On April 20th the candidates for Alpine School Board were invited to the county convention for the Utah County Republic Party. Although local board races are non-partisan, the Republic Party has an endorsement process where candidates can come give speeches and then the county delegates vote on whether to endorse the candidates. Only candidates who are registered Republicans are invited to participate.
For the Alpine School Board - District 5 race, three candidates participated - myself, Mark Clement (the incumbent), and Alicia Alba. The 4th candidate, Tracy McMillan, is not a registered Republican, so she was not invited to participate. On the day of the convention, we each gave our 5-minute speeches and then the delegates voted. Since our race had three candidates, and since the rules allow for two candidates to be endorsed in each race, each of the 99 delegates who voted were allowed to vote for nobody, vote for one candidate, or vote for two candidates. The rules also require that a candidate get at least 60% of the vote to get the official party endorsement.
After the votes were totaled, and then automatically recounted because the vote was so close, I won the most votes! Here is a screenshot from the county convention results website:
(You can see the results for all the races at the county convention at https://ucrp.org/2024-county-convention-results/).
Given that there were only 99 ballots cast, it is clear that some delegates must have voted for two candidates, which was allowed. But I am very encouraged by the fact that the incumbent, Mark Clement, who has been in office for 10 years and has tremendous name recognition, only got 19 of the 99 voters in the room to vote for him. I am also encouraged that I received a few more votes than the other challenger, Alicia Alba, who has campaigned hard and has also built up a fair amount of name recognition.
I feel like this vote was a good indicator that my positions resonate with voters, and that voters appreciate a candidate who is willing to say exactly what principles he stands for and make concrete promises based on those principles so that voters know exactly what he will do, and exactly what he won't do, if elected. When I am deciding who to vote for, I want to know exactly what a candidate stands for and exactly what the candidate plans to vote for, and vote against, if elected. So I think my concrete positions and plans resonated with the voters at the county convention. I also feel like this vote shows the momentum I have going into the primary election on June 4th-25th. And even though I was 2 votes shy of getting over the 60% threshold necessary for the party endorsement, I am still pleased that I received the most votes of any candidate.
I want to thank all the delegates who spent their whole Saturday serving at the convention. I've been a delegate, so I have an idea of how much time it takes to study the candidates and attend the convention and related meetings. Thank you delegates for your service!
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