Iron County primary votes show incumbents Cozzens, Bleak and Vickers with early leads
Sean Hemmersmeier
On Tuesday ballots were counted for multiple primary races in Iron County — two for the county commission election, two for local school board districts and one for multi-county state senate race.
Outside of the school board elections all the primaries were to determine the Republican nominee, with several races narrowing down the field to one candidate.
While the results could change as additional votes are counted, here are the initial results as of Tuesday evening:
Preliminary Results
State Senate District 28
- Evan Vickers (incumbent): 10,904 votes / 72%
- Patrick Larson: 4,328 votes / 23.51%
Total votes: 15,235
Iron County Commission Seat A
- Mike Bleak (incumbent): 4,567 votes / 64.4%
- Destry Griffiths: 2,525 votes / 35.6%
Total votes: 7,092
Iron County Commission Seat B
- Paul Cozzens (incumbent): 4,034 votes / 55.68%
- Steve Miller: 3,211 votes / 44.32%
Total votes: 7,245
Iron County District 4
- Dale Brinkerhoff (incumbent): 221 votes / 31.71%
- Mary Foremaster: 201 votes / 28.84%
- Stephanie Hill: 275 votes / 39.45%
Total Votes: 697 votes
Iron County District 5
- Tiffany Christiansen: 1,015 votes / 52.89%
- Billy Davis: 744 votes / 38.77%
- Steve Merrill: 160 votes / 8.34%
Total Votes:1,919
It should be noted that these results are just preliminary and will be updated in the future. Since Utah conducts its elections primarily through mail-in ballots, more ballots could still come into county clerks to be counted.
The status of your ballot can be checked by going to the votesearch.utah.gov website.
State Senate District 28
- Evan Vickers
- Patrick Larson
This race features a main-stay of the Utah Legislature, Sen. Evan Vickers, being challenged from the right by a political newcomer, Patrick Larson.
There are many differences between the candidates, Vickers — the senate majority leader — has more than two decades of experience as an elected official between the Utah Legislature and the Cedar City council. While Larson has never held elected office before.
Larson said he wanted to challenge Vickers because of the way the Utah state government acted during the first months of the pandemic including brief business lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. Larson also says he cares about voter fraud and doesn't want officials to encourage party switching.
Vickers got about 57% of the delegate vote at the state convention and Larson got about 40% of the delegate vote.
Larson also expresses right-wing positions including getting rid of the signature-gathering process, banning any kind of vaccine passport and recalling so-called RINOS (Republicans in name only) officials.
Vickers says if he gets another term he wants to focus on issues around education, water conservation, fighting inflation and continue to keep state spending at "frugal" levels.
Outside of politics, Vickers is a pharmacist and owns several pharmacies in Cedar City and one in Richfield and is the president of Bulloch Building LLC. While Larson is self-employed and works at a company called Blackstar Services where he does work on decks, roofs, fences and remodeling.
When it comes to campaign finance, Vickers had the clear advantage for this election. He got more than $230,000 in contributions and spent just under $95,000. Larson got just under $2,100 in contributions and spent about $5,600.
Check out: Multiple Iron County GOP candidates break six-figures in contributions, finance reports show
Iron County Commission Seat A
- Mike Bleak (incumbent)
- Destry Griffiths
This race is between two candidates with experience in law enforcement as both Bleak and Griffiths have worked for the Cedar City Police Department.
Bleak is the incumbent and has been on the Iron County Commission for six years and has worked with the Cedar City Police Department for over 20 years. Griffiths has worked Cedar City Police Department some experience as an elected official by serving on the Enoch City Council.
Bleak got 57% of the delegate vote at Iron County Convention and Griffiths got 43% of the delegate vote.
Both candidates have espoused conservative values. Bleak said he is running for another term because he was born and raised in Iron County and wants to make it a better place for future generations. Griffiths says he’s committed to traditional family values, property rights and state rights.
This race didn't have a lot of campaign cash compared to other races. Bleak spent just under $8,200 and got just over $8,300 in contributions. Griffiths got just under $7,900 in campaign contributions in total he had just over $5,800 in expenditures.
ICYMI: Multiple Iron County GOP candidates break six-figures in contributions, finance reports show
There are no other candidates filed in this race so the winner of this Republican primary will likely win the general election in November.
Iron County Commission Seat B
- Paul Cozzens (incumbent)
- Steve Miller
This race is between a political newcomer, Steve Miller, and the incumbent, Paul Cozzens, who has been on the commission for the last four years and before that was on the Cedar City Council for eight years.
Cozzens is a retired cabinet maker who is seeking reelection to protect the quality of life and taxpayers, build infrastructure and to prevent government overreach. Miller is an owner of an insurance agency with the Farm Bureau Financial Services who said he wants to be on the county commission to bring integrity, trust and transparency to it.
This race saw a large amount of campaign spending for a county commission race. More than $183,000 was raised and just under $160,000 was spent between the two candidates.
Miller got $138,500 in contributions and spent over $115,000 on this election. But 97.5%, or $135,000, of Miller's campaign cash comes from six different Washington County entities associated with mining and development.
Cozzens got $44,800 in contributions and spent $44,100 in expenditures. Cozzens spent just over $44,100 and got just over $44,800 in contributions, with his largest contributor Bill Hirschi who gave $10,000.
Catch up: Multiple Iron County GOP candidates break six-figures in contributions, finance reports show
No other candidates filed in this race so the winner of this Republican primary will likely win the general election in November.
Iron County School Board races
Iron County District 4
- Dale Brinkerhoff (incumbent)
- Mary Foremaster
- Stephanie Hill
Brinkerhoff is the current vice president of the school board.
Foremaster has a background in banking and is a student working towards a master's degree in Public Administration at Southern Utah University. She says having two daughters in school inspired her to run for the school board and she describes herself as "strong supporter" for teachers, according to her website.
Hill is a former English and Spanish teacher. On her website, Hill says she wants to focus on literacy for every student, improving parental access to the curriculum and preparing students for secondary education.
Iron County District 5
- Tiffany Christiansen
- Billy Davis
- Steve Merrill
Christiansen is currently the vice president of marketing for the Leavitt Group, an insurance agency. Christiansen says she has volunteered in many different ways in the community and wants to be on the school board to continue her service, according to Christiansen's website. If elected she says her priorities would be educating the whole student both academically and emotionally, managing the growth of the district and creating clear lines of communication.
Davis is a realtor for ERA Brokers and recently has spent time as a substitute teacher in the school district, according to his website. Davis says if he were elected he would focus on being a steward of the tax dollars, focusing on protecting parental rights in education and using "southern Utah values and ethics" to find solutions.
Merrill is a software development manager and says he would prioritize the need of students if elected to the school board, according to his website. But Merrill also wants to protect teachers and give them the right tools to educate students. He also emphasizes teaching the whole child around physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
Sean Hemmersmeier covers local government, growth and development in Southwestern Utah. Follow on Twitter @seanhemmers34. Our work depends on subscribers so if you want more coverage on these issues you can subscribe here: thespectrum.com/subscribe.