Democrats haven’t performed as badly as you might think for Utah’s Congressional districts. Matheson has been one of the luckiest examples, and he has done so since 2000 despite running under GOP-favored lines. His father had had success as Governor, and won his races as a Dem as both Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan were at the top of the ticket.
Fact is, Mia Love was THE best performing candidate against Matheson in his Congressional career. She lost by 768 votes, which was .3%. Polling data indicated it was going to be close, and it was. Now, there are some other examples as to why she narrowly lost, one being that the Libertarian candidate was on the ballot (who took a key 3%). Others were possibly racial (when she beat a White GOP opponent at a primary convention, he employed race baiting, and I have no doubt some of that seeped over into the general), also that Matheson had support from key RINOs like Huntsman, and that Matheson is a higher-ranking official in the Mormon church than Mayor Love.
In any event, for someone who performed as well as Mayor Love did, it would be her honor to make a second run against Matheson.
Mia Love came within a whisker of beating Matheson last year, and she has a better chance than anyone else of beating him next year. And after that, the sky’s the limit—she might replace Orrin Hatch in the Senate after 2018, or maybe run for governor someday.
They lost the 1st District by 47 points, the 2nd District by 29 points and the 3rd District by 53 points. I'm not really sure just how much worse they could have done.
Fact is, Mia Love was THE best performing candidate against Matheson in his Congressional career.
She lost. She lost in a state where Romney beat Obama by almost 50 percentage points. How any Republican could lose in Utah in a presidential election year where the GOP candidate trounced his opponent so overwhelmingly and where every other Republican candidate racked up huge margins is beyond me. The only explanation is she's not the candidate for the job. So find one who is.