Salt Lake City Councilwoman Eva Lopez Chavez is pressing ahead with her Utah congressional campaign after being accused of several instances of sexual misconduct.
Lopez Chavez is one of six Democrats vying to win their party’s nomination to represent Utah’s 1st Congressional District. The district’s boundaries were recently redrawn, meaning the seat is expected to flip blue come November, marking the first time Democrats will have held it in over four decades. But allegations from four women that Lopez Chavez made unwanted sexual advances toward them have threatened to derail her political ambitions.
Amid the allegations, three of which are from current elected officials, Lopez Chavez’s attorney said on Wednesday that “Eva intends to continue fighting for what’s right.”
“It’s really unfortunate what we’ve sunken to in this country,” attorney Greg Skordas said in a statement to ABC4. “Rest assured that Eva intends to continue fighting for what’s right and will always support those who can’t speak for themselves. She looks forward to Saturday’s convention.” Lopez Chavez must capture a certain percentage of support from delegates at the state Democratic Party’s nominating convention or else drop her bid.
The allegations stem from a Salt Lake Tribune report published Wednesday. The report detailed allegations from state Rep. Hoang Nguyen, state Sen. Jen Plumb, Salt Lake City Councilwoman Victoria Petro, and Maggie Regier.
Nguyen alleged that while the two were riding in a car in 2022, Lopez Chavez forced a kiss on her, saying she “leaned over and she’s on top of me, holding my shoulders down.” Plumb said that at a birthday party in 2022, Lopez Chavez pressed her against a wall, “leaned into me, grabbed onto my a**, got up in my face and said in my ear, ‘You’re sure you’re straight?’” Petro said that at a wedding after-party in 2022, Lopez Chavez grabbed her by the throat, “pushed me back against a pillar … and told me, ‘The only reason I still f*** men is because a woman hasn’t shown me what I really want.’” Regier said during a fundraising event in 2019, Lopez Chavez pinned her against the wall, refusing to let her leave, and later was “kind of trying to grab on to me” on the dance floor.
Skordas called the sexual harassment allegations “politics at its worst.” When a politician “is young and female, the allegations are more personal and salacious,” he said.
The Utah Democratic Party and Salt Lake City Council have issued statements on the debacle, saying they take the claims “very seriously” and support investigations into the allegations.
Lopez Chavez is now headed into Saturday’s nominating convention at Jordan High School in Sandy, Utah, where her candidacy faces a crucial test.
In Utah, candidates who gather 7,000 signatures from voters backing their campaign automatically land on the primary ballot and do not need to win the party’s nomination at the convention to advance.
But candidates who have not met the signature quota, such as Chavez, must capture a certain percentage of support from delegates at the convention to proceed, though they do not need to capture the nomination outright.