SALT LAKE CITY — Two Democrats have officially qualified for the June primary ballot for Utah’s newly redrawn 1st Congressional District after meeting the threshold for signature gathering.

Former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams and state Sen. Nate Blouin are the first candidates in the crowded Democratic primary field to qualify for the ballot, and several other challengers still need to turn in several thousand signatures by the end of next week in order to guarantee their place.

Candidates can also qualify for the primary by winning the support from party delegates at the nominating convention on April 25.

As the race to convention starts up in earnest, a new internal poll released by the Blouin campaign shows McAdams, a former Democratic congressman who served from 2019 to 2021, leading the field with support from 36% of likely primary voters followed by Blouin with 23%. Salt Lake City Councilwoman Eva Lopez Chavez and state Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, trail the two apparent front-runners with about 7% each, while the remaining Democratic candidates are polling in the low single digits.

The poll was conducted by Data for Progress, a progressive think tank and polling firm, which surveyed 381 voters primarily via text from March 23 to 26. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

While internal political polls should be taken with a grain of salt, the data provides the first public look at the race for the first Democratic-leaning congressional district Utah has had in recent years. That district was created thanks to a court-ordered map put in place after state lawmakers were found to have violated the state’s anti-gerrymandering law known as Proposition 4.

“I don’t think Utah has ever had a competitive district so packed for Democrats before,” said Leah Murray, the director of Weber State University’s Olene S. Walker Institute of Politics and Public Service. “I’m actually not sure what this will look like, because I’m not sure what Democrats do and how they behave in this ecosystem, because I’ve never seen it before.”

McAdams is the most recent Democrat to represent Utah at the federal level, but he won in 2018 in a very different district that required him to win over at least some number of Republicans or conservative-leaning voters.

That’s not the case this time around.

Because Utah Democrats tend to lean toward the left end of the political spectrum, Murray said Blouin could be seen as a favorite as the more progressive candidate. But the poll found that McAdams has higher name recognition among likely primary voters, which could explain his lead.

“Name recognition in a primary is so important because that’s an intraparty fight,” she said. “So you’re not really going to make a distinction between yourself and other candidates on issues, because Democrats are going to have … just different shades on a particular issue. So the name recognition lead, as big as it is for Ben McAdams, is definitely an advantage for him heading into this election cycle.”

With the wide field of Democratic hopefuls likely to be whittled down significantly during the convention later this month, the recent poll doesn’t capture the dynamics of what will be a race between only a few hopefuls.

A quarter of those surveyed for the poll say they are still undecided, and Blouin was optimistic about the state of the race.

“I’m proud of the work we’ve done to get within striking distance of the establishment’s choice in CD1,” Blouin told KSL through a spokesperson. “We are building a campaign focused on the needs of everyday Utahns, and that’s why our message resonates with this new district.”

A spokesperson for McAdams said, “Ben is the clear front-runner in this race, even based on his opponent’s polling. He will continue to work hard to share his long record of service and earn support from his neighbors across this district.”

Utah Democratic primaries are open, meaning unaffiliated voters and those registered with other parties can participate, which can further complicate efforts to get an accurate sample of voters who will actually participate in a Democratic primary, Murray said.

Ryan O-Donnell, the executive director of Data for Progress, said the poll “was designed to capture the likely Democratic primary electorate in (District 1) using a combination of voter-file turnout indicators and respondents’ stated likelihood of voting in the upcoming primary.”

“Our approach reflects both our methodological research and our past experience polling primary races,” he told KSL.

The other Democrats vying for the primary are Michael Farrell, Liban Mohamed and Luis Villarreal. The winner of the primary will face Forward Party candidate January Walker, Libertarian Jesse West, and the winner of the Republican primary, which includes Stone Fonua, Jonathan Lopez, Riley Owen and Dave Robinson.

The primary election is June 23, and Election Day is Nov. 3.

Utah Jazz (21-56, 14th in the Western Conference) vs. Houston Rockets (47-29, fifth in the Western Conference)

Houston; Friday, 8 p.m. EDT

BOTTOM LINE: Houston hosts Utah looking to extend its four-game home winning streak.

