In June, voters will choose between three candidates vying for the Republican nomination in Utah’s 1st Congressional District race. If 2020 is any indication, the primary outcome will differ from the delegates’ top choice at April’s state GOP convention.
The June 28 primary winner will then go on to face Democrat Rick Jones this November. But the 1st District leans so heavily Republican that November’s election usually feels like an afterthought.
Who are the players?
At 41, one-term incumbent Blake Moore has set his sights on possible committee leadership slots in a GOP-dominated House if voters give him a second term.
“What my challengers don’t realize is that I’m actually running on my record, I’m doubling down and I wouldn’t change a thing,” Moore said by phone last Wednesday evening from Washington D.C., between votes on the House floor and his next committee hearing.
However, the anti establishment delegates attending this year’s state Republican convention didn’t buy what Moore had to sell. Instead, they favored newcomer Andrew Badger who delivered enough fiery rhetoric to snag 59.2 percent of the vote – just shy of the 60 percent threshold to eliminate Moore.
Badger – who chose not to participate in a phone interview for this story – notes on his campaign website that he had worked as a civilian intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) under then-General Mike Flynn, who later served briefly as Pres. Donald Trump’s national security adviser. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in 2017 during the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Trump pardoned him in November 2020.
“I believe we are fighting to restore our ancient right to liberty – bestowed upon us by our founders and stolen from us by a corrupt D.C. establishment,” Badger said, rousing cheers from supporters at the convention. “We are fighting for the American way of life … and it’s up to us to save our country.”
While convention results left the door open for both Badger and Moore to advance to the primary, Moore and longtime Republican Tina Cannon also had gathered enough voter signatures to secure spots on the June ballot.
A group of vocal delegates had heckled Moore and Cannon during their convention speeches.
“I’ve been the sergeant at arms before – and I’ve never seen that kind of behavior,” Cannon said, noting that in past years, candidates would be penalized if their supporters were openly hostile and vitriolic.
However, she said she recognized “real anger” but preferred to focus on solutions rather than to feed that fire.
“I’ve experienced it as I’ve gone around the 1st District and met with people and done events,” Cannon said. “They’re very frustrated with the economics of what’s happening.”
Farmers and ranchers in particular are feeling that squeeze, Cannon added. “They’re now working one to two jobs, and putting all of that money back into their ranch to try to keep it going. And they’re eating a lot of those costs that are not yet being passed on to the consumer but (soon) will be,” she said.
For Moore, delegates had favored Kerry Gibson at the 2020 convention, but Moore emerged with the primary win and ultimately the seat..
“My message is a message of substance. That doesn’t play well in a fiery stump speech – and a lot of times that’s what convention-goers love to hear,” Moore said. “It’s about representation and oftentimes convention isn’t exactly representative of the larger primary voting group.”
Money matters
Federal campaign finance reports ending April 30 showed the incumbent Moore – an Ogden native and former Heisman High School award-winning athlete – with a significant stash of cash. Both Badger and Cannon had contributed funding to their own more meager war chests.
Moore had received $930,622 in contributions – with roughly half that amount coming from individual donors. And by the end of April, his campaign logged $418,568 in expenses.
“We’re thrilled with the amount of support we have – both in the breadth and number of donors,” Moore said by phone, pointing to smaller donations as being the most meaningful in terms of voter buy-in.
“I love it when somebody in Rich County consistently sends me $25 a quarter,” Moore said. “That’s one of the neatest things – and one of the more motivating things that you get.”
Badger brought in $45,250 by April 30, with $31,600 coming from 17 individuals, some of them relatives. Dave and Frieda Nattress gave a combined total of $11,600.
Badger contributed $11,500 of his own funds. By the end of April his campaign had spent $28,355.
According to Badger’s campaign website, he graduated from Timpview High School in 2005. The far-right conservative also earned degrees from Harvard University and the University of Oxford.
By April 30, Cannon brought in $105,142, of which $81,606 she loaned to her campaign. A total of $20,250 came in itemized donations from 14 donors. Her campaign had spent $63,258 by the end of April.
Cannon – a tax accountant and former Morgan City Councilmember – ran unsuccessfully for the 1st Congressional seat in 2020 after longtime Congressman Rob Bishop retired. He has endorsed her in this race.
