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Utah 2nd Congressional District currently serves the largely rural southern and eastern portions of Utah, including Saint George and Moab in the south and Vernal in the east, as well as the east side of urban Salt Lake County, the northern portion of Utah County, and Wasatch County. The current Representative is Democrat Jim Matheson. Even though Republican presidential candidates carry the district by large margins, Matheson's conservative stances keep him in office. The reason for the unusual boundaries of Utah's 2nd congregational district is because Utah's Republican dominated legislature attempted to gerrymander the district to prevent any Democrat from being elected within the district. These attempts have thus far been unsuccessful. Matheson expects another attempt to remove him in the near future. In 2002, after the district's current boundaries were established, Matheson won by only a few hundred votes. Since then, however, he has won by larger margins; in 2008 he received 63% of the vote. In 2010, he again won, though by a reduced majority, over Republican challenger Morgan Philpot, receiving 51% of the vote. |