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Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026, and voting is underway in Utah. This is the whole race — the records, the claims, and what the sources actually show. Read the research, and decide which flaw you can live with.
The setup Utah's 2026 map is court-ordered and every district was renumbered, so start here: the incumbent candidate for the new UT-03 is Rep. Celeste Maloy (R) — not the UT-02 seat she has held since late 2023. Anyone pricing this race off the old map is pricing a different district. On the new map, Dave's Redistricting App puts the lean at 70.1% R – 24.7% D (Ellis Insight) — the strongest Republican district in the state — and Cook rates it Solid R. Old-map PVI figures for "UT-03" describe a different seat and are not printed. Six candidates are on the ballot: Celeste Maloy (R), Kent S. Udell (D), Cassie Easley (Constitution), Michael R. Stoddard (Libertarian), Adonis Hooslyn (Unaffiliated), and Ayden Scott (Unaffiliated). Maloy won the Republican primary 65.8% (66,582) over former State Rep. Phil Lyman, 34.2%, after neither secured the nomination outright at the state GOP convention; Udell ran uncontested for the Democratic nomination. A Lighthouse poll found Maloy 45%, Udell 26%. Sourcing note: Utah rosters here rest on the official vote.utah.gov filings list and the Lieutenant Governor's amended certification (Sept. 21, 2026) — the strongest sourcing in this batch. One related record fact belongs in this setup: the redraw left four Republican incumbents for three Republican seats, and Rep. Burgess Owens retired on Mar. 4, 2026 rather than run in the new configuration — the arithmetic that let Maloy take a Republican district without an incumbent-vs.-incumbent primary.
Celeste Maloy (R) The record: Maloy first won her seat in a Nov. 21, 2023 special election succeeding Rep. Chris Stewart (R), who resigned, and was re-elected in 2024 from the old UT-02 (Green Papers compilation). Before Congress she was an attorney who served as legal counsel / staff to Rep. Stewart (general biography — compilation strength). Her 2024 renomination was decided by only about 176 votes against Colby Jenkins — the narrow-primary history is part of her record. The record item located this cycle: she publicly supports the Trump administration's reduction of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante national monument boundaries — "I was standing in the Oval Office when the announcement was made" (Utah News Dispatch debate report, Oct. 2–3, 2026). President Trump endorsed her in the 2026 primary, as he did all three Republican incumbents (Deseret News, June 18, 2026). Pros: An incumbent who has now won a special election, a general election, and a contested primary against a former state representative by nearly two to one — and whose signature located position, shrinking the monument designations, is the federal-restraint position her district elects her to hold. Cons: The 176-vote renomination in 2024 says her own party's base has never been fully settled on her, and her path to this safe seat ran through a retirement and a redraw rather than through beating the district's voters head-on in its new lines. Her committee record was not pulled in our research, and we note the gap rather than fill it. The flaw, plainly: No conduct flaw, no unclosed math, and no disqualifier was located. The priced item is political durability: an incumbent whose party has twice nearly replaced her, governing a 70% Republican district where the primary is the real election — a fact her 65.8% this year answered for now.
Kent Udell (D) The record: Udell is a mechanical engineer and a retired mechanical engineering professor at the University of Utah (PBS Utah). He ran uncontested for the Democratic nomination. No prior elected office was located. Pros: A career engineer and educator volunteering for a race his party cannot win on this map — there is a civic honesty in contesting a 70.1% R district at all. Cons: Uncontested in his primary, at 26% in the located poll, with no record in public office and no located file beyond his profession. The flaw, plainly: Unproven, with no exception file. A Democrat with no service record cannot present the in-service breaks the Manchin test requires, and this district's lean makes the question academic in any case.
Cassie Easley (Constitution), Michael R. Stoddard (Libertarian), Adonis Hooslyn (Unaffiliated), and Ayden Scott (Unaffiliated) No record was located in our research for any of the four beyond ballot qualification and campaign-website listings, and we say so rather than invent one.
OUR CALL LiberalMind endorses Celeste Maloy.
The incumbent is in-tent, Trump-endorsed, twice re-nominated — the second time decisively — and carries no located flaw of a species this publication prices against an endorsement. Her monuments position is printed as a record item because it is her record; in a district covering Utah's public-lands country, it is also the position the district keeps electing. Against her stands a Democratic challenger with a respectable profession and no record to audit. There is no extremist in this race and no exception case; there is an incumbent doing the job her district drew itself — under a court's map, at 70.1% R — to have done.
The narrow-primary history stays in the file where it belongs: if Maloy's own party tests her again in 2028, that is a future race pricing a future record. This one is not close, on the map or on the merits as documented.
This race is one of hundreds in LiberalMind's Election 2026 coverage. For the complete breakdown — every race, claim by claim — go to liberalmindhq.com.
Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.
--- Sources - Utah Lieutenant Governor / vote.utah.gov 2026 Candidate Filings list — the six "Election Candidate" ballot names; Lieutenant Governor's amended certification (Sept. 21, 2026), as used by the Daily Letter Utah guide (Oct. 11, 2026) - Ellis Insight, reporting Dave's Redistricting App leans — the new UT-03 at 70.1% R – 24.7% D; Utah Debate Commission / PBS Utah coverage — the Solid R rating and the convention account; Critical Report primary compilation — Maloy's 65.8% (66,582) primary win and the ~176-vote 2024 renomination - The Green Papers compilation — Maloy's Nov. 21, 2023 special-election win succeeding Chris Stewart; Utah News Dispatch debate report (Oct. 2–3, 2026) — her Bears Ears / Grand Staircase–Escalante position in her own words; Deseret News (June 18, 2026) — Trump's endorsement of all three Republican incumbents - AP via SRN News (Mar. 4, 2026) — Burgess Owens's retirement announcement after the redraw; Lighthouse Research / Hinckley Institute poll — Maloy 45%, Udell 26%
Winner: Celeste Maloy (Republican) — called by the Associated Press. This result was appended on November 4, 2026 (results wave 1); the original article above is unchanged, exactly as published before Election Day.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.