Where there are elections, there’s often big money — to the tune of millions of dollars. That’s true in Utah, which doesn’t come close to being a state with the most expensive races.

A lot of the spending in Utah elections for statewide seats comes before convention and before the primary, likely because those seats are often considered safe for Republicans. That money is spent on things like ads and gathering signatures to make it onto primary ballots.

Now that the election is wrapped up, here’s a look at how much money was brought in for candidates and where it was spent.

Utah Results

See Utah results update in real time

Governor

Gov. Spencer Cox (winner of election): The 2024 General Report showed Cox received more than $2.4 million in contributions (year to date). Throughout the year, the Cox campaign reported spending $3,782,382.19. At the beginning of the reporting period, the Cox campaign reported having more than $1.5 million as its balance.

The ending balance of the Cox campaign when it submitted its report was $158,370.28.

Leading up to the final weeks of the election, the Cox campaign spent less than half a million on things like the Governor’s Gala as well as various types of ads.

The report from the time heading into the state Republican convention shows the campaign spent close to $700,000. The campaign reported spending $147,000 on signature gathering. A fair amount of the campaign’s spending was on Lincoln Day dinners, booths at county conventions and advertising.

During the primary election reporting period, the Cox campaign reported it spent more than $1.4 million — a fair amount of it going toward advertising. The biggest single campaign donation the Cox camp reported during this time was to Derek Brown (now Utah attorney general-elect) at $50,000. The single biggest expenditure was $300,000 to Fluid Advertising.

The Cox campaign continued to spend into the general election, reporting around $1.16 million between June 14 and Sept. 25, and then more than $471,000 from Sept. 26 to Oct. 29.

Rep. Brian King: According to the report, King received over $632,000 in contributions (year to date). Throughout the year, the King campaign reported spending $651,962.94. The ending balance of the campaign at the conclusion of the general report’s period was $24,436.94.

The King campaign spent around $126,000 headed into convention. The campaign spent slightly less during the primary season (King was unopposed).

Most of the campaign’s spending happened during the general election — $405,237.56 (total from two reports). The single largest expense during the final reporting period was $45,000 to Elevate Strategies for advertising.

Senate

Rep. John Curtis (winner of election): A look at Open Secrets shows that Curtis raised around $5.4 million and spent about $4.67 million, leaving him with around $1.1 million. The last report is dated just a couple weeks before the election on Oct. 16.

In terms of outside spending, there was more than $7.7 million spent in support of Curtis and just under $100,000 spent opposing Curtis.

Caroline Gleich: During the campaign, Gleich raised around $1.1 million and spent about $1 million, leaving her with $102,819 at the end of the reporting period, according to Open Secrets.

$6,724 was spent in support of Gleich by an outside group: Protect Our Winters Action Fund.

More on the outside groups: There were three outside groups that spent more than $1 million, according to Open Secrets.

The Conservative Values for Utah PAC spent close to $5 million for Curtis. The group also spent $353,009 against Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, a Republican candidate for Senate who lost to Curtis.

Another outside group, Defend American Jobs, spent just under $2 million in support of Curtis. The group also spent $1.5 million against Staggs. Then, the Conservative Outsider PAC spent $1.8 million for Republican candidate Brent Orrin Hatch who was eliminated at convention and didn’t gather enough signatures to qualify for the primary ballot.

Attorney general

Derek Brown (winner of election): The Brown campaign reported over $1.19 million in contributions year to date. The campaign also reported spending close to that same amount during the year and ending with a balance of $215,694.27. The balance at the start of the year was around $200,000.

During the primary reporting period (April 18 to June 13), the Brown campaign spent around $589,474 — much of that amount unsurprisingly going toward advertising.

Much of the Brown campaign spending was either during the primary or headed into the Republican convention. There are two reports filed after the primary election — one shows the campaign spent around $90,000 and the other shows the campaign spent around $152,000.

From January to April 17 (the convention part of the campaign), the Brown campaign reported spending right around $352,805 — $248,000 of that amount went toward signature gathering.

In the final month of the campaign, the Brown team reported spending more than $30,000 to Reagan Outdoor Advertising, which has billboards across the state.

Rudy Bautista: The Bautista campaign did not accept outside donations. The campaign spent $100 on a fine for late disclosure on the primary report — the campaign didn’t collect any donations during that time. The only other expenditure reported by the Bautista campaign is $60 for a website.

Third party candidates: Libertarian candidate Andrew McCullough raised around $500 during the campaign and unaffiliated candidate Austin Hepworth received just over $12,000.

United Utah Party candidate Michelle Quist had $146,000 year to date in contributions received — the Quist campaign ended up spending around $139,000 throughout the year. The largest single expenditure in the report headed into the generation election was $15,000 for advertising to Elevate Strategies.

A pair of Big 12 teams that have diverged from their preseason expectations meet up as No. 17 Colorado plays host to Utah on Saturday. Let’s check in with the new prediction for the game from an expert analytical football model that projects scores and picks winners.

