Ben McAdams

Benjamin Michael McAdams is an American politician and attorney. He served as the U.S. Representative from Utah’s 4th congressional district from 2019 to 2021. From 2013 to 2019 he served as mayor of Salt Lake County, and from 2009 to 2012, he was the Utah state senator from the 2nd district. He was mentioned as a potential candidate in Utah’s 2016 Senate race or Utah’s 2016 gubernatorial race, but did not run for either position.

About Ben McAdams in brief

Summary Ben McAdamsBenjamin Michael McAdams is an American politician and attorney. He served as the U.S. Representative from Utah’s 4th congressional district from 2019 to 2021. From 2013 to 2019 he served as mayor of Salt Lake County, and from 2009 to 2012, he was the Utah state senator from the 2nd district. McAdams was elected to Congress in 2018, narrowly defeating two-term Republican incumbent Mia Love. In 2020, McAdams ran for reelection, but he narrowly lost to Republican challenger Burgess Owens. He was mentioned as a potential candidate in Utah’s 2016 Senate race or Utah’s 2016 gubernatorial race, but did not run for either position. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Utah and a J. D. with honors from Columbia Law School. He is a member of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review and the Utah State Bar Association. Mc Adams has called for a ‘radically different approach’ to address homelessness, and has called homelessness a “stubborn and complex social challenge.” He has supported a Zoos, Parks, and Arts, and Parks tax in Salt Lake City, which partially funds more than 190 county organizations, as well as 30 parks and recreation facilities, including Tracy Aviary, the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, and others. The tax was approved by nearly 77% of county voters in 2014, with nearly 77 per cent of voters in favor of the tax. He previously had submitted a preliminary budget request that was overrun by 367,000 over the preliminary request that had previously been submitted by the county. He received a 75% rating from the advocacy group Parents for Choice in Education during the 2012 legislative session.

He also received an 82% score from the Utah Taxpayers Association, the highest-scoring Democrat that year. In March 2011 McAdams proposed a bill banning employment and housing discrimination against gay and transgender Utahns. His motion to hold a hearing on it failed on a party-line vote. In November 2011 Mc Adams announced his campaign to succeed Peter Corroon as mayor. On November 6, 2012, Mc Adams was elected with 54% of the vote, defeating Republican nominee Mark Crockett. He resigned from the state senate before taking office as mayor, and was reelected to a second term in November 2016 with 59% of the vote. The Salt Lake Tribune identified McAdams as the most liberal-leaning member of the Utah Senate in 2011, with a conservative rating of 34. 4%. In 2012, however, the Tribune identified him as the third-most conservative Democratic state senator. McAdams received a rating of 33% conservative by the Sutherland Institute, a fiscally and socially conservative political action committee, based on his time in the UtahState Senate. He had previously worked in New York City as an associate at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell. He then became Senior Advisor to Salt Lake city Mayor Ralph Becker, working in securities law. In 2014 McAdams pledged to not support the groundbreaking of a new homeless shelter unless the Utah Legislature passes a bill to create a pool of revenue from other cities to help with funding.