It would be unusual. Utah House District 44 is a red district carved out in 2020 specifically to make it a safe Republican district. Jordan Teuscher has won two elections, first in the old District 42, then in the new District 44. He is the incumbent, a native Utahn, a lawyer, a member of the church, and a Republican. All of these traits bode well for a politician seeking votes from the voter base in South Jordan and West Jordan. It would take monumental effort, or possible re-districting, to move constituents towards another candidate.
But 2024 is not a usual year. Partisan politics have become historically raucous. Natalie Cline, then a member of the Utah State Board of Education, was censured for social media attacks against a high school athlete who she insinuated was transgender (the player is not, and that shouldn’t have mattered regardless; the fact that Cline would go after a high school student and draw dangerous attention towards her was unacceptable). The legislature holds the ability to impeach a public official, and although there were vocal calls that Cline should be impeached, the GOP majority could not muster the backbone required to impeach one of their own. The Utah GOP moved decidedly right at convention while the Republican base grew weary of the rhetoric – more moderate candidates like Spencer Cox and Celeste Malloy collected signatures to guarantee that their names would survive convention to appear on Republican primary ballots. The Republican convention produced a number of hard-right candidates like Phil Lyman and Trent Staggs who would eventually lose against their more moderate opponents.
General Session kicked off with bills attacking individual rights. At the beginning of general session this year, Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz started the legislative agenda to drive through GOP-sponsored bills whose language originated from outside of Utah: an anti-trans bathroom bill; shutting down DEI in public schools; and book bans. Utah followed a string of conservative states like Oklahoma, Missouri, Florida and Texas that pushed the same copy/paste legislation.
Jordan Teuscher also re-introduced his signature anti-union legislation that actively worked to dismantle worker rights for public employees, but this was killed due to overwhelming opposition from the public. Teuscher was also the sponsor of HB185 ‘Primary Ballot Requirements’ to remove candidates who qualify through signature gathering process, which also failed. This would have affected all parties, but particularly the Republican party. The Republican delegates are much further right than your regular Republican in Utah, and in a closed primary they were attempting to change the rules to make it more difficult for moderate Republican candidates to participate in Utah’s election process.
It was not a good start. Someone commented that the six weeks of general session was six weeks of responding to bad ideas.
Thankfully, there are checks and balances. It was after a number of Utah Supreme Court decisions (first to uphold an injunction against the legislature’s anti-abortion trigger law, and shortly after determining that the gerrymandering case against the legislature had legs and could continue to be actioned in a lower court) that the Republican-led House decided to call an emergency session. What was the emergency? The will of the people, apparently. During the session, Jordan Teuscher was the House sponsor for SJR401, which would change the Utah constitution to remove the people’s legislative power of citizen initiatives. Teuscher was also the House floor sponsor of SB4002 House Sponsor of ‘Ballot Proposition Amendments’ to enable jamming through Amendment D, and Amendment A in 2024, which were both voided by the Utah Supreme Court. The worst part? In what should be called an ethics violation, Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Schultz wrote particularly misleading ballot language that described Amendment D as the opposite of what it was; a power grab by the Utah legislature.
What was the emergency? The will of the people, apparently. Rep Jordan Teuscher leads when it comes to taking away the rights of voters and obstructing candidates from public office.
Utah voters are frustrated by the extreme partisanship of the Republican legislature. Their inability to self-manage outrageous behavior in their party, followed by egregious attempts to dismantle personal rights of Utahns, then disrespect voters with outright lies and a request for us to vote against our personal interests, is pushing constituents to look closely at their representatives and claimed party values. The Republican party even admitted to its own over-reach as it attempted to gaslight voters.
We need real representation. The Republican legislature is betting that they will survive the 2024 election cycle so that they can continue to introduce more bills sponsored from out of state, that work against the better interests of Utahns and don’t reflect who we are.
There were no Republican candidates who challenged Teuscher this year. Third parties decided not to back a non-partisan candidate in this race, likely because they didn’t see an investment in what was considered a safe red seat. I joined the race as a protest vote, but have found support after the series of events (above) that were hand-delivered to me by the Republican party. In fact, they are nervous enough to start throwing money at the end of the race to stabilize their (now questionable) candidate.
We are closing in on the last week of the election cycle. Less than half of the voters in the House District have cast their votes so far (filter on HD44), and I will be lucky to see narrower margins than were in the past against my incumbent opponent. I’m here to say that we could win, if enough voters are tired of the litany of bad bills, expensive litigation, constitutional violations and breaches of individual rights that the Utah Republican party has produced this year. Teuscher is a primary sponsor of some of the worst bills. We can continue to fight his bad ideas in the legislature, or we can unseat him and bring in a new representative who will defend voter rights, and begin to work for the people of Utah.
We can win this. One of the constitutional powers you have is to elect representatives. That power can also be used to unseat a legislator who doesn’t represent your issues and values. Please use that power. I’m asking you to use your voice and vote by Tuesday, November 5… and I would truly appreciate your vote.
Be well (represented)!