Utah Republican Party
Chairperson	Rob Axson
Vice Chair	Kim Coleman
Secretary	Stafford Palmieri
Treasurer	McKay Newell
House leader	Brad Wilson
Senate leader	J. Stuart Adams
Founded	1854
Preceded by	Whig Party Free Soil Party
Headquarters	117 E. South Temple Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
Membership (2021)	957,305[1]
Political position	Center-right to right-wing
National affiliation	Republican Party
Colors	Red
Seats in the United States Senate	2 / 2
Seats in the United States House of Representatives	4 / 4
Seats in the Utah Senate	23 / 29
Seats in the Utah House of Representatives	61 / 75
Website
https://utgop.org/
Politics of Utah Elections

The Utah Republican Party is the affiliate of the Republican Party in the U.S. state of Utah. It is currently the dominant party in the state, and has been for almost all of its history, controlling all four of Utah's U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats, the governorship, and has supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature.

History

The state of Utah politics was reorganized after the 1890 Manifesto led by Wilford Woodruff. The 1890 Manifesto officially ended the traditionally Mormon practice of Polygamy. Many prominent polygamist Mormons were imprisoned, punished and harassed since the 1890 Manifesto prohibited plural marriage. This action granted the Utah Territory statehood in 1896 on the condition that polygamy was banned in the state constitution. The Republican Frank J. Cannon was the first delegate elected to congress by the state of Utah in 1894.

Although Utah was generally considered a Democratic-leaning area (or an area that would lean Democratic) before statehood, the state of Utah rapidly gained overwhelming support for the Republican Party after 1896. Although the Republican Party had been strongly opposed to polygamy since its inception and had played a major part in abolishing polygamy, the Republican U.S. Senator Reed Smoot rose to political power. Smoot led a political alliance of Mormons and non-Mormons that created a strong Republican party in many parts of the state.^[2]

The Republican Party is currently dominant in Utah politics: no Democrat has won statewide office since 1996, when Jan Graham was elected attorney general;^[3] and when Mia Love replaced Jim Matheson in congress in 2014, Utah's congressional delegation became all-Republican. When Love lost her seat to Ben McAdams in the 2018 election, Democrats regained one of Utah's four seats. After the 2020 election Ben McAdams lost his seat to Burgess Owens and Utah's congressional delegation became all-Republican again.

Current elected officials

The Utah Republican Party controls all five statewide offices and holds a supermajority in the Utah House of Representatives and the Utah State Senate. Republicans also hold both of the state's U.S. Senate seats and all four of the state's U.S. House seats.

State party organization

In off-election years the Utah Republican Party holds organizing conventions where state delegate elect a chair, vice-chair, secretary and treasurer. The state party officers are elected for a term of two (2) years.

Election results

Gubernatorial

Utah Republican Party gubernatorial election results

Election	Gubernatorial candidate	Votes	Vote %	Result
1895	Heber Manning Wells	20,833	50.32%	Won Y
1900	Heber Manning Wells	40,209	51.98%	Won Y
1904	John Christopher Cutler	50,837	49.97%	Won Y
1908	William Spry	52,913	47.45%	Won Y
1912	William Spry	42,552	38.17%	Won Y
1916	Nephi L. Morris	59,529	41.80%	Lost N
1920	Charles R. Mabey	81,550	57.59%	Won Y
1924	Charles R. Mabey	72,127	47.01%	Lost N
1928	William Henry Wattis	72,306	41.08%	Lost N
1932	William W. Seegmiller	85,913	41.76%	Lost N
1936	Ray E. Dillman	60,118	35.41%	Lost N
1940	Don B. Colton	117,713	47.69%	Lost N
1944	J. Bracken Lee	122,851	49.79%	Lost N
1948	J. Bracken Lee	151,253	54.99%	Won Y
1952	J. Bracken Lee	180,516	55.09%	Won Y
1956	George Dewey Clyde	127,164	38.20%	Won Y
1960	George Dewey Clyde	195,634	52.66%	Won Y
1964	Mitchell Melich	171,300	43.01%	Lost N
1968	Carl W. Buehner	131,729	31.29%	Lost N
1972	Nicholas L. Strike	144,449	30.31%	Lost N
1976	Vernon B. Romney	248,027	45.96%	Lost N
1980	Bob Wright	266,578	44.43%	Lost N
1984	Norman H. Bangerter	351,792	55.87%	Won Y
1988	Norman H. Bangerter	260,462	40.13%	Won Y
1992	Mike Leavitt	321,713	42.19%	Won Y
1996	Mike Leavitt	503,693	74.97%	Won Y
2000	Mike Leavitt	424,837	55.77%	Won Y
2004	Jon Huntsman Jr.	531,190	57.74%	Won Y
2008	Jon Huntsman Jr.	735,049	77.63%	Won Y
2010 (special)	Gary Herbert	412,151	64.07%	Won Y
2012	Gary Herbert	688,592	68.41%	Won Y
2016	Gary Herbert	750,850	66.74%	Won Y
2020	Spencer Cox	918,754	62.98%	Won Y

Right of Association Legal Appeal

The State Central Committee (SCC) is the governing body of the party. In 2014 the state legislature passed SB54 which created a pathway by which candidates from all parties in Utah could bypass the nominating conventions and qualify directly for the primary ballot by collecting a required number of signatures.

SB54 forced the parties in Utah to have open primaries, among other demands. The SCC directed its party chairman, James Evans, to file a lawsuit, which sought, among other things, to overturn the use of open primaries. The Utah Republican Party prevailed on this point, which required the state elections office to defer to the Utah Republican Party as to whether the primary would be open or closed and whether unaffiliated voters would be eligible to sign ballot-access petitions for Republican candidates.

The party filed two more lawsuits to try to overturn SB54's signature path to the ballot, but lost those cases. They appealed to the 10th Circuit Court which upheld the lower courts ruling and a subsequent appeal to the US Supreme Court was denied.

County party organizations

Each of Utah's 29 counties has a party organization, which operates within that county and sends delegates to the State Central Committee.

See also

• Republican Party
• Democratic Party of Utah
• Libertarian Party of Utah

References

External links

• Utah Republican Party
• Utah County Republican Party
• Davis County Republican Party
• Cache County Republican Party
• Utah Republican Veterans Caucus
• Utah Federation of College Republicans
• Utah Teen Aged Republicans
• Republican State Leadership Committee
• Utah Black Republican Assembly