2020 Utah gubernatorial election


The 2020 Utah gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 2020, to elect the governor of Utah. Incumbent Republican governor Gary Herbert declined running for re-election to a third full term.

Background

Although incumbent Republican governor Gary Herbert was eligible to run for re-election to a third full term, he initially announced shortly after being re-elected in 2016 that he would not run again, but indicated in January 2019 that he was open to the possibility of running again before ultimately deciding to retire and endorse his lieutenant governor, Spencer Cox. Utah had not had a Democratic governor since Scott M. Matheson left office in January 1985. This is the second longest active streak of one-party leadership, trailing only South Dakota, which had not had a Democratic governor since Harvey L. Wollman left office in 1979.
The primaries took place on June 30, 2020. The filing deadline was on June 19, 2020.

Description

The 2020 Utah gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 2020, to elect the governor of Utah, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as [United States Senate United States Senate elections, 2020|elections, 2020|elections] to the United States Senate and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
The winner of the election was the first non-incumbent gubernatorial candidate to be elected since Jon Huntsman Jr. in 2004, who ran in this election before he was eliminated in the primaries.
Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox won the general election by defeating the Democratic nominee, University of Utah law professor and former CFPB official Christopher Peterson. This election was the first open-seat gubernatorial election in Utah since 1992.

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

Eliminated in the primary

Eliminated at the convention

Declined

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

Eliminated at the convention

  • Neil Hansen, former state representative
  • * Running mate: Brandy Farmer, candidate for Utah House of Representatives
  • Ryan Jackson
  • Zachary Moses, CEO of HeTravel.com
  • * Running mate: Nate Kizerian, community activist
  • Nikki Pino Jr., youth counselor
  • * Running mate: Nikki Pino Sr., retired Army lieutenant colonel and father to Nikki Pino Jr.
  • Archie A Williams, 2014 Democratic candidate for District 60 of the Utah House of Representatives III

Declined

Other candidates

Independent American Party

Nominee

Libertarian Party

Nominee

Republican write-in

  • Madeline Kazantzis ran for election for Governor of Utah as a write-in in the general election on November 3, 2020. She received 18,988 votes.

Declined

General election

Campaign

An advertisement that featured both major-party candidates, calling for civility in politics, drew significant media coverage and praise.

Polling

Graphical summary

Polls

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
Spencer
Cox 		Christopher
Peterson 		Daniel
Cottam 		Gregory
Duerden 		OtherUndecided
Y2 Analytics/Salt Lake TribuneOctober 15–24, 2020660 ± 3.8%58%33%––––
RMG Research/Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of PoliticsOctober 12–17, 20201,000 ± 3.1%50%26%6%3%–16%
Y2 Analytics/Salt Lake TribuneSeptember 26 – October 4, 20201,214 ± 2.8%57%29%––14%–
RMG Research/Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of PoliticsSeptember 7–12, 20201,000 ± 3.1%52%19%4%3%–22%
Lighthouse Research/Salt Lake TribuneAugust 31 – September 12, 20202,000 ± 4.38%55%20%5%3%3%15%
RMG ResearchJuly 27 – August 1, 20201000 ± 4.0%49%17%3%3%–29%

with Spencer Eccles

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
Jeff
Burningham		Spencer
Cox		Spencer
Eccles		Greg
Hughes		Jon
Huntsman Jr.		Thomas
Wright		Other /
Undecided
Dan Jones & Associates/Salt
Lake Chamber of Commerce		Oct 3–10, 2019599 ± 4%2%26%5%2%33%4%21%

with only Spencer Cox, Greg Hughes and Jon Huntsman

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
Spencer
Cox		Greg
Hughes		Jon
Huntsman Jr.		Other /
Undecided
Dan Jones & Associates/Salt
Lake Chamber of Commerce		Jun 11-Jul 1, 2019801 –37%8%43%12%

with Generic Democrat

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
Spencer
Cox		Greg
Hughes		Jon
Huntsman Jr.		Aimee
Winder-Newton		Thomas
Wright		Generic
Democrat 		Other /
Undecided
Dan Jones & Associates/Salt
Lake Chamber of Commerce		Jun 11-Jul 1, 2019801 –33%5%32%2%5%11%13%

with Bishop, Chaffetz, Cox, Dougall, Hughes, Miller, Newton, Reyes and Generic Democrat

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
Rob
Bishop		Jason
Chaffetz		Spencer
Cox		Generic
Democrat 		Other /
Undecided
Dan Jones & Associates/UtahPolicyJan 3–15, 2019822 ± 3.4%7%18%24%11%39%

with Jason Chaffetz, Spencer Cox, Spencer Eccles, Greg Hughes, Ben McAdams, Greg Miller and Josh Romney

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
Jason
Chaffetz		Spencer
Cox		Ben
McAdams		Josh
Romney		OtherUndecided
Dan Jones & Associates/Salt Lake Tribune/Hinkley InstituteOct 10–13, 2017605 ± 3.98%24%11%20%9%11%26%

Results

By county

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

By congressional district

Cox won all four congressional districts.
DistrictCoxPetersonRepresentative
66%25%Rob Bishop
66%25%Blake Moore
57%33%Chris Stewart
67%27%John Curtis
59%35%Ben McAdams
59%35%Burgess Owens