J. Michael Clara

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J. Michael Clara

Republican Party

Candidate, Utah State Board of Education District 5

Prior offices:

Salt Lake City School District, Precinct 2

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Elections and appointments

Next convention

April 18, 2026

Contact

Personal website

J. Michael Clara (Republican Party) is running for election to the Utah State Board of Education to represent District 5. Clara declared candidacy for the Republican convention scheduled on April 18, 2026.^[source]

Clara was a member of the Salt Lake City School District in Utah, representing Precinct 2.

Elections

2026

See also: Utah State Board of Education election, 2026

General election

The primary will occur on June 23, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

Democratic convention

Democratic convention for Utah State Board of Education District 5

Incumbent Sarah Reale (D) is running in the Democratic convention for Utah State Board of Education District 5 on April 11, 2026.

		Candidate
		Sarah Reale

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Republican convention

Republican convention for Utah State Board of Education District 5

J. Michael Clara (R) is running in the Republican convention for Utah State Board of Education District 5 on April 18, 2026.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	J. Michael Clara

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
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Endorsements

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2016

See also: Salt Lake City School District elections (2016)

Four of the seven seats on the Salt Lake City School District school board were up for general election on November 8, 2016. There was a primary election for Precincts 1 and 5 held on June 28, 2016. In Precinct 1, incumbent Tiffany Sandberg defeated Teresa Organista in the general election after defeating John Santini in the primary election. Precinct 2 incumbent Michael Clara lost his seat to Michael Nemelka in the general election. Incumbent Heather Bennett won re-election to the Precinct 5 seat after defeating Jason Stevenson in the general election and Cathy Graham and Daniel Mcguire in the primary election. Precinct 7 incumbent Kristi Swett won re-election to her seat by defeating challenger Ryan Pleune.

Results

Salt Lake City School District, Precinct 2 General Election, 4-year term, 2016
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Michael Nemelka	56.11%	1,978
Michael Clara Incumbent	43.89%	1,547
Total Votes		3,525
Source: Salt Lake County, Utah, "Official Election Results," accessed December 5, 2016

Funding

Clara reported $655.54 in contributions and $655.54 in expenditures to the Office of the Salt Lake County Clerk, which left his campaign with $0.00 on hand as of November 1, 2016.

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

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Campaign finance summary

Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.

See also

2026 Elections

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