner Ainge qualified for the Republican primary ballot after collecting 7,000 signatures from registered Republicans in the district.^[13] He attended Brigham Young University and Northwestern University School of Law, and worked in the healthcare industry and consulting after a two-year mission in Ghana. Name recognition from his father, former professional athlete and Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge, and spending from the newly formed Conservative Utah super PAC, boosted his campaign.^[14]^[15]

According to his campaign website, reducing the national debt and taxes, protecting freedom of religion, and replacing the Affordable Care Act were policy priorities.^[16] He wrote in an op-ed for Deseret News, "On a daily basis, I experience firsthand how the federal government imposes burdensome red tape, a complex tax code and crushing regulations. In almost every instance, these burdens do more harm than good and result in less growth, fewer jobs and greater barriers to entry for small business. I want to take action today to get government out of the way so that our private sector can thrive and create more opportunity."^[17]

John Curtis (R)

Provo City Mayor John Curtis qualified for the Republican primary ballot after collecting more than 7,000 signatures from registered Republicans in the district.^[18] With an early endorsement from Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) and a double-digit lead in primary polls, Curtis was considered the frontrunner.

He listed reducing government spending, public lands management, simplifying the tax code, and modifying the Affordable Care Act as primary policy concerns.^[19] "Washington is broken, but our local politics are working. I’ve done the hard work. I cut taxes and shrank government, and now Provo is booming. This is my message to Washington about conservative governance. It works!" Curtis wrote in an op-ed.^[20]

Christopher Herrod (R)

Former state legislator Christopher Herrod advanced to the Republican primary after winning the party's convention, where he defeated 11 other Republicans by securing support from a majority of the convention delegates on the fifth ballot of voting.^[21] He previously served in the Utah House of Representatives, representing District 62 from his 2007 appointment to 2013.

Herrod, a self-described "unconventional conservative," advocated self-imposed term limits, repealing the Affordable Care Act, addressing illegal immigration, and shifting rulemaking authority to the legislature on his campaign website.^[22] He emphasized his stance on immigration during his candidacy announcement, saying, "Nobody has represented the voices of the legal immigrants or the working class that are getting crushed by illegal immigration. I've done that in the past."^[23]

Paths to the ballot

Candidates had the option of collecting signatures or participating in a party convention to qualify for the Democratic or Republican primary ballot. Both parties had rules specifically governing the primary process for special elections that ensured that only one candidate could advance from each convention.^[24] In the Democratic Party, the candidate receiving the most votes from delegates advances to the primary, regardless of the margin.^[25] In the Republican Party, a candidate must receive votes from more than 50 percent of delegates to advance to the primary election.^[26] If no candidates successfully qualify for the primary ballot via the signature-gathering process, the candidate advancing from the party's convention will automatically represent that party in the general election.^[27]

Prior to the passage of Utah's SB-54 in 2014, candidates could only represent a party on a primary or general election ballot if they qualified through a recognized party's convention. SB-54 amended state law to allow candidates to be listed on the primary ballot for congressional races if they received 7,000 validated signatures from constituents. State law requires signatures to be submitted to the state for validation by the filing deadline for unaffiliated candidates, which for this race was June 12.^[28] Unaffiliated candidates qualify for the general election ballot by collecting a minimum of 300 verified signatures from constituents.^[27]

Party	Republican	Democratic	Libertarian	Independent American
Convention date	June 17, 2017	June 17, 2017	June 10, 2017	June 16, 2017

Candidates

General election candidates

John Curtis (Republican) a
Kathie Allen (Democrat)
Joe Buchman (Libertarian)
Jason Christensen (Independent American)
Sean Whalen (Independent)
Jim Bennett (Independent)

Primary and convention candidates

Democrats

Kathie Allen a - Doctor and former congressional aide
Benjamin Frank - Animal rights and anti-war activist
Carl Ingwell - Founder of Utah Clean Air Now!

