Utah General Election · November 3, 2026

ZIP 84081 voter guide

A source-linked, nonpartisan review of the candidates and retention judges serving western West Jordan. Campaign claims are labeled as such; official records and independent reporting are separated from candidate messaging.

19electoral candidates
14retention judges
7contested or listed offices
2state amendments
ZIP caveat: ZIP codes are not election districts. Public addresses sampled across 84081 resolved to U.S. House District 1 and Utah House District 38; the ZIP is also in State School Board District 8. Senate Districts 16 and 17 cross the ZIP, but neither has a 2026 race here. Always confirm the final ballot with Utah's official address lookup.

U.S. House · District 1

The newly redrawn district favors Democrats according to the Cook Political Report, as reported by KSL. The best-covered contest is between former Rep. Ben McAdams and first-time candidate Riley Owen; Jesse West and Elias Montgomery are printed ballot choices, while Bobby Darvish is a certified write-in.

Ben McAdams

U.S. House District 1
Democratic

Background

Former one-term U.S. representative, Salt Lake County mayor, and Utah state senator. Attorney; seventh-generation Utahn. In Congress he joined the moderate Blue Dog coalition and voted to impeach President Trump in 2019.

Stated priorities

  • Housing affordability and household costs; opposes tariffs he says raise consumer prices.
  • Great Salt Lake and Central Wasatch protection; mixed clean-energy portfolio with a transition away from fossil fuels.
  • Congressional checks on presidential power, voting rights, Social Security, and bipartisan constituent service.
Independent context: McAdams entered October having spent roughly $1.9 million, far more than Owen, according to KSL. Utah News Dispatch received full questionnaire responses from him; his two minor-party/unaffiliated opponents did not respond.

Riley Owen

U.S. House District 1
Republican

Background

Age 28; Princeton graduate with a public-policy master's from Oxford. Former policy analyst in the first Trump White House and current Navy Reserve intelligence officer. This is his first run for office.

Stated priorities

  • Restrict social-media use for children under 16 and strengthen platform accountability.
  • Expand business tax credits for paid maternity leave; block large investors from buying single-family homes and reward local zoning reform.
  • Market-based Great Salt Lake water leasing, nuclear/geothermal investment, and an “all of the above” energy policy.
Independent context: Owen and McAdams agreed on several housing, conservation, and institutional-reform themes during their debate, but differed on the federal role and policy details. KSL reported Owen had spent just under $100,000 through September.

Jesse West

U.S. House District 1
Libertarian

Background

Salt Lake City family-law attorney, skier, and chair of the Salt Lake City Libertarian Party. Moved from Tennessee after repeatedly visiting Utah beginning in 2018.

Stated priorities

  • End overseas military interventions and “forever wars”; improve veterans' care.
  • Abolish the federal death penalty, legalize cannabis, reduce taxes, and expand lawful immigration pathways.
  • Protect the Great Salt Lake and Utah's environment.
Coverage note: West did not answer the Utah News Dispatch issue questionnaire and did not qualify for the major McAdams–Owen debate. The positions above come from his campaign site.

Elias Henry Montgomery

U.S. House District 1
Unaffiliated

Background

Policy analyst; West Jordan High School and University of Utah graduate. Running outside the party system on structural political and economic changes.

Stated priorities

  • Discourage institutional purchases of single-family homes and legalize “missing-middle” housing.
  • Independent redistricting and a proportional party-nomination system intended to reduce one-party dominance.
  • Catastrophic-health coverage, transparent medical pricing, lower taxes on personal labor, and stronger local control.
Coverage note: Montgomery did not answer Utah News Dispatch's issue questionnaire or qualify for the major debate. His unusually detailed platform is available on his own site; independent reporting on his record is limited.

Babak “Bobby” Darvish

U.S. House District 1
Certified write-in

Background

Iranian-American technology and cybersecurity professional. His name is not printed with the regular candidates; voters must write or type it on the write-in line.

