SALT LAKE CITY — Incumbent Erin Mendenhall has won her re-election bid for mayor of Utah’s capital in an election contest that challenged former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson.
The ballots released Wednesday, which included all scannable ballots in the possession of the Salt Lake County clerk, showed Mendenhall had 58% of the vote, compared to Anderson’s 34%, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
“As seemed quite clear last night, these final results clearly indicate that Mayor Mendenhall has won re-election,” Anderson said. “I wish her all the best and I hope she and her team succeed.”
Mendenhall’s campaign said Anderson called the mayor Wednesday afternoon to concede.
Although the position of mayor is officially nonpartisan, the city is largely Democratic in a predominantly Republican state.
At her election night party Tuesday, Mendenhall told her supporters she would “regroup with new energy and urgency for a second term.”
“This election ends with voters saying loud and clear that they want Salt Lake City to continue moving forward together,” Mendenhall said. “Salt Lakers are not afraid of our incredible future. We are enthusiastic about it. This election was a rejection of cynicism, and a rejection of the politics of fear.”
An October 24 debate involving three of the mayoral candidates discussed a number of key issues: conserving water, combating climate change, reducing crime and tackling homelessness.
Anderson, who served two terms from 2000 to 2008, had criticized Mendenhall for not doing enough to alleviate the rising costs of housing. He proposed mixed-income housing built by the city to help solve the problem, instead of Mendenhall’s approach, which involves working more closely with developers.
This was Salt Lake City’s first mayoral race since the capital, along with several Utah cities, adopted ranked-choice voting in 2021. The system allows voters to rank the three candidates regardless of party.
If no candidate claims a majority, the third-place candidate is eliminated and voters’ second and third choices determine the winner.