Democratic activists try to alter Utah’s red landscape

The Utah Democratic Party lost state legislative ground in 2022 after new district maps were approved by Utah’s Republican supermajority. But a group of young Democratic activists hope this year’s efforts to reach voters statewide could flip a few red seats blue on Tuesday night.
Republicans have held a supermajority of at least two-thirds in the Utah Legislature since the 1990s, giving lawmakers latitude to pass legislation, override governors’ vetos and introduce constitutional amendments. Republican Party leaders say they have a plan to keep their supermajorities in place.
The state Senate is currently made up of six Democrats and 23 Republicans — three seats more than is needed for a supermajority. And the state House has 14 Democrats and 61 Republicans — 11 seats more than is needed for a supermajority.
Democrats say they are within reach of closing those margins. If not this year than in two, or six, or eight, according to the room full of 15 or so full-time Utah Democratic “field organizers” who are behind the state party’s biggest centralized push in recent memory.
“This is step one of a massive program to make Utah the next battleground state,” said Elliot Kauffman, the coordinated campaign director who came to Utah after helping flip Georgia’s Senate seat to blue in 2021 and helping to grow Vermont’s Democratic supermajority in 2022.
Kauffman leads a crew of mostly college-aged staffers, who manage data collection software, mass-text campaigns, a call center and canvassing operations out of the Utah Democratic Party’s Salt Lake City headquarters.
The effort involves Democratic candidates from the municipal level on up to congressional and statewide races pooling their fundraising dollars with the state party, which allows campaigns to work more efficiently as they take advantage of party volunteers and share campaign materials.
With a budget of around $180,000, the operation has reached out to nearly one million voters in the state, whether through door-knocking, internet messages or a phone call, according to Kauffman.
Energized by the replacement of President Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential nominee, these young party operatives believe the youngest, fastest-growing state in the country will be more open to Democrat’s arguments than before.
Members of the staff, including the state party communications director, Mason Hughes, age 21, say they’re also happy with the candidates they’ve recruited, calling them “the best slate of Democratic candidates we’ve had in decades” in the state of Utah. But beyond trying to expand Democratic representation in 2024, Hughes and Kaufman said they hope the party’s increased investment in candidates will also increase candidate quality in future years.
While some legislative districts have become less competitive since lawmakers redrew the boundaries in 2021, Democratic and Republican operatives see six state House races as up for grabs in 2024:
Even if Democrats held or flipped every one of these seats, Republicans would maintain a supermajority in the House. That’s why the Utah Democratic Party views this year as just a piece in their long game to improve party infrastructure, with the hope that more Democratic-friendly legislative districts potentially will come in response to pending litigation against the Utah Legislature.
“Because of the Republican Supermajority’s unconstitutional gerrymandering, Democrats have to work much harder and more efficiently to get elected,” Utah Democratic Party chair Diane Lewis said in a statement. “To break the Republican supermajority, our focus can’t be winning one race; it must be winning every competitive district for Democrats.”
The way Utah’s Democratic activists see it, the state GOP has become complacent with its consistent supermajority, creating a window for Democrats to persuade voters with a better ground game and fresh message. But Utah GOP chair Rob Axson says the state’s dominant party is taking nothing for granted.
“We recognize that the stewardship of winning an election requires continued respect and work and effort to earn it, and so we are we are not assuming any outcome, and because of that, we will continue to work our tail off to continue on those battleground seats, to protect them, to earn the respect of those constituents,” Axson said.
Salt Lake County GOP chair Chris Null said the party at a county level has more than quadrupled its spending on social, digital and radio ads this year compared to recent election cycles. With increased fundraising in the party, Null was able to send out a mailer to every Republican in the county prior to election week informing them of their state House representative and encouraging them to vote up and down the ticket for GOP nominees.
Null concedes that there has been a notable increase in excitement among Utah Democrats this year. But he is skeptical that renewed energy among candidates will make a difference at the ballot box.
“We’re seeing the candidates who are excited, who are working hard on the Democrat side,” Null said. “I just don’t think it translates to the voters.”
Since the last presidential election cycle in 2020, the share of Utah voters registered as Democrats hasn’t grown, but has actually fallen from 14.9% in 2020 to 13.9% in 2024, as the share of voters registered as Republicans has increased by 1% in the other direction.
The last day for Utahns to register to vote was Oct. 25. Registered voters can vote by placing their mail-in ballot in a secure county dropbox by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5; or by putting their ballot in the mail in time to be postmarked by Nov. 4; or by voting in-person at an official voting location identified by their county clerk.
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