The Utah congressional elections of 2006 were held on November 7, 2006, as part of the United States general elections of 2006 with all three House seats up for election. The winners served from January 3, 2007, to January 3, 2009.

Overview

District 1

Incumbent Republican Congressman

Rob Bishop Robert William Bishop (born July 13, 1951) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2003 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he became the dean of Utah's congressional delegation after the retirement of O ...

won re-election to a third term over Democratic nominee Steven Olsen, Constitution Party nominee Mark Hudson, and Libertarian nominee Lynn Badler.

District 2

Although incumbent

Jim Matheson James David Matheson (born March 21, 1960) is an American politician who served as a United States Representative from Utah from 2001 to 2015. He represented Utah's 2nd district from 2001 to 2013 and its from 2013 to 2015 as a member of the Dem ...

(D) won re-election in 2004 by a margin of 13%, his district is in a heavily Republican state. The district includes the most Democratic areas in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, such as the liberal communities of Grand County, the large

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

communities of Carbon County, the

Navajos The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

of San Juan County, and heavily Democratic

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

. Matheson is a regular target of the GOP every election. State Representative LaVar Christensen (R) of

Draper Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period ...

, a small affluent suburb of Salt Lake City, ran as the Republican nominee in the district. For example, Christensen was one of two major sponsors of a bill that amended Utah's Constitution to ban

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

. The amendment was rejected by two-thirds of Summit County, half of Grand County, and only passed by 4% in Salt Lake County, while the state as a whole averaged 66%, with the most supportive areas to banning such marriages being located in the first and third districts, not the second. Matheson had approval ratings in the high 70s, the highest for any elected official in Utah.

District 3

Congressman

Chris Cannon Christopher Black Cannon (born October 20, 1950) is an American politician who formerly served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, for the Republican Party, representing the third district of Utah from 1997 to 2009. He w ...

(R) had represented this district for ten years, but found himself in a competitive primary, just as he had in 2004. In a campaign that focused almost exclusively on the immigration issue, Businessman John Jacob repeatedly attacked Cannon for his support for a

guest worker program ‍A guest worker program allows foreign workers to temporarily reside and work in a host country until a next round of workers is readily available to switch. Guest workers typically perform low or semi-skilled agricultural, industrial, or domesti ...

. In May 2006, at the state GOP convention, Jacob surprised Cannon by winning 52 percent of the delegate ballots. "Cannon’s 48 percent showing was especially poor, given that the ballots were cast mainly by the party insiders who dominate such conventions.". The Republican primary was held on June 27, 2006. While polls showed a close race, in the June Republican primary, Cannon received 32,306 votes (55.8%) and Jacob received 25,589 votes (44.2%).

References

{{2006 U.S. midterm elections

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2006 Utah elections

Overview

District 1

District 2

District 3

See also

References