Eva Lopez Chavez

Eva Lopez Chavez is a Salt Lake City Council member representing District 4 who announced her candidacy for Utah's 1st Congressional District in December 2025. The eldest daughter of a working-class Mexican immigrant family, she was born in Salt Lake City and raised in the hills of southern Idaho, where she shared a bed with her grandmother until age 16. She is the first Mexican-American elected to the Salt Lake City Council, the youngest elected official at City Hall, and an openly lesbian leader. "Queerness is a superpower," she says. "It gives you a lens on the world that most people only find through deep meditation or insight."

Eldest daughter of a working-class Mexican immigrant family. Her parents came to the U.S. to conduct farm work in Idaho and Utah. Born in Salt Lake City and raised in southern Idaho, she grew up with limited resources—sharing a bed with her grandmother until age 16. She made two promises to her grandmother: to buy them a house together and to advocate for people sharing their economic circumstances. Raised with the value that "la familia es siempre primero" (family is always first). Proudly queer and the only openly lesbian member of the Salt Lake City Council.