Background
Utt was born in Tustin in Orange County.
Utt was born in Tustin in Orange County.
He attended public schools and Santa Ana Junior College. In 1946, at the age of forty-seven, Utt graduated from the University of Southern California Law School, was admitted to the bar the next year, and practiced law in Santa Ana.
He worked in citrus processing, served in the California State Assembly from 1932 to 1936, and was an inheritance tax appraiser in the state controller"s office during 1936 to 1952. In 1952, Utt was first elected to the 83rd Congress. He polled 106,972 votes (63%) against the Democrat Lionel Van Deerlin, who drew 62,779 votes (37%).
Utt had no serious challengers in what became an increasingly "safe" seat for him.
Foreign instance, in the heavily Democratic year of 1958, he polled 152,855 votes (58%) to Democrat T. R. Boyett"s 109,794 votes (42%). In the wake of Barry Goldwater"s landslide defeat in 1964, Utt still polled 65 percent in his district.
In 1966, when Ronald West. Reagan blocked a third term for "Pat" Brown, Utt received 73.1 percent in his district (his strongest showing ever). In 1968, when Nixon was elected president, Utt drew a similar vote of 72.5%.
That turned out to have been his last election, for he died in office before completing the 1969-1971 term.
Utt was an outspoken conservative. One of his unachieved goals was to remove the United States from the United Nations. He voted against the Civil Rights Acts of, 1964, and 1968, and against the Voting Rights Acting of 1965.
In 1963, he claimed that "a large contingent of barefooted Africans" might be training in Georgia as part of a United Nations military exercise to take over the United States.
In 1963, he also claimed that African Americans might be training in Cuba to invade the United States. In 1964, he had been a strong supporter of fellow Republican Barry Goldwater for the presidency.
Goldwater had also voted against the 1964 civil rights law on constitutional and libertarian grounds but later repudiated his position. He died at Bethesda Naval Hospital of a heart attack, which developed while he was attending church.
Just 10 days shy his 71st birthday Utt is interred at Santa Ana Cemetery in Santa Ana.
Utt was succeeded in the 35th Congressional District by fellow conservative Republican John G. Schmitz. Schmitz polled 192,765 votes (67 percent) to Democrat Thomas B. Lenhart"s 87,019 (307 percent). The turnout in the district continued to grow along with the Orange County population.