Withdrawn

Faeiza Javed - Vice chairwoman of the Salt Lake County Democratic Party

Third party candidates

Jim Bennett (United Utah Party)
Joe Buchman (Libertarian) a - Author and chairfman of the Libertarian Party of Utah
Jason Christensen (Independent American) a - Activist and former candidate
Aaron Heineman (Independent American)
Russell Roesler (Independent) - Write-in candidate^[4]
Sean Whalen (Independent) - Unaffiliated candidate^[4]

Republicans

Tanner Ainge - Business executive and attorney (primary participant via signature-gathering)
Debbie Aldrich - Activist with the Conservative Political Action Conference
John Curtis a - Provo City mayor (primary participant via signature-gathering)
Brad Daw - Former member of Utah House
Margaret Dayton - Member of Utah Senate
Paul David Fife - U.S. Department of Defense contractor
Deidre Henderson - Member of Utah Senate^[4]^[29]
Christopher Herrod - Former member of Utah House of Representatives (primary participant via convention)
Damian Kidd - Attorney and former congressional intern
Keith Kuder - Former campaign aide to Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-3) and Utah Sen. Mike Lee
Mike Leavitt - Activist for veterans and POWs of the Vietnam War
Stewart Peay - Attorney and former National Guard intelligence officer
Shayne Row - Former IRS tax assessment agent

Withdrawn

Jeremy Friedbaum- Former U.S. Senate candidate

Election results

U.S. House, Utah's 3rd Congressional District general election, November 7, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	John Curtis	58%	85,751
	Democratic	Kathie Allen	25.6%	37,801
	UUT	Jim Bennett	9.3%	13,747
	Independent	Sean Whalen	3.1%	4,554
	Libertarian	Joe Buchman	2.5%	3,644
	Independent American	Jason Christensen	1.5%	2,286
Total Votes				147,783
Source: Lieutenant Governor's Office

U.S. House, Utah's 3rd Congressional District Republican primary, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	John Curtis	43.3%	31,481
	Republican	Christopher Herrod	32.6%	23,686
	Republican	Tanner Ainge	24.2%	17,565
Total Votes				72,732
Source: Lieutenant Governor's Office

Who is weighing in on this race, and what are they saying?

Satellite spending

As of August 15, 2017, six organizations made independent expenditures totaling more than $880,000 in the race. The plurality of that spending—approximately 28 percent—went to opposition ads and direct mail campaigns against Curtis.^[30]

Club for Growth Action spent nearly $300,000 on digital media and television ads to oppose Curtis and Ainge and support Herrod.

Conservative Utah, a super PAC formed in July 2017, spent more than $240,000 on ad buys, media production, and direct mail campaigns for Ainge.

Jobs, Freedom, and Security PAC spent $30,000 to support Herrod.

National Horizon spent $214,000 on media production and direct mail campaigns to support Herrod and oppose Curtis.

Senate Conservatives Action spent approximately $95,000 on a media buy for Herrod.

Senate Conservatives Fund spent $1,200 on Herrod.

Race background

Timeline

	2018 → ← 2016
	; ; Utah's 3rd Congressional District
	Major Party Conventions ; June 17, 2017
	Primary Date ; August 15, 2017
	General Election Date ; November 7, 2017
	Election Winner: ; John Curtis
	Incumbent prior to the election: ; Jason Chaffetz
	2017-2018 Special Elections

See also: Timeline of Utah's 3rd Congressional District special election, 2017

The timeline below summarizes the most recent noteworthy events in this election.

District overview

Utah's 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from Northwestern to Southeastern Utah, had a total population of 743,301 as of 2015. The district was 90.6 percent white, higher than the national average of 76.9 percent. The percentage of the district's population that identified as African-American / Black (0.6 percent), and Asian (2.1 percent) were below their respective national averages, while the percentage who identified as Natives of North America, Alaska, and Pacific Islands (2.3 percent) exceeded the national average (1.5 percent). The district's median household income was above the national average, $66,007 to $53,889, and the district has a slightly lower percentage of residents without health insurance, 9.3 percent to 10.5 percent. The district's population had a higher percentage of high-school graduates, 93.4 percent to 86.7 percent, and individuals with at least a bachelor's degree, 39.6 percent to 29.8 percent, than the respective national averages.

Party conventions

Democratic Party rules called for a single ballot, with the candidate receiving the most delegate votes being named the winner. Kathie Allen received support from 76 percent of the delegates and advanced to the general election on November 7, 2017.

Republican Party rules called for delegates to vote until a candidate received support from a majority of the delegates. Christopher Herrod, former member of the Utah House of Representatives, won the convention on the fifth ballot. The following graphic indicates the vote tallies for each ballot.

Debates

July 11, 2017, Republican debate

A Republican primary debate sponsored by Americans for Prosperity was held on July 11, 2017. All three primary candidates—Provo Mayor John Curtis, former state legislator Chris Herrod, and business executive Tanner Aing—participated.^[31]