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Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee speaks to reporters during an election-night party Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Salt Lake City.

Rick Bowmer, Associated Press

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Independent Evan McMullin, left, talks to supporters with his wife Emily Norton, right, during an election night event Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Taylorsville. McMullin is trying to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican.

Alex Goodlett, Associated Press

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SALT LAKE CITY — An independent candidate with backing from Democrats is attempting to end the Republican stranglehold on U.S. Senate seats in Utah, hoping to harness the antipathy many voters in the state feel toward former President Donald Trump becoming the GOP’s standard-bearer.

Evan McMullin has spent months attacking second term Republican Sen. Mike Lee and characterizing him as a Trump acolyte who abandoned his beloved U.S. Constitution to assist in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Lee has tried to focus the race on everyday issues such as the cost of living and aimed to appeal to the state’s Republican roots by making a case about how important he thinks it is for the party to retake the Senate.

Lee won election to his first two terms in the Senate by convincing margins, but Lee said at an election night party in Salt Lake City that he expected the race to be close.

Early results had him leading 330,304 votes to 257,847 for McMullin, or 54.25% to 42.35%.

As Lee addressed reporters in English and Spanish, his supporters and staff congregated in front of a projector watching results trickle in from eastern states, including Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania on FOX News. A band called The Truth Project played oldies on stage while guests drank nonalcoholic ginger beer and Mountain Dew.

Though polls were scheduled to close at 8 p.m., Lieutenant Gov. Deidre Henderson said she expected 30 to 45 minutes of delays so voters in line could cast their ballots. Her office had warned results may be late to publish as several counties expected more in-person voters than usual due to late arriving mail ballots. The vast majority of Utah voters cast ballots by mail.

She and Gov. Spencer Cox addressed the party faithful shortly after 8 p.m., revving up the crowd with remarks about Utah’s booming economy and the business-friendly policies Republicans in control have made law. Cox, who is known for being a moderate, said he expected Republicans to win convincingly on Tuesday, with Lee defeating McMullin by a double-digit margin.

An upset victory from McMullin, who ran for president in 2016 as an independent, would complicate both parties’ efforts to win control of Congress. McMullin, a former Republican, was endorsed by the Utah Democratic Party earlier this year but is running as an independent, unaffiliated with either party. Unlike independent Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, McMullin has vowed not to caucus with either party.

The race will serve as a referendum on the direction that Trump has taken the GOP. Religious and socially conservative voters in Utah lean Republican, yet many support the former president less than some of the party’s other standard-bearers, such as Sen. Mitt Romney.

However, both the state Republican Party and the electorate have gradually shifted to embrace Trump since his 2016 ascendance. He only won 45.5% of the state’s vote in 2016, when McMullin’s independent bid won 21.5%, but in 2020, he won 58.1%.

McMullin has repeatedly hammered Lee for text messages he exchanged with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that were published by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on U.S. Capitol. In the November 2020 exchange, Lee appeared to ask for guidance from Team Trump, discussed ideas to challenge the election results and mentioned communicating with Republicans in swing states about putting forth alternate slates of electors.

Lee has claimed he was merely doing due diligence and he notes that he did not join congressional Republicans who objected to the results when they were certified on Jan. 6, the day of the insurrection.

Utah’s four Republican U.S. House incumbents also seemingly beat back challengers Tuesday.

Based on unofficial vote totals, Reps. Blake Moore, Chris Stewart, John Curtis and Burgess Owens all garnered insurmountable leads, though tabulation of voting will continue in the coming days.

In the races:

• Moore fended off Democrat Rick Jones 116,788 to 51,531, earning 69.38% of the vote.
• Stewart came out on top of in a four-way contest against Democrat Nick Mitchell, JayMac McFarland of the United Utah Party and Cassie Easley of the Constitution Party. Stewart accumulated 80,586 votes (70.23%) to Mitchell’s 26,854 (23.40%), McFarland’s 4,163 (3.63%) and Easley’s 3,147 (2.74%).
• Curtis was the winner in a five-man bout, getting 5,896 votes, or 74.31%. He topped Democrat Glenn Wright, who had 1,573 (19.83%); Libertarian Michael Stoddard, 193 (2.43%); Constitution Party candidate Daniel Cummings, 140 (1.76%); and Aaron Heineman of the Independent American Party, 132 (1.66%).
• Owens also appears headed back to Washington, D.C. He took home 36,266 votes Tuesday, accounting for 73.17% of the partial results. That was more than Democrat Darlene McDonald’s 9,971 (20.12%) or the 3,324 votes (6.71%) tallied for January Walker of the United Utah Party.