Stated priorities

  • Cybersecurity, responsible AI rules, national security, and opposition to the Iranian government.
  • Constitutional rights, fiscal discipline, border enforcement, term limits, and a congressional stock-trading ban.
  • Housing supply, paid-maternity-leave tax incentives, Great Salt Lake protection, and all-of-the-above energy.
Coverage note: Independent coverage is sparse. The summary is therefore based mostly on Darvish's campaign site and his official write-in certification.

Utah state races

84081 falls in House District 38 and State School Board District 8. No Utah Senate seat serving the ZIP is scheduled for election in 2026.

Utah House · District 38

Open seat

Chris McConnehey

Utah House District 38
Republican

Background

Lifelong West Jordan resident and father of five. Served 12 years on the West Jordan City Council, including as council chair; works as a business analyst/director.

Stated priorities

  • Local control, balanced budgets, lower taxes, and limiting state action to problems that cannot be solved locally.
  • Individual liberty, simpler regulation, and scrutiny of costs borne by fixed-income residents.
Accountability note: The Salt Lake Tribune reported that McConnehey did not respond to repeated requests for its voter questionnaire. His positions here come from his campaign site and city record, so there is less issue-specific detail than for Sotelo.

Sergio Sotelo

Utah House District 38
Unaffiliated

Background

Journeyman electrician for 15 years and elected treasurer of IBEW Local 354. Previously ran for West Jordan City Council. Endorsed by Salt Lake County's Forward Party organization while remaining unaffiliated on the ballot.

Stated priorities

  • Affordability and prevailing-wage transparency; says his family left West Jordan in 2016 because of housing costs.
  • Great Salt Lake protection, enforceable air/water standards, and expert-led review of major projects.
  • Campaign-finance and government accountability; opposes both 2026 constitutional amendments.
Independent context: Sotelo answered the Tribune questionnaire in detail. His legislative experience is limited; his public record is primarily union financial service, advocacy for a 2025 wage-transparency bill, and prior municipal candidacy.

Utah State Board of Education · District 8

Taylorsville, Kearns, and West Jordan portions

Nicole McDermott

State School Board District 8
Republican

Background

President of the Granite School District board. Before her 2019 election, taught music and orchestra for 25 years in Granite and Jordan school districts.

Public positions

  • More local control and educator expertise in solving attendance, AI, enrollment, proficiency, and behavior problems.
  • Supports enforcing the sensitive-materials law while preserving broad age-appropriate literature.
  • Supports family choice only with equivalent fiscal and academic accountability for recipients of public money; otherwise funds should remain public.
  • Opposes mandatory third-grade retention; supports bell-to-bell cellphone bans and keeping immigration enforcement out of schools absent an imminent threat.

Araueni Olivares

State School Board District 8
Democratic

Background

Former multilingual-learner support professional in Granite and other school districts; 14 years with the Utah Department of Workforce Services. Raised on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley.

Public positions

  • Increase staffing/resources and reduce educator shortages and workloads.
  • Opposes statewide book removals; emphasizes intellectual freedom, parent partnership, and professional trust.
  • Opposes Utah Fits All vouchers, arguing they divert $95 million from public schools without equivalent requirements.
  • Opposes mandatory third-grade retention; supports bell-to-bell cellphone bans and keeping immigration enforcement out of schools.

Salt Lake County

These five offices are countywide and therefore shared by voters throughout 84081. The current county roster lists three active candidates for Council At-Large A; two additional people appearing in some third-party guides are officially marked withdrawn.

County Auditor

Independent operational audits and taxpayer oversight

Ali Cloward

Salt Lake County Auditor
Democratic

Experience: Certified Internal Auditor; bachelor's and master's in accounting from the University of Utah. More than a decade in private-sector compliance and audit roles; currently a director at Baker Tilly US. Board member at Clean Slate Utah.

Pitch: Efficiency, taxpayer value, transparent facts, and accountability. Her public materials give broad goals but few named audit targets or proposed reporting changes.

Chris Harding

Salt Lake County Auditor
Republican · incumbent

Experience: Auditor since 2022; CPA, Certified Fraud Examiner, and Certified Internal Auditor. Former Treasury Inspector General, Army internal-review director, and federal contract auditor.

