- Ben McAdams has $300,000 in cash on hand; Riley Owen has $9,500.
- But Owen thinks conservatives have a shot in the new 1st District.
- He said the key is a fresh, Gen Z take on questions of affordability.
The 27-year-old Republican nominee for Utah’s 1st Congressional District announced on Tuesday a “Hard Questions” tour to introduce voters to his unorthodox pitch of “community conservatism” with Gen Z characteristics.
Despite an overwhelming fundraising disadvantage, Riley Owen, the Navy Intelligence officer on the GOP ticket, hopes his populist appeal paired with a peacemaker’s attitude will make a lasting impact on Beehive State politics.
To rebuild trust in government, Owen supports term limits and age caps for Congress, bans on stock trading for lawmakers and staffers, and restrictions on corporate donations.
To rebuild trust in each other, he proposes social media bans for youth under 16, tax breaks for employer-provided maternity leave and incentives to save the Great Salt Lake.
“A lot of people look at issues like the environment or taking care of moms with paid maternity leave or making things more affordable and they think conservatives don’t talk about that,” Owen told the Deseret News. “I think that’s a huge mistake.”
Owen’s background includes a stint as a White House policy analyst working on the pandemic response, managing positions at tech start-ups and service in the Navy Reserve.
The political newcomer sailed to the November ballot after receiving more than 71% of the vote among state delegates at April’s party convention. But he thinks his message has the power to persuade dissatisfied voters across the spectrum.
To make his pitch, Owen has scheduled town halls in 11 libraries in cities across the district, where he said he aims to bring listening ears and honest responses to any and all queries his prospective constituents want to throw his way for 1-2 hours at a time.
Utah’s new blue district
Owen faces a blunt political reality: a deep-pocketed opponent in a deep-blue district.
Former Rep. Ben McAdams raised more than $2 million ahead of his landslide primary victory in June, gaining 52% of the vote against three more progressive candidates. Another $1 million was spent by a pro-AI innovation PAC to boost McAdams.
McAdams, who served for a term before losing to Rep. Burgess Owens, was gifted an opportunity to return to Washington, D.C., when a district judge replaced the state’s congressional map with one of her own choosing in November.
The court-ordered redistricting all but guaranteed Utah’s federal representation would be decided in the primaries, with three solidly red districts surrounding a Salt Lake County seat that voted for Kamala Harris by a 24-point margin in 2024.
Despite his advocacy for Utah’s redistricting law, 1st District Rep. Blake Moore announced he would run for reelection in the 2nd District instead, allowing him to remain in northern Utah, but leaving the 1st District without a GOP incumbent.
Utah’s new 1st District, occupying most of Salt Lake County, is home to 129,703 actively registered Republican voters, 126,544 unaffiliated voters and 102,964 Democratic voters — 41.25% of all registered Democrats in the state.
However, these unaffiliated voters appear to lean mostly one way. The district has an average Democratic lean of 12 percentage points, according to The Cook Political Report, and 14 points, according to Inside Elections’ Baseline measure.
After a brutal primary campaign filled with progressive purity tests on Israel, billionaires and abortion — which McAdams largely tried to avoid — the former Salt Lake County mayor appears to be on a glide path to general election victory.
McAdams can be seen in recent posts to social media taking a victory lap at local parades, talking to union representatives at local get-togethers and reacting to big political stories like the reduction of the Bears Ears National Monument.
In a statement to the Deseret News, a spokesperson for the McAdams campaign said the candidate continues to meet with voters daily “to share his message about standing up to corruption and solving the problems Utahns are facing.”
“He’s especially focused on developing solutions to save the Great Salt Lake and bring down the cost of living for Utahns,” the statement said. “Utahns are ready for a representative who puts working families ahead of party politics.”
How to rebuild trust
As of June, Owen had raised just over $100,000, and loaned himself another $30,000, for his long-shot bid to challenge one of the most well known politicians in the state.
Owen knows he won’t have the same reach as McAdams whose ads have been filling the mailboxes of Democrats, independents and Republicans in the district for months.
He said he sees the race as an opportunity to practice what he preached as the CEO of Doers Network, a conservative nonprofit formed to recruit and elect “doers, not talkers.”
“One of the reasons why I’m running, regardless of the outcome in November, is to show people there are still leaders who really do truly still care about people and want policy to work for people and not for politicians’ portfolios,” Owen said.
His biggest concern is America’s crisis of confidence in core institutions, which remain near all-time lows. The solution, according to Owen, is a fresh take on conservatism.
He believes in fiscal restraint, but he says the best path forward is to use artificial intelligence to provide more efficient government services, instead of gutting them.
He supports market solutions, but says there is a role for government to remove obstacles to affordable housing, family formation and environmental innovation.
He also believes conservatives can be anti-establishment — on topics like PAC funding, military spending and the environment — without being bullies.
Owen relies on the assumption that his campaign to win Utah’s Democratic-leaning district will be worth it if he listens to “one voter at a time.”
“I know Ben’s doing that too,” Owen said. “But the advantage is very steep when you have additional millions of dollars from outsiders and corporations to pay for your message.”
2026 midterms
Here are the other congressional midterm matchups:
- CD2: Rep. Blake Moore is facing Democratic nominee Peter Crosby, an intelligence technology consultant.
- CD3: Rep. Celeste Maloy is facing Democratic nominee Ken Udell, a retired professor of mechanical engineering.
- CD4: Rep. Mike Kennedy is facing Democratic nominee Jonny Larsen, a veteran and cryptocurrency operator.