In the end, the race to be the next Salt Lake City mayor wasn’t all that close, with Erin Mendenhall opening up an election night lead that proved insurmountable.
Despite having more than 9,700 ballots left to count, state Sen. Luz Escamilla conceded defeat Wednesday. When the rest of the ballots are counted, there’s a good chance she’ll cut into the margin a little, but needing to win four out of five of the remaining votes, the hole was just too deep.
Escamilla started the general election at a disadvantage, finishing more than a thousand votes behind in the primary and Mendenhall’s campaign didn’t let up.