Cannon acknowledged that she knew going in she’d have to use a chunk of her own money.
“I’m very careful with other people’s money and I don’t take on a sitting incumbent lightly,” Cannon said. “So I felt it was important to put my money where my mouth was.”
As the lone woman in the race, Cannon said she felt it was important to run, because “All the cultural battles are women’s issues right now, especially in the Republican party,”
On the Issues
These candidates detail their experience and stance on key issues on their campaign websites.
Andrew Badger: https://www.badger2022.com/
Tina Cannon: https://tinacannon.com/
Blake Moore: https://electmoore.com/
For this story, we asked them two specific issue questions. Both Moore and Cannon made time for phone interviews, while Badger did not. Badger also received the two questions by text, but did not respond.
Do you support an all-out abortion ban?
Moore: “As I understand the Utah law that would go into effect, it would allow abortions in circumstances of rape, incest and health of the mother. I’m supportive of that.”
Moore noted that he’s both pro-life and pro-adoption, and serves as a board member for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, which helps place foster children in permanent homes.
“I want to be a strong voice for adoption. How we can bulk up that type of work is something that matters to me,” Moore said.
Cannon: “It is never wrong to educate a woman — and that’s about all her health choices, whether she’s in a crisis situation or she wants to prevent one from happening.”
Cannon – a mother of four – believes the current abortion litigation is more about states rights than an outright ban without exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
“We need to be more respectful in the way we approach the issue,” Cannon said. “At 54, I have lived the equivalent of 72 pregnancies, so I approach this a little differently.”
Some military families struggle to make ends meet. What would you do to help those at Hill Air Force Base?
Moore: “You have a tough situation because of the federal bureaucracy that exists with locality pay. HAFB families are already hit hard by locality pay that isn’t congruent to the cost of living and particularly housing in the Utah area, especially Davis-Weber. And it’s only increased.”
Moore noted that Congress is working on several workforce initiatives through the National Defense Authorization Act. “But those are not immediate solutions,” he added.
His team participated in a Share the Love event in February where the Utah Farm Bureau helped deliver food to military families. And during “meet and greet” events, they’ve also included an associated food drive.
“But to truly fix the issue, we need to fix locality pay so we have an ability to get people compensated adequately for each of the areas in which they live,” Moore said.
Cannon: “My father-in-law was an Air Force vet … My husband moved 18 times before he graduated from high school. So he has been that family.”
Cannon believes it comes down to cooperation between federal, state and local officials to provide those necessary resources for families. She also pointed to the differences in professional licensing state-to-state that block some military spouses from continuing to work in their chosen career fields as they move around.
“I’m not a big fan of the public/private partnership of (leased) housing at HAFB,” Cannon added, pointing to home ownership as a key to building wealth. “I’m a bigger fan of providing a stipend so they can purchase locally. But you have to rate and scale it for the market they’re in.”
Both Cannon and Moore have direct family ties to HAFB. Moore’s wife, Jane Boyer, is connected to Boyer Hill Military Housing, while Cannon’s husband works for Aerospace Corporation and serves as technical advisor for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program at Hill.
What happens next?
Over the next few weeks, these three candidates will be actively campaigning in some way, shape or form.
“We’re doing events across the district,” Cannon said, noting three that took place Saturday in different counties. “It’s good old-fashioned politicking … social media, phone calls by volunteers, walking through neighborhoods, delivering of signs, TV commercials … we’re doing an all-of-the-above approach.”
Moore continues to divide his time between Washington, D.C. and Utah while Congress is in session.
“We will use our campaign money wisely. I’m a frugal person. You’ll see TV, radio, billboards, mailers, things like that. But we’ll also do direct campaign-related town halls, trying to speak with voters,” Moore said. During the last week of May and first week of June, his campaign has meet-and-greets planned in all eight counties, “from Rich to Salt Lake and everywhere in between,” Moore added.
In order to vote in the June 28 Republican primary, voters needed to officially change the affiliation on their voter registration to Republican by March 31.
Active registered voters should begin receiving their June 28 primary ballots by mail shortly after June 7. Find more details at vote.utah.gov.
