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From left, Utah Rep. Rosemary Lesser, District 8 Utah House hopeful Jason Kyle and District 16 Utah House hopeful Trevor Lee.

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A voter fills out his ballot at the Weber County Fairgrounds in-person voting site in Ogden on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

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Utah Rep. Rosemary Lesser isn’t declaring victory in her bid for the District 10 Utah House seat, though she’s cautiously optimistic.

“It’s important we wait and see that every vote is counted,” she said Wednesday. The post covers parts of Ogden, South Ogden, Riverdale and Washington Terrace, and Lesser led in balloting after the first ballots were counted Tuesday, though more still need to be tallied.

Trevor Lee, on his way to victory over incumbent Stephen Handy in the race for the District 16 Utah House seat in the Layton area, is anxious to get to work at the Utah Legislature and fight for conservative values. The race was unusual in that it featured two Republicans, with the incumbent, Handy, vying as a write-in after he lost to Lee at the Davis County Republican Party Convention last spring.

“I’m excited to work with the (Republican) caucus to get things done,” Lee said.

Jason Kyle, headed to victory in the race for the District 8 Utah House seat, which covers Ogden’s East Bench, the Ogden Valley and part of North Ogden, says inflation needs to be a focus when lawmakers meet for the 2023 session early next year. “I think the main focus is trying to help Utahns with affordable living. I think everyone’s struggling with inflation, high costs of everything,” he said, pointing to tax cuts as a possible means of addressing the issue.

Voting ended Tuesday in a slew of House and local races across Weber and Davis counties and beyond, and with the dust still settling, the varied hopefuls are alternatively processing the results, which still must be finalized, and charting their next steps.

“I think I’m going to soak it in a little bit,” said Kyle, a Republican who will take over from incumbent Rep. Steve Waldrip, who didn’t seek reelection. Kyle, from the Ogden Valley, is on track to win election for the first time after garnering nearly 60% of the votes in the race against Democrat Monica Hall.

Lesser was taking a wait-and-see approach. The Democratic incumbent led Republican Jill Koford by a 53.8%-46.2% margin, according to initial results released Tuesday night, but said Wednesday that she wanted to await more tallies before declaring the election over. Both candidates are from Ogden.

“I am uplifted that we’re ahead at this point in time,” she said. Lesser is the sole Democrat in Weber County’s legislative delegation — the sole Democrat in the Utah House or Senate from outside Salt Lake County, in fact — and the District 10 race was the most closely contested legislative contest in the county.

In a post on her Facebook page, Koford, who didn’t immediately respond to a query seeking comment, offered thanks to her backers.

“I am so grateful for the outpouring of support I received from colleagues, family and friends, old and new — it’s easy to work really hard for something you believe in when you have so many people lifting you up and helping along the way,” Koford wrote. “The outcome for me is a win no matter what the numbers say. Representing the Weber GOP in this race has been such an honor — THANK YOU!”

Weber County Clerk/Auditor Ricky Hatch said Wednesday that 50,354 ballots from Weber County were counted on Tuesday, with around 27,000 more ballots yet to be processed. The next batch of results should be released Thursday afternoon.

The numbers from Tuesday represent “a strong statistical sample of total ballots,” Hatch said. But he noted that the District 6 Weber school board race — the closest of any in Weber County — could flip when more votes are totaled. Incumbent Janis Christensen led with 3,522 votes, 50.2% of the total, compared to 3,494, or 49.8%, for challenger Heidi Gross.

“A couple other races could theoretically flip, but it his highly unlikely,” Hatch went on. “One thing to consider is that people who voted in person are more likely to lean Republican, so it’s possible that Republican candidates could slightly gain ground. But since fewer than 5% of voters voted in person, it will not have a big impact on the current results.”

Most Weber County voters, around 95% of them, mailed their ballots or left them in drop boxes.

Lee, the District 16 hopeful, had garnered 48.7% of the votes, according to preliminary numbers on Tuesday, while Handy received 35.8% support. Libertarian Brent Zimmerman trailed in third with 15.5% of the votes.

After the electoral battle between the two District 16 GOPers, which grew acrimonious at times, Lee admonished Handy, who has served six terms in the spot, to throw his support to the Republican Party in a bid to heal any wounds.

Handy, for his part, offered congratulations to Lee.

“Hats off to Lee’s campaign and best wishes to him and his service,” he said. “The voters have spoken and I accept that.”

He said his bid was never meant to split the Republican Party. He was approached by constituents after incendiary remarks by Lee about the LGBTQ community came to light last spring, which spurred his unconventional write-in bid.

In Weber County, one other newcomer is headed to Salt Lake City — Republican Katy Hall of South Ogden, the sole hopeful on Tuesday’s ballot for the District 11 Utah House post. Hall defeated incumbent Rep. Kelly Miles last June, but with no opponent on Tuesday she didn’t face the sort of general election campaigning others did.

“I can’t say I have any specific agenda going in there. I just want to represent common-sense conservatism and want to have really good communication with the people in our district,” Hall said. “I just want to have conversations with people, even if don’t agree on everything.”

Rep. Cal Musselman of West Haven, the District 9 representative and a Republican, defeated Democrat Neil Hansen and Libertarian Jacob Johnson to earn a third term.

Three other incumbent Utah House representatives serving Weber County were unchallenged Tuesday and earn new terms. They are Matt Gwynn in District 6, Ryan Wilcox in District 7 and Mike Schultz in District 12, all GOPers.