- Rep. Celeste Maloy beat Phil Lyman at convention with 51% of the delegate vote.
- Both candidates advance to a primary in a district where Lyman did well in 2024.
- Maloy and Lyman focused their remarks on competing visions for rebuilding trust.
Utah Republican Party delegates heard two different visions of how to restore trust in the federal government at the GOP’s nominating convention on Saturday. The party’s most active members were evenly split on the answer.
The choice was between incumbent Rep. Celeste Maloy’s message of incremental improvement in Congress, and former gubernatorial candidate, and election security crusader Phil Lyman’s promise of total transparency.
Maloy won 51% in the second round of voting. In his third appearance before delegates in two years, Lyman won 49%. Maloy already qualified for a primary by submitting 7,000 signatures. Lyman did not submit enough signatures.
Both candidates will advance to a party primary in June where they will have to make their case to reclaim confidence in America’s legislative branch to all Republican voters in the district, which covers all of eastern and southern Utah.
For the next leg of the race, Maloy counts on $461,900 in cash on hand. Lyman has raised $4,200, according to his campaign.
But Maloy can expect a tough race given that she barely eked out a primary win in 2024 after a recount and that Lyman performed best in the region of the state covered by the 3rd District, winning in 11 of 18 counties against Gov. Spencer Cox.
What’s the truth about trust?
On Saturday, Maloy touted her spot on the powerful Appropriations committee and Natural Resources committee, and her position as chair of the Western Caucus, which sets the agenda on energy, water and public lands policy.
Maloy marked her first full term in Congress with bills to speed up the federal permitting process and hours spent explaining her track record to voters. Doing this, with the perspective of American exceptionalism, is how you build trust, she said.
“Sometimes it’s hard to tell what you can trust and it’s easy to lose faith,” she said. “Let me make a case that America is still both good and great. ... As Americans, with the help of our Creator, we can mend whatever flaws we have in our system.”
Maloy, who served as chief legal counsel to former Rep. Chris Stewart, told delegates her experience made her a valuable asset. She vowed to work with President Donald Trump to secure $1 billion to “make the Great Salt Lake great again.”
This focus on problem solving over partisan signaling is what made Maloy the clear pick for Mike Vincent, a delegate from Washington County. He said she has accomplished more in one term than most representatives do in two or three.
“She has a much longer, broader perspective than what Phil Lyman is articulating,” Vincent said. “Celeste has got a big picture, and she gets out and spends all her time that she can when she’s not in D.C., in the district, talking to people.”
Lyman hammers election security
The issue Lyman has curated his reputation around since losing the GOP primary in 2024 is addressing claims of corruption.
In 2024, after coming within 9 percentage points of beating Cox in the primary, Lyman launched a multifront attack on Utah’s election system. Lyman refused to accept the results and asked the courts to place him on the general election ballot.
Lyman has continued to accuse the state’s top elected officials of “collusion” because they have not disclosed election records that Lyman has requested. On Saturday, Lyman said the only path to increasing trust is increasing sunlight on the system.
“Our problem in Utah is not a lack of trust, it’s that we trust people who are not trustworthy,” Lyman told delegates. “In fact, there are people who make an expert practice of deception. And we’ve got something going on right now.”
Lyman criticized Maloy for voting to keep the government’s FISA warrantless surveillance authority intact. He called for the full release of all the files related to the business dealings of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
In his final appeal to delegates, Lyman summed up his campaign as an opportunity for Republican voters to choose to send a message to the political establishment in Utah “that they do not control all the politics in Utah.”
Washington County delegate Stephanie Newbold referenced the same elements of Maloy’s voting record as Lyman did, arguing that this gave Maloy a low rating on some conservative congressional scorecards.
The most important characteristic a member of Congress can have to rebuild trust is independence, according to Newbold, who said she would prefer a candidate who elevated Utah’s concerns above party leadership.
“Transparency. I don’t necessarily want a candidate that’s going to be a ‘yes’ man,” Newbold said. “I want someone who’s going to protect Utah’s interests. Not necessarily my own all the time, and that is being transparent.”