Democratic House Minority Whip Patrice Arent upset State Senate Majority Leader Steven Poulton Tuesday for the state's most contested legislative race.
The run for District 4, which spans Salt Lake City's southeast bench, set a record for the state's most expensive legislative campaign. Both sides spent about $100,000.
With all precincts reporting, Arent led 56-44 percent.
Arent's former House district was redistricted into another held by a Democratic incumbent. She chose to challenge Republican Poulton for the Senate seat instead of seeking re-election in the House against a member of her own party.
Even though Arent defeated a GOP incumbent, Republicans improved their Senate majority by two seats to 22-7 over Democrats.
In the House, Republicans also did better than expected, expanding their majority by five seats to 56-19.
"This has been a Republican year," said House Speaker Marty Stephens. "Nationwide, people are very supportive of the President."
One upset the Democrats did not expect was the defeat of Rep. Trisha Beck, D-Sandy, by 10 votes to Republican challenger LaVar Christensen.
In another state race, a political gamble by Eric Hutchings paid off in his bid for House district 38. Hutchings switched parties, becoming a Republican after his district was redrawn to include more GOP voters. With all precincts reporting, Hutchings beat Democrat Brad Allen 60-40 percent.
Even before ballots were cast, the outcome for nearly all races was set: Republicans were expected to continue their overwhelming dominance in both the state House and Senate. Democrats didn't even bother to run against Republicans in about one-fourth of the races.
There were 142 House and 33 Senate candidates running for a place in the 104-member Utah Legislature.
But more than one-fourth of all legislative races were unopposed — 23 seats in the House and one in the Senate. Sen. Paula Julander, D-Salt Lake City, was the only unopposed Democrat.
Ten of the unchallenged candidates were in Davis and Utah Counties.
State Democratic Party executive director Todd Taylor said his party — which was already outnumbered 20 to nine in the Senate and 51-24 in the House — was hurt by redistricting.
That, he said, was largely why so many Republicans went unchallenged.
"Quite frankly, when the numbers are so stacked against you it's hard to get someone to run," Taylor said.