Republican Celeste Maloy will win the special election Tuesday for Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, CNN projects, filling the only remaining vacancy in the US House of Representatives.
With Maloy’s victory, House Republicans will return to a 222-213 majority, giving Speaker Mike Johnson some breathing room as he faces a looming government spending fight, though he still controls only a very narrow majority. But that may be temporary, with members weighing a possible expulsion of Republican Rep. George Santos.
Maloy will defeat Democratic state Sen. Kathleen Riebe in the reliably red district that covers the western portion of the state, stretching from the Salt Lake City area to St. George. She will succeed her onetime boss, former GOP Rep. Chris Stewart, and will be the first woman in Utah’s congressional delegation since Republican Mia Love left office in 2019.
Stewart left office in September over his wife’s health concerns. Maloy, who worked as a counsel in Stewart’s Washington office, had his endorsement on her way to securing the GOP nod. She advanced to the September primary by winning a nominating convention in June. She then won a three-way primary contest, besting former state Rep. Becky Edwards and former Utah GOP Chairman Bruce Hough.
Maloy faced questions over her eligibility for the special election primary ballot related to voter registration issues. She was marked inactive in the state’s voter database because she did not cast a ballot in 2020 and 2022, according to The Salt Lake Tribune, after she relocated to Virginia to work for Stewart. But the state GOP submitted her name for the ballot, noting that no objections to her candidacy were filed before the convention.
On the campaign trail, Maloy often touted her experience as a congressional aide to make the case that she has already been serving the district.
“Congress is struggling right now. Things aren’t going smoothly,” Maloy said at a debate last month. “We really need somebody to get into this seat who knows how Congress works, who knows how to work with people and who already knows this district.”
Maloy, who also made government spending a focus of her campaign, will join a Congress staring down two deadlines in January and February to keep the government funded.
“I’m willing to vote for a spending bill that reduces spending,” Maloy said at the debate when asked whether she would support bipartisan government funding legislation. “As long as we’re cutting spending and moving in the right direction, there’s no need to shut down the government.”
A sizable minority of House Republicans did not back the stopgap measure enacted last week to keep the government open because it did not include the deep spending cuts that conservatives had demanded and instead extended funding at current levels.
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