The winners of this week’s primaries for open House seats in Utah and Rhode Island took separate paths to victory in politically opposite states, but each embraced a middle-of-the-road approach that could provide a road map for candidates in 2024.
In Utah, Republican voters rejected both a Trump loyalist and a Trump critic who voted for Biden. Instead, they selected former House aide Celeste Maloy, who was backed by the state GOP and did not vote in 2020, to fill a seat that will soon be vacated by her former boss, Rep. Chris Stewart. Maloy, who faces six other candidates in the Nov. 21 general election, is heavily favored to win.
In a blue district in Rhode Island, Gabe Amo beat out 10 other Democrats, including a progressive endorsed by Bernie Sanders, to be the party’s pick to fill the remainder of former Rep. David Cicilline’s term after Cicilline resigned to lead a Providence-based nonprofit.
