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Utah's 1st Congressional District election, 2020 (June 30 Democratic primary)

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2022
2018
Utah's 1st Congressional District
Ballotpedia Election Coverage Badge.png
Democratic primary
Republican primary
General election
Election details
Filing deadline: March 19, 2020
Primary: June 30, 2020
General: November 3, 2020

Pre-election incumbent:
Rob Bishop (Republican)
How to vote
Poll times: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Voting in Utah
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Solid Republican
Inside Elections: Solid Republican
Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Republican
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds
U.S. House battlegrounds
Federal and state primary competitiveness
Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2020
See also
Utah's 1st Congressional District
1st2nd3rd4th
Utah elections, 2020
U.S. Congress elections, 2020
U.S. Senate elections, 2020
U.S. House elections, 2020

A Democratic Party primary took place on June 30, 2020, in Utah's 1st Congressional District to determine which Democratic candidate would run in the district's general election on November 3, 2020.

A Democratic Party convention was held on April 25, 2020. The convention narrowed down the candidate field for the primary.

Darren Parry advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Utah District 1.

Candidate filing deadline Primary election General election
March 19, 2020
June 30, 2020
November 3, 2020


Heading into the election, the incumbent was Rob Bishop (Republican), who was first elected in 2002.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. In Utah, state law allows parties to decide who may vote in their primaries.[1] Check Vote.Utah.gov for details about upcoming elections.

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This page focuses on Utah's 1st Congressional District Democratic primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:

Election procedure changes in 2020

See also: Changes to election dates, procedures, and administration in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020

Ballotpedia provided comprehensive coverage of how election dates and procedures changed in 2020. While the majority of changes occurred as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, some changes occurred for other reasons.

Utah modified its primary election process as follows:

  • Candidate filing procedures: Candidate and campaigns were allowed to deliver petition sheets to voters electronically. Voters were allowed to return signed petition sheets electronically or by mail.
  • Voting procedures: In-person Election Day voting, in-person early voting, and in-person voter registration in the primary election were cancelled.
  • Political party events: The Democratic Party of Utah canceled both its caucuses and its state convention. The Republican Party of Utah postponed caucuses and canceled its in-person state convention.

For a full timeline about election modifications made in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, click here.


Candidates and election results

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Utah District 1

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Darren Parry
Darren Parry Candidate Connection
 
50.9
 
11,667
Image of Jamie Cheek
Jamie Cheek Candidate Connection
 
49.1
 
11,242

Total votes: 22,909
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Democratic convention

Democratic convention for U.S. House Utah District 1

Candidate
Image of Jamie Cheek
Jamie Cheek (D) Candidate Connection
Image of Darren Parry
Darren Parry (D) Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

District analysis

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index
See also: FiveThirtyEight's elasticity scores

The 2017 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+26, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district's results were 26 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Utah's 1st Congressional District the 14th most Republican nationally.[2]

FiveThirtyEight's September 2018 elasticity score for states and congressional districts measured "how sensitive it is to changes in the national political environment." This district's elasticity score was 1.00. This means that for every 1 point the national political mood moved toward a party, the district was expected to move 1.00 points toward that party.[3]

Campaign finance

The chart below contains data from financial reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Name Party Receipts* Disbursements** Cash on hand Date
Jamie Cheek Democratic Party $30,082 $30,082 $0 As of September 8, 2020
Darren Parry Democratic Party $44,801 $44,487 $315 As of December 31, 2020

Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2020. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.


General election race ratings

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

  • Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
  • Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
  • Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.[4]
  • Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.[5][6][7]

Race ratings: Utah's 1st Congressional District election, 2020
Race trackerRace ratings
November 3, 2020October 27, 2020October 20, 2020October 13, 2020
The Cook Political ReportSolid RepublicanSolid RepublicanSolid RepublicanSolid Republican
Inside Elections with Nathan L. GonzalesSolid RepublicanSolid RepublicanSolid RepublicanSolid Republican
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal BallSafe RepublicanSafe RepublicanSafe RepublicanSafe Republican
Note: Ballotpedia updates external race ratings every week throughout the election season.

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. Utah State Legislature, "Utah Code § 20A-9-403. Regular primary elections." accessed May 13, 2025
  2. Cook Political Report, "Introducing the 2017 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index," April 7, 2017
  3. FiveThirtyEight, "Election Update: The Most (And Least) Elastic States And Districts," September 6, 2018
  4. Inside Elections also uses Tilt ratings to indicate an even smaller advantage and greater competitiveness.
  5. Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Nathan Gonzalez," April 19, 2018
  6. Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Kyle Kondik," April 19, 2018
  7. Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Charlie Cook," April 22, 2018


Senators
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
Republican Party (6)