Two of four incumbent members of the Utah State Board of Education, all Republicans, appeared to lose their re-election bids in Tuesday’s primary election.

Incumbent Brent Strate, who ran to return to the District 3 seat in portions of Davis and Weber counties, was defeated by Rod Hall, a youth pastor, who received about 55% of the vote, according to early and unofficial election results.

In the District 15 race, incumbent Kristan Norton trailed GOP challenger Joann Brinton, who garnered 65% of the vote in early returns. Brinton bounced first-term board member Norton from the primary ballot during the GOP state convention, when she received 84.72% of the delegate vote. Norton secured enough signatures to appear on the primary ballot in District 15, which cuts across southern Utah.

Brinton will face Utah Forward candidate Laura Johnson in the November General Election.

In the closely watched District 10 race, incumbent Matt Hymas was leading GOP challenger Monica Bangerter Wilbur, who had edged Hymas at the state convention but did not win by a sufficient margin to boot him from the primary election ballot. Hymas received 54% of the primary vote in early results.

Hymas, serving his first term on the state school board, is an educator, administrator, coach and superintendent of a charter school.

One of Wilbur’s primary supporters has been District 9 state school board member Natalie Cline, who was voted off the primary ballot by Salt Lake County GOP delegates this spring.

Earlier this year, Cline posted a photo of a high school basketball player on social media that implied the student is transgender. Despite numerous calls for her resignation and censure votes by both the Utah Legislature and the Utah State Board of Education, Cline elected to remain in the District 9 race. She was defeated by GOP candidate Amanda Bollinger at the Salt Lake County Republican Convention.

Hymas will face Democratic candidate Deborah Gatrell in the general election race in District 10, which includes Tooele County, West Valley City and a swath of Utah County west of Utah Lake.

Several high-profile and powerful Utahns contributed to Hymas’ campaign, among them state school board vice chairwoman Jennie Earl and executive and philanthropist Gail Miller, along with leaders of the Utah House of Representatives and Utah Senate.

In District 7, incumbent Molly Hart was ahead of GOP challenger Kris Kimball, capturing 58% of the votes according to early results. Hart, a career educator, will face Democrat John Arthur, Utah’s Teacher of the Year in 2021, in the November election. The district boundaries include communities such as Sandy, Draper, Midvale and Cottonwood Heights.

In the District 13 race, incumbent Randy Boothe jumped out to a lead over challenger Cari Bartholomew, garnering 56% of the vote in early results. The district includes the southern portion of Utah County.

Meanwhile, first-term state school board member Christina Boggess, who represents District 8 on the board, challenged veteran lawmaker Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, for Senate District 16 seat. Harper, who has served in the Utah Legislature since 1997, received 60% of the vote, according to early and unofficial results.

Boggess was elected to the state school board in 2022, thus her board term has not expired.

Prior to 2020, all candidates running for the state school board ran as unaffiliated candidates. This was the second time partisan candidates ran for the state board.

In 2016, the Utah Legislature passed a statute that called for partisan state school board races. The statute was challenged in court and in 2017, a 3rd District Court judge ruled that the law conflicted with the Utah Constitution. That ruling was appealed to the Utah Supreme Court, where it was overturned in 2019, which paved the way for candidates to file as partisan candidates. They also may run as unaffiliated candidates.