Colorado was picked to finish No. 11 in the Big 12 standings back during the preseason, but has moved into second-place in the conference with a 5-1 league record and controlling its destiny in the championship picture, and thus the College Football Playoff race.

Utah was the preseason Big 12 title favorite, but slid to 1-5 in conference play and ranking 108th among 134 FBS teams in scoring production, with 22 points per game.

What do the analytical models suggest will happen when the Buffaloes and Utes square off in this Big 12 matchup?

For that, let’s turn to the SP+ prediction model to get a preview of how Colorado and Utah compare in this Week 12 college football game.

The models are siding with the Buffaloes over the Utes, but by a very slim margin in this game.

SP+ predicts Colorado will defeat Utah by a projected score of 26 to 22 and will win the game by an expected margin of 3.4 points in the process.

The model gives the Buffaloes a 58 percent chance of outright victory over the Utes.

SP+ is a “tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency” that attempts to predict game outcomes by measuring “the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football.”

How good is it this season? So far, the SP+ model is 292-263-8 against the spread with a 52.6 win percentage after going 30-19-1 (61%) last weekend.

Colorado is an 11.5 point favorite against Utah, according to the updated lines posted to FanDuel Sportsbook for the game.

FanDuel lists the total at 46.5 points for the game (Over -110, Under -110).

And it set the moneyline odds for Colorado at -450 and for Utah at +340 to win outright.

If you’re using this prediction to bet on the game, you should take …

If you do, you’ll be in the company of a majority of bettors, who expect the Buffaloes will dominate the Utes by double digits, according to the latest spread consensus picks for the game.

Colorado is getting 58 percent of bets to win the game and cover the big point spread.

The other 42 percent of wagers project Utah will either take out the Buffs in an upset, or keep the final margin under a dozen points in a loss.

Colorado is top 25 nationally by averaging out 10.5 points better than its opponents this season when adding up the points in the wins and losses.

Utah is 1 of 3 teams in FBS that comes in with a perfect 0.0 point margin in its games in 2024.

Those margins have diverged over the last three games of the season.

Colorado has been 17.3 points better than the competition in that span, while Utah has been 3.3 points worse than opponents over that time.

Things even out a little more depending on the venue.

Utah has been 2.3 points better than opponents when playing on the road, while Colorado has been 5 points better on average than the other team when at home.

Most other analytical models also favor the Buffaloes over the Utes in this Big 12 clash.

That includes the College Football Power Index, a computer prediction model that uses data points from both teams to simulate games 20,000 times to pick winners.

Colorado has emerged as the favorite at home, coming out ahead in 75 percent of the computer’s most recent simulations of the game.

That leaves Utah as the presumptive winner in the remaining 25 percent of sims.

How does that translate into an expected margin of victory in the game?

Colorado is projected to be 9.8 points better than Utah on the same field in both teams’ current composition, according to the model’s latest forecast.

More … Colorado vs. Utah prediction: What the analytics say

Colorado is second among Big 12 teams with a 24.4 percent chance to qualify for the College Football Playoff, according to the FPI’s metrics.

That model projects the Buffaloes will win 9.4 games this season.

Utah hasn’t factored in the playoff conversation for quite a while, but there’s still a chance it can make a bowl game this postseason.

The index gives the Utes a win total projection of 5 games and a 24.9 percent chance to become bowl eligible.

When: Sat., Nov. 16
Time: 10 a.m. Mountain
TV: Fox network

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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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Associated Press

Vegas Golden Knights (10-4-2, in the Pacific Division) vs. Utah Hockey Club (7-6-3, in the Central Division)

Salt Lake City; Friday, 9 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: The Utah Hockey Club host the Vegas Golden Knights after Nick Bjugstad scored two goals in the Utah Hockey Club’s 4-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Utah has gone 4-2-1 at home and 7-6-3 overall. The Utah Hockey Club serve 12.4 penalty minutes per game to rank first in the league.

Vegas is 2-3-2 on the road and 10-4-2 overall. The Golden Knights have a 10-2-2 record when scoring at least three goals.

Friday’s game is the second time these teams match up this season. The Golden Knights won the previous meeting 4-3 in overtime.

TOP PERFORMERS: Dylan Guenther has seven goals and six assists for the Utah Hockey Club. Logan Cooley has scored goals over the last 10 games.

Ivan Barbashev has scored eight goals with nine assists for the Golden Knights. Alexander Holtz has over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Utah Hockey Club: 3-5-2, averaging 2.3 goals, four assists, 3.9 penalties and 11.4 penalty minutes while giving up three goals per game.

Golden Knights: 7-2-1, averaging 4.3 goals, 7.6 assists, 2.1 penalties and five penalty minutes while giving up 2.9 goals per game.

INJURIES: Utah Hockey Club: None listed.

Golden Knights: None listed.

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