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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 This district's story starts with a retirement. Under Utah's court-ordered 2026 redraw, four Republican incumbents were left competing for three Republican-leaning seats. Rep. Burgess Owens (R) — the old UT-04's holder, in the House since 2021 after ousting Ben McAdams in 2020, a former NFL safety and Super Bowl XV winner with the Raiders — announced on Mar. 4, 2026 that he would not seek re-election (AP via SRN News; Fox News; Washington Examiner). His retirement is what allowed each remaining incumbent to take a Republican district without an incumbent-vs.-incumbent primary. The candidate-incumbent for the new UT-04 is Rep. Mike Kennedy (R), elected in 2024 from the old UT-03 and now running under the new number — the seat is not open on the ballot, but its previous holder is gone, and both facts print. Lean, new map only: Dave's Redistricting App 67.5% R – 27.8% D (Ellis Insight). Any old-map PVI quoted for this district describes the old seat and is not printed. Four candidates are on the ballot: Mike Kennedy (R), Jonny Larsen (D), Taylor Wright (Libertarian), and Steven Burt (Unaffiliated). Kennedy was unopposed in the Republican primary; Larsen won the Democratic primary. A Lighthouse poll found Kennedy 42%, Larsen 33%. 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. A gap, noted plainly: Kennedy's pre-Congress record as a Utah state legislator was not pulled in our research, and his article is priced on the record that was.
Mike Kennedy (R) The record: Kennedy is a freshman — first elected in Nov. 2024 from the old UT-03, in the House since Jan. 2025 — and a physician by profession (general record; Ellis Insight). He was unopposed for renomination in the new UT-04. Record and campaign items located: a U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsement for the Fourth District (Oct. 2, 2026), and President Trump's endorsement of all three Utah Republican incumbents in the June 2026 primaries (Deseret News). No scored votes or committee assignments were pulled in this pass, and we do not fill the gap with generalities. Pros: An in-tent freshman incumbent, a physician, renominated without opposition, Chamber-backed and Trump-endorsed, holding a district that leans 67.5% Republican on the new map. Cons: One term is a short record, his poll number — 42% — is soft for a safe-seat incumbent, and the research file on him is the thinnest of Utah's three incumbents: no committee file, no legislative history pulled. Voters are re-electing a trajectory more than a documented body of work. The flaw, plainly: No conduct flaw and no unclosed-math flaw was located. His file's weakness is thinness, not substance — a freshman whose record we could verify is shorter than the one he presumably has. Unproven shading into proven, priced as a watch item, not a demerit.
Jonny Larsen (D) The record: Larsen is a Marine veteran (Critical Report primary compilation) who won the Democratic primary. No further record was located in our research. Pros: Military service, and 33% in the located poll — the strongest showing of any Democratic challenger in Utah's three Republican districts this cycle, against a freshman. Cons: Beyond his service, the file is empty: no prior office, no located platform detail, no exception case. The flaw, plainly: Unproven, with no Manchin-test material. An honorable biography is not a break record, and without one a Democrat does not earn this publication's name — priced at House weight, and still counted.
Taylor Wright (Libertarian) and Steven Burt (Unaffiliated) No record was located in our research for either beyond ballot qualification, and we say so rather than invent one.
OUR CALL LiberalMind endorses Mike Kennedy.
A freshman Republican incumbent, in-tent, unopposed in his primary, endorsed by the President and the Chamber, with no located flaw — against a Democratic challenger whose located file is a Marine biography and a primary win. The exception test is not failed by Larsen so much as never presented: there is no service record in the file from which a break could be documented. Kennedy's thin verified record is the honest con, and it is printed above; a second term will either fill that file or give his next challenger something to price. On this record, the endorsement is his.
Owens's retirement deserves the last word in this race, because it made the map work: four incumbents, three seats, and the senior man stepped away rather than force a cannibal primary. That is the system absorbing a court's redraw without a war — and this district, at 67.5% R, is the result.
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 four "Election Candidate" ballot names; Lieutenant Governor's amended certification (Sept. 21, 2026), as used by the Daily Letter Utah guide (Oct. 11, 2026) - AP via SRN News (Mar. 4, 2026), with Fox News and the Washington Examiner — Burgess Owens's retirement announcement and his biography; Ellis Insight — the new UT-04 DRA lean of 67.5% R – 27.8% D, Kennedy's freshman status and unopposed primary - U.S. Chamber of Commerce release (Oct. 2, 2026) — Kennedy's Fourth District endorsement; Deseret News (June 2026) — Trump's endorsement of the three Republican incumbents; Critical Report primary compilation — Larsen's Marine service; Lighthouse Research / Hinckley Institute poll — Kennedy 42%, Larsen 33%
Winner: Mike Kennedy (Republican) — called by the Associated Press. This result was appended on November 6, 2026 (results wave 4); 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.