Southwest Utah GOP primary election results: Billings, Lee, Stewart take lead

Sean Hemmersmeier, St. George Spectrum & Daily News
·3 min read
House District 72 has a Republican primary battle between Joseph Elison and Willie Billings both of whom haven't been elected to public office before but do have signs on display in Hurricane, UT. June 28, 2022.
House District 72 has a Republican primary battle between Joseph Elison and Willie Billings both of whom haven't been elected to public office before but do have signs on display in Hurricane, UT. June 28, 2022.

After the first round of election results showed many primary races with wide margins in Washington County, only the House District 72 election showed a tight race.

Previous coverage: Elison, Walter, Jack, Almquist lead early in Washington County

When updated voting results were posted, the positioning of the candidates in this race flipped, but the margin remains narrow. On election night, Joseph Elison led Willie Billings by 40 votes, but as of Wednesday morning, it had flipped to where Billings led Elison by 35 votes.

House District 72

  • Willie Billings 3,267 votes / (50.27%)

  • Joseph Elison 3,232 votes / (49.73%)

  • Total votes: 6,499

The difference in this election is small and only an additional 187 votes were added to the vote total from the first release of voting information from the Washington County Clerk's office.

This is the closest race in Washington County, with the other races having large margins separating the two candidates.

For House District 73 Colin Jack opened with a large lead of over 1,200 votes over Nina Barnes. The updated results show that lead has grown to be just under 1,350 votes.

House District 73

  • Colin Jack 3,390 votes / (62.42%)

  • Nina Barnes 2,041 votes / (37.58%)

  • Total votes: 5,431 votes

For House District 74, Neil Walter has a lead of just over 1,750 votes over Kristy Pike. The update results showed Walter was able to expand that lead to about 1,860 votes.

House District 74

  • Kristy Pike 2,975 votes / (38.09%)

  • Neil Walter 4,836 votes (61.91%)

  • Total votes: 7,811

Although there are three open seats on the Washington County Commission for this election year only one seat had a primary election, which was for Seat A. This seat has been held for the past four years by Gil Almquist. On election night, the first rounds of results showed Almquist with a comfortable lead of 6,312 votes after results were updated on Wednesday that lead lessened to just over 6,150 votes.

Ballots could be cast or dropped off at the Dixie Convention Center was only one of two in-person voting locations open for the Washington County primary election. June 28, 2022.
Ballots could be cast or dropped off at the Dixie Convention Center was only one of two in-person voting locations open for the Washington County primary election. June 28, 2022.

Washington County Commission Seat A

  • Gil Almquist 15,929 votes / (62%)

  • Allen Davis 9,765 votes / (38%)

  • Total Votes: 25,694

For Utah's congressional races, many were called early in the night, with all the five incumbents being able to claim victory on election night.

This was the case both for Rep. Chris Stewart and Mike Lee, who were both able to gain large margins, and their races were quickly called by the Associated Press.

Stewart, who has been office for the last 10 years, was able to fend off his first primary challenger, Erin Rider, by about a 44-point margin just on election night results. That margin stayed consistent even as more than 10,000 votes were added to the count in this race, currently Stewart just over 40,000 votes more than Rider.

Utah 2nd District

  • Chris Stewart 63,847 votes / (72.88%)

  • Erin Rider 23,755 votes / (27.12%)

  • Total votes: 87,602

Although the margin between the two candidates was larger in Washington County, where Stewart got 81.5% of the vote compared to Rider's 18.5%.

For the senate race, Lee faced two challengers, Ally Isom and Becky Edwards, and had a smaller margin of victory than Stewart. Currently, Lee leads Edwards, who finished second in the race, by about 33 points. Overnight just under 52,000 votes were added to this race and Lee was able to get most of those votes.

Rider has conceded the race to Stewart.

U.S. Senate

  • Mike Lee 214,949 votes / (62.2%)

  • Becky Edwards 102,226 / (29.6%)

  • Ally Isom 28,416 votes / (8.2%)

But in Washington County, the margins favored the incumbent more than the statewide results. Lee was able to get 78% of the vote in Washington County compared to the 15.4% Edwards got and the 6.5% Isom got.

Both Isom and Edwards have conceded the race to Lee.

Ballots could be cast or dropped off at the Dixie Convention Center was only one of two in-person voting locations open for the Washington County primary election. June 28, 2022.
Ballots could be cast or dropped off at the Dixie Convention Center was only one of two in-person voting locations open for the Washington County primary election. June 28, 2022.

Sean Hemmersmeier covers local government, growth and development in Southwestern Utah. Follow on Twitter @seanhemmers34. Our work depends on subscribers so if you want more coverage on these issues you can subscribe here: http://www.thespectrum.com/subscribe. 

This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Incumbents Rep. Chris Stewart, Mike Lee claim victory in Utah GOP primary