Record/pitch: Says the office earned its first passing external peer review in 2024 and launched a public recommendation tracker. Seeks stronger auditor independence, a functioning council audit committee, better technology, and expanded professional staffing.

County Clerk

Uncontested

Lannie Chapman

Salt Lake County Clerk
Democratic · incumbent

Experience: Clerk since 2022; chief deputy clerk from 2015–2022 and former deputy district attorney. J.D.; member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Standards Board.

Record/pitch: Defends vote-by-mail as safe, effective, and accessible. Her office received federal “Clearie” awards for election innovation, poll-worker programs, and accessible voter outreach. No opponent is listed.

County Council · At-Large A

Three active general-election candidates

Gregory Beglarian

County Council At-Large A
Constitution

Available record: Officially certified for the ballot, but no campaign website and little substantive public material were located. The local profile reported no additional response or policy details.

Evidence gap: Treat unsupported third-party summaries cautiously; there is not enough primary material to characterize a detailed platform objectively.

Kathleen Anderson

County Council At-Large A
Republican

Background: Previously sought the Republican nomination for Utah's 4th Congressional District in 2020 and the 2nd District special election in 2023.

Pitch: “Taxpayer respect,” local business, safer public spaces, honest budgeting, clean leadership, and responsive county government. Her questionnaire did not provide detailed proposals beyond those themes.

Zach Robinson

County Council At-Large A
Democratic

Experience: Two terms on Sandy City Council; former firefighter/paramedic; operations director for virtual care at University of Utah Health. MPA from the University of Utah.

Record/pitch: Cites Sandy's anti-idling ordinance, recreation-center funding, employee pay/process reforms, and founding a first-responder suicide-awareness coalition. Supports core services, affordable housing incentives, air/water work, and public-safety resources while saying tax increases deserve close scrutiny.

County District Attorney

Criminal prosecution and county legal counsel

Sim Gill

Salt Lake County District Attorney
Democratic · incumbent

Experience: District attorney since 2010; more than 30 years as a public prosecutor, including Salt Lake City chief prosecutor. J.D. with environmental and natural-resources specialization.

Record/pitch: Cites creation of mental-health and veterans courts, pre-filing diversion, victim-support services, a public charging dashboard, and police-use-of-force reform proposals. Says diversion succeeds above 92%. On development, favors rigorous water/power/noise review and enforceable public commitments.

Scrutiny: A 2025 legislative audit criticized the office's written charging standards, documentation in a sample of declined felony cases, and performance metrics. Gill argues his experience and reform programs are the stronger case for continuity.

Kent Davis

Salt Lake County District Attorney
Republican

Experience: Former Salt Lake County deputy district attorney and Arizona public defender; current corporate counsel/cybersecurity director. Army veteran with two Iraq deployments and a Bronze Star; J.D., executive MBA, and cybersecurity credentials.

Pitch: Written charging and plea standards, documented decisions, public performance metrics, expanded drug courts, and priority for shootings, domestic-violence firearm cases, and repeat violent offenders. Proposes two-term limit for himself.

Contrast: Davis makes the 2025 audit the center of his case against Gill. He favors conditional permits and impact studies rather than a blanket data-center ban, including closed-loop cooling and protections against resident utility subsidies.

County Sheriff

Jail operations, court security, and county law-enforcement duties

Shane Manwaring

Salt Lake County Sheriff
Republican

Experience: More than 23 years in law enforcement, including the Unified Police Department; retired Army aviation colonel/Utah National Guard officer.

Pitch: Jail expansion and stricter operational accountability, consistent enforcement, stronger consequences for repeat offenders, support for deputies, government efficiency, and “constitutional conservative” leadership.

Coverage note: The available local profile relied on campaign and BallotReady material rather than a direct interview, so most issue language is self-description.

Rosie Rivera

Salt Lake County Sheriff
Democratic · incumbent

Experience: Sheriff since 2017 and Utah's first elected female sheriff. Joined the department in 1993; former deputy chief and Riverton precinct chief. Oversees roughly 1,100 employees and the state's largest jail/court-security operation.

