Jeff Merchant: 'The only mistake will be if Utah Democrats buy into the notion that we should return to the old ways of doing things — to be happy losing while making a point instead of winning races and governing well.'
From left, Sen. Mike Lee and independent challenger Evan McMullin participate in a debate ahead of the election for U.S. Senate at Utah Valley University, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2022.With Election Day finally behind us, Utah Democrats have a lot to talk about, and what everyone seems to be discussing is whether it was a mistake to not nominate our own Senate candidate. This question will be debated for a long time, but as hard as it was to sit this race out, Utah Democrats did not make a mistake.
Of course, there is one contrary example of this. Way back in 1958, when Frank Moss won his first election to the Senate. He defeated Arthur V. Watkins and J. Bracken Lee, two very well-known Republicans, and became Utah’s Senator with less than 40% of the vote. It is an exciting tale, but it was also 64 years ago. Things have changed.
First, Utah Democrats made it clear that democracy is more important than partisanship. Sure, we had Democrats who refused to vote for McMullin on “principle,” but just what was that principle? At the end of the day, Democrats who refused to vote for McMullin simply helped Mike Lee, and our democracy deserves much better than Lee.
Third, we cannot be myopic about the 2022 election cycle. Utah was not the only state with a Senate campaign, and for a state whose Senate races have been ignored since the 1990s, it had national implications. This race was the closest Senate race in Utah in 30 years. As a result, conservative PACs spent millions of dollars in Utah – money that could have been spent in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona or Nevada.
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