Ben McAdams, who served one term in Congress during President Donald Trump’s first term, plans to announce Thursday that he is running for a new Democratic-leaning House seat in Utah, he said in an interview.
The seat was created amid a national redistricting fight after a state judge this month rejected a congressional map drawn by Republicans and adopted an alternate proposal. Republicans nationally hold a narrow 219-214 majority, making every seat crucial.
Utah has not had a Democratic member of Congress since 2021, after McAdams lost his seat — which at the time represented a conservative district — after he voted to impeach Trump. Republicans hold all four of its congressional seats.
But McAdams will now run in a solidly Democratic district. Judge Dianna Gibson ruled this week that the map advanced by Republicans, which was designed to protect all four seats, “unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats.” Gibson ultimately selected a map that keeps almost all of Salt Lake County — which is heavily Democratic — in one district rather than divided among multiple districts.
Gibson’s ruling added a critical seat for Democrats as they work to counter an unprecedented Republican effort — pushed by Trump — to redraw maps in their states mid-cycle to maintain their House majority. The party out of power typically holds an advantage in midterm elections.
The redistricting effort began when Trump urged Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, to redraw his state’s map to gain five more Republican-leaning seats. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) led a successful effort this month to win voter support for new maps that would add five safer Democratic seats. Republicans hold an advantage in drawing maps because they control more states.
McAdams previously served as mayor of Salt Lake County and in the Utah state Senate before being elected to a single congressional term in 2018. He was raised by a single mom who brought up six kids and lived paycheck to paycheck and is focused on making life more affordable for low-income and working-class families, he said.
“Washington seems to have forgotten about families like mine. They’ve forgotten what real life is like,” McAdams said in an interview. “Instead of feeding kids, we’re working to deny SNAP benefits and health care subsidies that are so important to people’s ability to access health care, and I think it’s cruel.”
McAdams was referring to the Trump administration’s multiple appeals — including to the Supreme Court — during the more than 40-day government shutdown to not have to pay full food assistance benefits to millions of Americans despite lower court orders. He was also referencing Democrats’ demand during the shutdown that an extension of pandemic-era health subsidies to help people buy health insurance on the Obamacare individual marketplace be part of any funding package. Republican lawmakers and a handful of Democrats voted to end the shutdown without extending the subsidies.
McAdams said he has grown distressed by the progression of Trump’s second term, including Trump’s decision to send the National Guard into Democratic-led cities; reports of immigrants being whisked off the street and deported without due process; and his erosion of democratic norms and institutions.
“It feels like in the blink of an eye, Donald Trump has taken our democracy and trampled all over it,” McAdams said. “Many Republicans are his accomplices but I see too many Democrats aren’t doing enough to stop it.”
McAdams declined to say whether he would support House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) as the party’s leader if Democrats retake control of the House.
“We shouldn’t be fighting for the sake of fighting. Democrats need to be fighting to deliver results for American families,” McAdams said.
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