Rep. Burgess Owens will not run for reelection and will retire at the end of his third term, the Utah Republican announced in a statement on Wednesday.
“After prayer, reflection, and many long conversations, I have decided that I will not seek reelection in 2026,” Owens said in a statement. “I will complete this term fully committed to my work in Washington, D.C., and then step away from elected office.”
Owens’ retirement comes a week after a judge finalized the Utah congressional map for the 2026 midterm elections, establishing a heavily Democratic district and leaving the four Republicans to compete for the remaining three districts.
His departure will allow for Reps. Celeste Maloy and Mike Kennedy to each choose one of the two remaining districts, avoiding any messy incumbent-on-incumbent primaries. Maloy and Kennedy have not yet announced which districts they will run for.
Utah Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, has already begun collecting signatures to run in the newly redrawn 2nd District that encompasses much of northern Utah and contains most of his current district boundaries.
Moore, who holds the fifth-highest ranking leadership position in the House GOP Conference, has verified more than 4,000 signatures — more than half the 7,000 required to qualify for the ballot.
Owens’ tenure in the House
Owens was first elected to Utah’s House delegation in 2020 when he narrowly defeated Democratic incumbent Ben McAdams, flipping the former 4th District back into Republican control. Owens handily won reelection in 2022 and 2024 under the updated congressional map with a more solidly Republican 4th District, although that map was thrown out by a district judge last year.
Before being elected, Owens played professional football for the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders, winning the Super Bowl with the latter in 1980.
Owens focused much of his congressional career on education as a member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee as well as the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Owens was also a leading lawmaker in the effort to rename the congressional press gallery after abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
When elected, Owens became just one of four black Republicans to hold a seat in the House of Representatives. All four have since announced their retirement for next year or are seeking another office.
Retirement paves way for Utah elections to take shape
Owen’s retirement brings an end to a monthslong question among Utah Republicans about where to run in the new congressional map that cracked open Republicans’ stronghold in the Beehive State. Owens had been rumored to be considering a retirement at the end of this term, but Utah’s delegation had been silent on their decision until a map was finalized.
However, the group had been engaged in conversations about a path forward.
“We have a really great delegation that we all get together and think about the best way to approach anything,” Moore told the Deseret News. “So we’ll continue to do that.”
The new map creates a new district within Salt Lake County that the nonpartisan Cook Political Report has rated as a D+12. That race has attracted a crowded Democratic primary, giving the party a chance to flip a seat in Utah’s all-Republican delegation for the first time since 2018.
That race has also piqued national interest as Democratic groups say Utah’s new 1st District could be key to flipping the House majority in November.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the main campaign arm for House Democrats, previously told the Deseret News it is prepared to allocate its resources there.
With current margins in the House, Democrats only need a net gain of four seats to win back the majority for the first time since 2022. With several contested seats across the country, Utah’s potentially new blue-leaning district could help hand Democrats a victory.