SALT LAKE CITY — Last month, Claire McGuire relocated to Utah from Iowa to begin assembling a massive team of volunteers responsible for mobilizing 4th District voters for Democrat Doug Owens, who once again is challenging GOP Rep. Mia Love.
McGuire, who is being paid by the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is setting up what she says will be a field operation worth $1.5 million, twice as much as Owens spent in his close race against Love in 2014.
Owens, the son of the late Democratic congressman from Utah, Wayne Owens, didn't have any help in that election from the national party and still managed to come within just over three points of beating the much better-known Love.
"That part of what dissuaded them last time from helping Doug at all, the fact that she has ridiculous name ID, that she can raise so much money," McGuire said. "That's why Doug had to prove himself last time, and he did."
Andrew Roberts, Owens' campaign manager, said he expects to spend $2.5 million this election on top of the assistance the national party is providing as part of its "Red to Blue" program through the Utah Democratic Party.
That's significantly more than the $800,000 Owens raised in 2014. But it's still much less than the $5 million-plus Love was able to amass after losing her own high-profile bid in 2012 to unseat Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, who retired in 2014.
And while Love, the first black GOP woman in Congress, hasn't been designated for similar help from the National Republican Congressional Committee, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, has already held a fundraiser for her in Salt Lake City.
Ryan, now being talked about as possibly emerging as the Republican Party's presidential nominee from a contested national convention in July, serves as Love's official mentor in Congress.
"Obviously, the speaker has great interest in this race," Dave Hansen, Love's campaign manager, said. "He has pledged to do whatever he can to help get her re-elected."
Hansen said the national party is providing advice on strategy, fundraising and other elements of the campaign. But he said Love hasn't asked for help with field operations and no one has been sent out by the national party to provide any.
He's also not willing to discuss the campaign's budget other than promising they'll spend "what it takes to win," which may or may not be more than it took to defeat Owens in 2014.
The national Democratic support Owens is getting, Hansen said, won't last. "Once they realize it can't be made into a race, they'll move on to another state, and another race," he predicted.
Republican support
Four years ago, when Love took on a six-term incumbent, the national GOP stepped up in a big way, giving her a coveted prime-time speaking spot at the Republican National Convention that formally nominated Mitt Romney for president.
The 2012 race also saw a parade of big names appearing on Love's behalf in Utah, including Ryan; the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain; and then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Utah voters weren't sure what to make of all of that attention from Washington, D.C.
"There was a concern that people would think she was going to be some sort of a starlet going back there, a celebrity," said Hansen, who was brought in to run Love's 2014 campaign.
He determined then she didn't need "all that glamour and attention she received in 2012." This year's election, Hansen said, will show "she's not, by design, become this celebrity.… she's become a good, solid, hard-working member of Congress."
Candidates always have to be careful about being associated with national partisan politics, especially in the West, said Chris Karpowitz, co-director of the Brigham Young University Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.
Utah and other Western states "have long had a sense of some distance, not just geographically, from Washington, D.C., and wanting to be independent," Karpowitz said. "I do think there's a distrust of Washington, D.C."
In a GOP-dominated state like Utah, Democrats run into the most trouble with their national party, he said, noting Matheson "was careful to position himself as a moderate and someone who would break with the national Democrats if necessary."
To win in Utah, Democratic candidates need votes from independent and moderate Republicans, Karpowitz said. "The way to win as a Democrat is to make that more centrist approach."
Owens is following Matheson's lead and staying out of Democratic presidential politics, including skipping the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this summer.
He also choose not to vote at his neighborhood caucus last month in the race between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and won't commit to voting for the Democratic nominee in November.
"The only thing that matters to him is getting elected to the 4th," said Taylor Morgan, Owens' campaign spokesman. "He's not concerned about who wins the White House. Really."
But given the enthusiasm for Sanders in Utah, Morgan said the campaign was nervous about how Owens' position would play. Sanders attracted huge crowds to campaign events in Salt Lake and easily won the caucus vote.
"Let's be honest. We were worried about that," Morgan said. "We had volunteers at all the caucuses in the 4th and many beyond, and Doug didn't cast a ballot in the caucuses and hasn't endorsed a Democrat."
None of that stopped Owens' campaign from signing up more than 1,500 volunteers on caucus night, McGuire said. "I was expecting maybe tops, 1,000, so that was a pretty amazing turnout."
The ground game
After spending six years working on campaigns in Iowa, McGuire said she's been struck by how excited Utahns are about the rematch between Owens and Love. "People are so jazzed and starved for a competitive Democratic race," she said.
Recent fundraising emails from Love's campaign claimed Owens had endorsed Clinton, who barely won 20 percent of the caucus vote. Hansen said it was a mistake made by a company hired to solicit contributions that was quickly corrected.
Morgan called the emails "an effective strategy on their part to label Doug. And frankly, the worst label in Utah is Democrat." Roberts said it won't matter who the party's nominee is because "any Democrat hurts us at the top of the ticket."
Utah pollster Dan Jones said that may be true for Republican candidates this year, too. The GOP front-runner, controversial billionaire businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump is even more unpopular with Utah voters than Clinton.
A Deseret News/KSL poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates last month found that Utahns would vote for a Democrat for president for the first time since 1964 if Trump is the GOP nominee in November.
That possible lack of excitement for either party's nominee makes the so-called ground game to get out the vote even more important for both Love and Owens, Jones said.
"It's really going to be on that side, who gets their people out," he said. "You have to have the foot soldiers."
Jason Perry, head of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, said Owens has an opportunity to "show he can provide a home for those Republicans who are not feeling comfortable with Donald Trump."
Perry said the national GOP is monitoring the anti-Trump effect in states around the country. Love's seat in Utah, he said, is a priority for national party officials who will step up should her re-election bid run into trouble.
"Republicans are dead set on making sure they maintain it," he said. "Democrats, with some effort, some money and some messaging, they may have a chance to take it."
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