Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) won his reelection bid on Tuesday, fending off a challenge from independent Evan McMullin in a tighter-than-expected race in the reliably red state.
Lee’s victory sets him up for a third term in the Beehive State, helping to secure the Republican Party’s influence over the state as it dominates both the Senate seats and all four House seats. Utah has elected only Republican senators to represent its state since 1977.
Congressional races in Utah don’t typically attract widespread attention, as the state has leaned strongly Republican for decades. However, the race between Lee and McMullin garnered national headlines after the Utah Democratic Party voted to buck its own candidate in favor of backing McMullin, a former Republican who left the party in defiance of former President Donald Trump.
McMullin won the backing of Democratic leaders after they voted in April to nix their candidate from the ballot, conceding the party would have an uphill battle trying to unseat an incumbent Republican senator in the reliably red state. The vote not to advance a candidate from their own party was a first-of-its-kind move aimed at shifting the balance of power in the state.
Lee faced his own challenges as he sought reelection. The Utah Republican was forced to reckon with his close relationship with Donald Trump, which came under scrutiny as the former president became the center of several criminal investigations into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
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However, the incumbent benefited from strong polling throughout the midterm cycle, consistently leading McMullin in the months leading up to the election.
Lee has mixed favorability ratings in the state, with 40% of Utahns approving of his job performance compared to 45% who disapprove, according to a September poll by Deseret News and the Hinckley Institute of Politics. The incumbent is popular among Republicans, as 57% of the state’s party members express approval of his performance — with that number jumping to 74% among those who identify as “very conservative.”
