Two of the four incumbent members of the Utah State Board of Education, all Republicans, appeared to lose their re-election bid in Tuesday’s primary.
Incumbent Brent Strate, who ran in parts of Davis and Weber counties to return to the District 3 seat, was defeated by Rod Hall, a youth pastor, who received about 55% of the vote, according to early and unofficial election results.
In the District 15 race, incumbent Kristan Norton trailed GOP challenger Joann Brinton, who received 65% of the vote in early returns. Brinton removed first-term board member Norton from the primary ballot at the GOP state convention when she received 84.72% of the delegates’ votes. Norton has collected enough signatures to appear on the primary ballot in District 15, which cuts through southern Utah.
Brinton will face Utah Forward candidate Laura Johnson in the November general election.
In the closely watched District 10 race, incumbent Matt Hymas led GOP challenger Monica Bangerter Wilbur, who had outpaced Hymas at the state convention but did not win by enough margin to take him off the ballot for the primary. Hymas received 54% of the primary votes in the initial results.
Hymas, who is serving his first term on the state school board, is an educator, administrator, coach and charter school superintendent.
One of Wilbur’s top supporters is District 9 state school board member Natalie Cline, who was voted out of the first ballot by Salt Lake County GOP delegates this spring.
Earlier this year, Cline posted a photo of a high school basketball player on social media, implying that the student is transgender. Despite numerous calls for her resignation and censure votes by both the Utah Legislature and the Utah State Board of Education, Cline chose to remain in the race for District 9. She was defeated by GOP candidate Amanda Bollinger at the Salt Lake County Republican Convention.
Hymas will face Democratic candidate Deborah Gatrell in the general election race in District 10, which includes Tooele County, West Valley City and part of Utah County west of Utah Lake.
Several high-profile and powerful Utahns contributed to Hymas’ campaign, including state school board Vice Chair Jennie Earl and executive and philanthropist Gail Miller, along with leaders of the Utah House of Representatives and the Utah Senate.
In District 7, incumbent Molly Hart was ahead of GOP challenger Kris Kimball, winning 58% of the vote, according to early results. Hart, a career counselor, will face Democrat John Arthur, Utah’s 2021 Teacher of the Year, in the November election. District boundaries include communities including Sandy, Draper, Midvale and Cottonwood Heights.
In the District 13 race, incumbent Randy Boothe jumped to a lead over challenger Cari Bartholomew, taking 56% of the vote in early results. The district covers the southern portion of Utah County.
Meanwhile, first-term state school board member Christina Boggess, who represents District 8 on the board, challenged veteran lawmaker Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, for a seat in Senate District 16. Harper, who has served since 1997 the Utah Legislature, received 60% of the vote, according to early and unofficial results.
Boggess was elected to the state school board in 2022, so her term on the board has not yet ended.
Before 2020, all state school board candidates ran as independent candidates. This was the second time partisan candidates ran for the state assembly.
In 2016, the Utah Legislature passed a statute calling for partisan board races in state schools. The statute was challenged in court, and in 2017 a Third District judge ruled that the law violated the Utah Constitution. That ruling was appealed to the Utah Supreme Court, where it was overturned in 2019, clearing the way for candidates to run as partisan candidates. They can also run as non-affiliated candidates.