Record/pitch: Jail-capacity expansion with no overcrowding releases; medication-assisted addiction treatment, mental-health treatment, supervised release, crisis-response training, victim services, gang prevention/intervention, and employee retention.

Core choice: Rivera emphasizes treatment and alternatives that preserve jail beds for violent offenders; Manwaring emphasizes stricter jail management and consequences. Both say capacity and workforce stability need attention.

Judicial retention

These are yes/no retention votes, not contests between candidates. JPEC—the state's Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission—found every judge below to meet or exceed standards and unanimously recommended retention. Survey score is the total of four 5-point categories: legal ability, integrity/temperament, administrative skills, and procedural fairness.

JudgeCourtJPEC scoreRetention surveyCommission voteLinks
Jill M. PohlmanUtah Supreme Court19.3 / 2096% recommended12–0JPEC · Profile
Amy Jo OliverUtah Court of Appeals18.2 / 2088% recommended12–0JPEC · Profile
David N. MortensenUtah Court of Appeals19.0 / 2098% recommended12–0JPEC · Profile
Gregory K. OrmeUtah Court of Appeals19.4 / 2097% recommended12–0JPEC · Profile
John D. LuthyUtah Court of Appeals18.5 / 2089% recommended12–0JPEC · Profile
Michele M. Christiansen ForsterUtah Court of Appeals18.8 / 2094% recommended12–0JPEC · Profile
Ryan M. HarrisUtah Court of Appeals18.8 / 2091% recommended12–0JPEC · Profile
Charles A. StormontThird District Court18.2 / 2092% recommended13–0JPEC · Profile
Coral SanchezThird District Court18.3 / 2091% recommended12–0JPEC · Profile
Matthew BatesThird District Court18.3 / 2091% recommended12–0JPEC · Profile
Todd M. ShaughnessyThird District Court18.5 / 2094% recommended11–0JPEC · Profile
Aaron FlaterThird Juvenile Court18.1 / 2095% recommended12–0JPEC · Profile
Steven K. BeckThird Juvenile Court19.4 / 20100% recommended12–0JPEC · Profile
Susan H. EisenmanThird Juvenile Court18.9 / 20100% recommended11–0JPEC · Profile

State constitutional amendments

Not candidates, but they appear on the same ballot and are easy to miss beneath the judicial wall of text.

Amendment A · publication method

Would replace the Utah Constitution's requirement to publish proposed amendments in a newspaper for 60 days with publication on two state websites. The practical question is whether online publication is adequate public notice or removes a durable, independent newspaper channel.

Amendment B · tax initiatives

Would require 60% voter approval—rather than a simple majority—for citizen initiatives that create or increase specified taxes. It applies to citizen lawmaking, raising the threshold for tax measures without imposing the same new threshold on ordinary legislation.

Method, scope, and source quality

How the ballot was resolved

  • Started with Utah's official 2026 filing roster and Salt Lake County's live candidate API.
  • Mapped multiple public institutional/street addresses across 84081 through the U.S. Census geocoder: all matched U.S. House 1 and Utah House 38; the ZIP straddles Senate 16/17, neither on this ballot.
  • Cross-checked State School Board 8 against the official candidate roster and local reporting describing its West Jordan coverage.
  • Included statewide appellate judges plus Third District and Third Juvenile District judges serving Salt Lake County.
  • Excluded withdrawn, convention-eliminated, and primary-eliminated candidates even when stale guides still showed them.

Source hierarchy

  1. Official: Utah filing roster, Salt Lake County roster, JPEC, official voter pamphlet.
  2. Independent reporting: Salt Lake Tribune, KSL, Utah News Dispatch, KUER.
  3. Candidate material: useful for stated positions, never treated as independent validation.
  4. Aggregators/local profiles: used for background when primary material was sparse and labeled accordingly.

Last researched: October 26, 2026. Candidate pages can change. The official address-specific ballot remains the final authority.