OGDEN — Utah Rep. Rosemary Lesser, the sole Democrat in Weber County’s legislative delegation, was leading GOP challenger Jill Koford in the hotly contested race for the District 10 Utah House seat.

According to partial, preliminary numbers released Tuesday night, Lesser had garnered 3,792 votes, 53.8% of the total, to 3,251 for Koford, or 46.2%, putting Lesser in the driver’s seat to win the race. The seat covers portions of Ogden, South Ogden, Washington Terrace and Riverdale and the two contenders had mustered more in donations than in any other race for state office serving Weber County.

Elsewhere, preliminary totals indicate there will be possibly four new faces in the Utah House serving Weber and Davis counties.

Republican Jason Kyle appeared headed to victory over Democrat Monica Hall in the race for the District 8 seat, now held by Rep. Steve Waldrip, who didn’t seek reelection.

Republican Katy Hall, the sole candidate in the District 11 race, defeated incumbent Kelly Miles in the GOP primary last June, but with her votes Tuesday is formally on her way to Salt Lake City.

Over in Davis County, Republican Trevor Lee was outdistancing Republican write-in hopeful Stephen Handy, the incumbent, by a fairly large margin. Libertarian contender Brent Zimmerman trailed further back.

Republican Paul Cutler was the sole hopeful in the District 18 Utah House race in Davis County and will take over from Rep. Timothy Hawkes, a GOPer who opted not to seek reelection.

There was one Utah Senate post serving Weber County on the ballot, the District 5 spot. GOP incumbent Ann Millner was easily outdistancing her Democratic challenger Michael Blodgett.

The results released Tuesday evening, still unofficial, only represent a portion of the ballots cast, a large portion. But statistically speaking, it would be tough for the second-place hopefuls to claw back as the final votes are added to the totals in the coming days given the margins.

Here’s a look at the preliminary vote totals released Tuesday night, race by race:

District 5 Utah Senate: Millner, seeking her third term, had garnered 12,048 votes, 63% of the total to 7,070 for Blodgett, 37% of the total.

District 8 Utah House: Kyle had garnered 5,245 votes, 58.6%, to 3,699 for Hall, 41.4%.

District 9 Utah House: Republican incumbent Cal Musselman, seeking his third term, had garnered 3,851 votes, 62.2% of the total. Democrat Neil Hansen had 1,923 votes, 31%, and Libertarian Jacob Johnson had 421, 6.8%.

District 10 Utah House: Lesser, seeking election to the post for the first time, had garnered 3,792 votes, 53.8% of the total, and Koford had 3,251 votes, 46.2%. Lesser was appointed to the seat in early 2021 by Weber County Democrats after the death of Rep. Lou Shurtliff, who had held the post.

District 11 Utah House: Hall, the only candidate, had 6,742 votes.

District 16 Utah House: Lee had 5,261 votes, 48.7% of the total, Handy had 3,863 votes, 35.8%, and Zimmerman had 1,678, 15.5%.

District 18 Utah House: Cutler, the only candidate, had received 10,442 votes.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Jill Koford’s name.

Newsletter