After two long weeks of counting votes, and counting more votes, and counting even more votes, election results were finalized by Utah’s counties on Tuesday and the competitive 4th District race was called for Democrat Ben McAdams. The result bookended an unpredictable and at-times nasty campaign between McAdams and Republican Rep. Mia Love, with polling and early vote totals ping-ponging back and forth between the two candidates.
With McAdams' election, Utah will have a Democratic representative in Washington for the first time in four years. But his election depended on a bipartisan base of support, an unpopular president, and a medical marijuana initiative that brought new voters to the polls.