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SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City Councilwoman Erin Mendenhall and state Sen. Luz Escamilla are headed to the Salt Lake mayoral general election, the latest batch of results released Friday confirmed.
Friday’s results kept Mendenhall in the lead with 9,002 votes and 24.26% of the vote. Escamilla remained in second place with 7,968 votes and 21.48%.
The several hundred votes added to the count on Friday consisted primarily of provisional ballots and ballots that were still being reviewed the day before, Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said. The official final results of the race won’t be posted until Aug. 27, but Swensen said it’s extremely unlikely that the final results will look significantly different than those posted Friday.
“This is pretty much everything,” Swensen said. “It isn’t final-final, but almost.”
Updated results released Thursday had bumped former state Sen. Jim Dabakis out of his second place slot and put Escamilla back in the running. Dabakis remained in third place on Friday with 7,509 votes, 20.24% of the vote.
Related:
Two women to face off for Salt Lake City mayor for first time in city’s history
Salt Lake City Councilwoman Erin Mendenhall and state Sen. Luz Escamilla will face off in November to become Salt Lake City’s mayor.Mendenhall claimed victory on election night, when she took nearly 24% of the vote. But as of Tuesday, Dabakis had only a 109-vote lead over Escamilla, making the race for second place too close to call. On Thursday, after the second batch of results came out, Dabakis conceded to Escamilla in a tweet, writing, “I lost!”
I lost! New votes counted. Greatest honor of my life to serve full time people of Utah and SLC for 8 years. I never compromised my principles! Congrats to woman. Stephen, we are going on that great vacation! #utpol
— Jim Dabakis (@JimDabakis) August 15, 2019
This race will mark the first time in Salt Lake City history when two women run against each other in the mayoral general election, effectively guaranteeing that city elects its third female mayor.
The city has had two female mayors: current Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Deedee Corradini, Salt Lake City’s first woman mayor who served from 1992 to 2000.
