RedState reported earlier this month about a shakeup of sorts in the Democrat primary for the newly redrawn 1st Congressional District in Utah, where one of the top candidates found himself in the hot seat after his social media history was combed through, and where some pretty repugnant things were found that did not go over well with the state's Mormon community.
Utah state Sen. Nate Blouin (D), 36, the Bernie-backed candidate in the race, frequently demeaned the large voting bloc in the district he wants to represent, used derogatory and vulgar terms when referring to women, and made light of victims of domestic violence, sexual harassment, and assault.
Blouin ended up issuing an apology in which he proclaimed he was not the same man he once was, and said he was deeply ashamed over what he wrote. Mmmhmm.
READ MORE: Dems in Disarray: A Bernie-Backed House Candidate's Controversial Past Catches Up With Him
Here we are, some ten days later, and the statement one of the other Democrat candidates in the race made at the time about Blouin's past offensive remarks has come back to bite her. It's a story my colleague Jennifer Oliver O'Connell touched on in a related piece on Thursday, but I wanted to do a deeper dive so people can see the specific claims made against her.
Salt Lake City Councilwoman Eva Lopez Chavez called on Blouin to withdraw after the story about Blouin's internet history broke, stating that "Recent findings raise serious concerns about Senator Blouin’s judgment, particularly on issues impacting women’s physical safety and the reality of sexual violence." She also described herself as a domestic violence and sexual assault survivor.
Except the outraged councilwoman and self-described "Mexican lesbian" who purports to believe women should be respected is now mired in a much-worse scandal of her own, with four women, including one of her city council colleagues, going on record and accusing her of... unwanted sexual advances and attempts to forcibly restrain them:
Victoria Petro, who is Lopez Chavez’s fellow City Council member; Maggie Regier, who worked on Stan Penfold’s mayoral campaign in 2019; Hoang Nguyen, who is now a state representative; and Jen Plumb, now a state senator, described their allegations in interviews with The Salt Lake Tribune. Each person said their allegations arose in social settings before Lopez Chavez joined the City Council in 2023.
[...]
None of the four reported the interactions to police or spoke about them publicly until now. They said they decided to come forward, in part, because of Lopez Chavez’s candidacy for Congress in Utah’s new 1st District and after her reaction to newly disclosed online posts that fellow candidate Nate Blouin made between 2009 and 2015, including statements that minimized sexual assault.
In Petro's case, the alleged incident occurred before they began working on the city council together:
Victoria Petro knew Eva Lopez Chavez before the two began serving on the Salt Lake City Council together, mostly through the Latino community and different jobs at City Hall, when they attended another City Council member's wedding in September 2022.
After a day of dancing and fun, many gathered for an after-party at a local nightclub, where Petro said the night suddenly took a different turn.
"(Lopez) put her hands around my neck, pushed me against one of the pillars so my back was against the wall," she recalled, saying Lopez then used a vulgar expletive to tell her the only reason she dates men "is because a woman hasn't shown me what I really want."
The allegations from the three other women who stepped forward are similar in nature and can be read here. In one of them (Nguyen's allegations), Lopez Chavez allegedly held her against a seat in a car and wouldn't let her go until she kissed her.
Some of the alleged victims said they told friends about what happened at the time, which local news stations have confirmed.
Utah news outlet KSL also revealed that Lopez Chavez's alleged behavior was so well known (gosh, this sounds so familiar!) that the chairman of the Salt Lake City Council sent out an email in February warning about it after investigating a previously "undisclosed incident":
"The reports and firsthand accounts of Councilmember Eva Lopez Chavez's past behavior cannot be dismissed or minimized," Salt Lake City Council Chairman Alejandro Puy wrote in an email dated Feb. 12 that KSL obtained. "Based on my own firsthand knowledge, and the experience of some of my colleagues on the council, they do not describe an isolated incident. They suggest a pattern of conduct that has affected colleagues in our own council, myself and many others in our community, and has shaped our working environment. ... It is clear there is a problem that can't be ignored and must be addressed."
For what it's worth, Lopez Chavez has denied the allegations, both in a statement and through her attorney:
Not surprisingly, the Utah Democrat Party is not taking a "believe all women" stance on the allegations against the female Democrat candidate. Instead, they have simply noted that there are procedures in place to review these matters:
The Utah Democratic Party has been made aware of the accusations reported against SLC Council Member Eva Lopez-Chavez. We take allegations of this nature very seriously.
There is a clear process for reviewing conduct concerns: written complaints from victims or witnesses of harassment are handled promptly through our Judicial Standing Committee. Should that process be initiated, we will follow it thoroughly, confidentially, and with care for everyone involved.
We reaffirm that the party does not endorse in contested primaries and encourage voters and delegates to engage directly with candidates through official campaign channels.
The Utah congressional and state primary is on June 23rd. The current frontrunner in the blue district is former Democrat Rep. Ben McAdams (UT-04).
Thursday was the start of the Utah Democrat Party Nominating Convention, and between the Blouin scandal and the disturbing allegations against Lopez Chavez, things undoubtedly will be quite lively. I wonder if any self-respecting woman at the convention will have the nerve to ask party officials if they would have refused to take a position on the allegations the women made had they been against one of the male candidates?
Then again, if Democrats didn't have double standards, then they'd have no standards at all, so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to see the official party apparatus take a neutral approach in this instance.
https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2026/04/24/a-wild-twist-rocks-democrat-primary-for-utahs-first-congressional-district-n2201655
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