Davis County Republican primary voters endorsed numerous incumbents in Tuesday’s election, including Commissioners Lorene Kamalu and Bob Stevenson.

Kamalu was attending the Earth, Wind and Fire concert in Salt Lake County on Tuesday evening while tracking ballot tabulations on her phone. “My husband asked me to go, and I said, ‘Layne,’ it’s election results night,’ but I wanted to and I owed him,” she said Wednesday morning. “I was a horrible date because I was distracted the whole time.”

But the couple and some relatives had a mini-celebration when the crucial totals came in, showing Kamalu had defeated Clearfield Mayor Mark Shepherd, who had narrowly outpolled her at the party convention.

“I’m thankful that a strong majority of people realized we had some really good results to show from the last four years,” Kamalu said. Unofficial results showed Kamalu received 25,162 votes to Shepherd’s 17,793. With no opposition on the November general election ballot, Tuesday’s result effectively sends Kamalu to a second four-year term.

Incumbent Bob Stevenson also rebounded from a trailing position at the convention to soundly defeat challenger Luke Brooks on Tuesday. Stevenson had 29,334 votes, while Brooks pulled in 13,197. Like Kamalu, Stevenson is unopposed in November.

Other county office victors Tuesday included Auditor Curtis Koch, who got 28,447 votes to beat challenger Tyson Plastow, with 12,676.

Koch’s chief deputy in the formerly combined clerk/auditor’s office, Brian McKenzie, won the GOP primary election nod for the clerk’s office, which is responsible for election operations. McKenzie received 25,942 votes and Michelle Scharf got 15,432.

Davis County voters also chose to return legislative incumbents to office, including Layton Sen. Jerry Stevenson and south Davis state Reps. Raymond Ward and Melissa Ballard.

Kamalu said her campaign had to withstand inaccurate claims that the county overreached during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Davis County never did a mask mandate,” said Kamalu, whose management portfolio on the commission includes oversight of the county health department. “There was confusion among people who were sensitive to a mandate. That was used by opponents.”

But she said Shepherd “never became outright negative.” Efforts to reach Shepherd, who campaigned for a reevaluation of the county’s form of government, were not immediately successful.

Kamalu said the bottom line is that county commissioners have various areas of responsibility and that she is happy to be given four more years to do county business.

Bob Stevenson, who easily defeated Brooks on Tuesday after Brooks claimed a larger delegate vote at the convention, said Wednesday the GOP caucus and convention system this year “was hijacked by the far right.” He noted that most of the candidates who won in Tuesday’s voting had finished second in delegate voting.

One incumbent Republican, state Rep. Steve Handy, was defeated at the county convention by Trevor Lee. “During the caucus system, 60 people took him (Handy) out,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson said Brooks “seems like a pretty danged good guy, and he should not be afraid to get involved” in politics again.

“Obviously I’m personally disappointed, but I wish the best of luck to Bob Stevenson,” Brooks said Wednesday. Brooks said he was outspent by Stevenson 3 to 1 but still attracted a third or more of the vote. “It shows the messaging I had was connecting with people,” said Brooks, who campaigned for traditional conservative values.

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