The Rockets are 25-22 against Western Conference opponents. Houston averages 14.5 turnovers per game and is 19-8 when it turns the ball over less than its opponents.

The Jazz are 11-36 against Western Conference opponents. Utah is sixth in the league scoring 17.1 fast break points per game. Lauri Markkanen leads the Jazz averaging 3.3.

The Rockets score 114.4 points per game, 11.0 fewer points than the 125.4 the Jazz give up. The Jazz score 7.4 more points per game (117.3) than the Rockets give up (109.9).

The teams square off for the fourth time this season. The Rockets won the last matchup 125-105 on Feb. 24. Jabari Smith Jr. scored 31 points to help lead the Rockets to the win.

TOP PERFORMERS: Kevin Durant is averaging 25.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.7 assists for the Rockets. Reed Sheppard is averaging 3.6 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

Ace Bailey is averaging 13.5 points for the Jazz. Brice Sensabaugh is averaging 17.2 points over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Rockets: 6-4, averaging 116.3 points, 46.8 rebounds, 29.4 assists, 8.0 steals and 5.4 blocks per game while shooting 48.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 110.1 points per game.

Jazz: 1-9, averaging 117.1 points, 42.0 rebounds, 29.8 assists, 9.4 steals and 4.9 blocks per game while shooting 47.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 128.2 points.

INJURIES: Rockets: Fred VanVleet: out for season (acl), Steven Adams: out for season (ankle).

Jazz: Lauri Markkanen: out (hip), Isaiah Collier: out (hamstring), Keyonte George: out (leg), Walker Kessler: out for season (shoulder), Jusuf Nurkic: out for season (nose), Elijah Harkless: day to day (hamstring), Jaren Jackson Jr.: out for season (knee).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

The case of a Utah teenager murdered more than 50 years ago is finally closed after authorities said Wednesday that DNA evidence confirmed she was a victim of notorious serial killer Ted Bundy.

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Laura Ann Aime, 17, was last seen at a Halloween party on Oct. 31, 1974. She left the party to do a convenience store run and never returned, according to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.

Hikers found the woman’s body about a month later, down an embankment just off a mountain road. It appeared she had been strangled and severely beaten, the office said.

Before his execution in 1989, Bundy admitted to killing Aime, Sheriff Mike Smith said Wednesday. But authorities declined to accept the confession and determined the case “was unable to satisfactorily convict Bundy based upon the evidence in possession and with the available investigative sciences for the time,” the sheriff’s office said.

At the time, Bundy was studying law at the University of Utah.

The office said that it began efforts last year to resolve Aime’s cold case using new forensic techniques and DNA test comparisons. The process confirmed that the DNA evidence recovered from Aime’s body in 1974 belonged to Bundy.

“This case is officially closed,” Smith said during a news conference Wednesday.

Michelle Impala, Aime’s younger sister, remembered Aime as a fun, outgoing older sister.

“I was 12 when Laura died. She was 17. We were really close. We shared a room. We rode horses together. She was very passionate about animals,” Impala, who is now 64, said at the news conference. “She took me everywhere, as a 12-year-old that was pretty cool to hang out with my older sister.”

Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Reynolds, who was involved in reviewing Aime’s cold case last year, described the late teen as “the quintessential daughter of Utah County.”

“We felt the pain the family feels when she was taken. We felt the pain that you felt this whole entire time, and we’ve had the desire to deliver to you some type of healing, we can’t really say closure,” Reynolds said during the news conference.

Smith said new forensic techniques “will make any future DNA test comparisons easier for those law enforcement agencies who still have open cases involving Bundy.”

Bundy kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered what is believed to be dozens of young women during the 1970s.

While it is unknown exactly how many people he killed, he confessed to murdering 30 women in seven states in the mid-1970s. Bundy was executed on Jan. 24, 1989.

Bundy was convicted of murdering two sorority sisters from Florida State University. The 1979 trial was the first to be nationally televised, sparking a twisted fascination among viewers at home who considered him charming and handsome.

In the decades since his execution, Bundy has been the subject of countless films, documentaries, books and biographies.