Former NFL player and President Trump supporter Burgess Owens won the Republican primary in Utah’s 4th Congressional District.
Owens beat out fellow Republican state Rep. Kim Coleman, Jay Mcfarland, and Trent Christensen in the race on Tuesday, and he will face Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams in the general election this November.
“I am so grateful for all the support we’ve received. Friends from across the country, countless hours from volunteers have united behind our message of the American Dream. We are feeling good about the results we’ve seen so far, thank you for your support everyone!” Owens tweeted.
I am so grateful for all the support we’ve received. Friends from across the country, countless hours from volunteers have united behind our message of the American Dream. We are feeling good about the results we’ve seen so far, thank you for your support everyone!
— Burgess Owens (@BurgessOwens) July 1, 2020
”I think the district understands not only how important our vote is [but] that by being engaged this time around we can literally be the linchpin that saves our country,” he said, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The former safety for the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders established himself as a conservative politician and supporter of the president in the run-up to Tuesday’s election.
He has been vocal in denouncing the violent protests and riots that have broken out in recent weeks following the death of George Floyd in police custody on Memorial Day. Owens has also made noted comments denouncing the NFL and its acceptance of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s activism with the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We have too many Americans now accepting the notion that the flag should be a place where people should be ashamed of or take a knee, that’s what it comes down to,” Owens said earlier this month.
“We’re willing to have the distraction of a Marxist, a Castro, brother-loving Marxist to come back and play that many Americans don’t want to see him play,” he said of Kaepernick.
In a video interview with the Washington Examiner earlier this year, Owens said he stands for the national anthem because it stands for him.
“My message to Colin Kaepernick is learn your history,” he said. “Karl Marx says something very simply back in the 1800s, and that’s showing itself true today, and that’s the first battleground is the rewriting of history. [The flag] represents everything that we as Americans want to have.”
Owens’s opponent for the House seat, McAdams, is described as a “blue dog Democrat” by the Hill. He flipped the district in 2018 after Trump won voters’ support in the 2016 election.
“We’re very, very excited,” Owens said when early numbers came in. “This is a district that both parties need — the Democrats need it to keep their chaos, and we need it to keep our country and our culture.”
