NEW: The DoD asked the Utah National Guard earlier this week to gauge troops’ availability to support ICE in a two month — or longer — immigration enforcement operation along the Wasatch Front and in Southern Utah. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

As a Utah politics reporter, the BIGGEST factor impacting party registration here, and in some other states, isn’t even mentioned in this piece — that the Republican Party has a closed primary and the Democratic Party has an open primary.

EnergySolutions has long used political donations for influence. But as Utah expands energy production, the nuclear services company has taken a new direction — buying lawmakers memberships to a conservative group pushing policy in nuclear’s direction. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Years after Gov. Spencer Cox quashed two investigations into Utah’s previous top military leader, an Army review board knocked the retired two-star general’s rank down to lieutenant colonel following a probe of the commander’s behavior while in uniform. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Months after a Utah marketing firm won a multimillion-dollar contract to help the state’s GOP leaders influence public opinion on their effort to wrest public lands away from the federal government, it donated $23,000 worth of its services toward celebrating Gov. Spencer Cox’s reelection win.

Ahead of MOUs with nuclear startups, Utah quietly requested PR firms apply to help get the state’s residents on board. A $1.8 million campaign includes ads, “educational events,” and private gatherings of nuclear companies, potential investors and public officials to “identify mutual interests.”

Dana White, who heads UFC, donated hundreds of thousands to Trump 47 Committee last year. Portions of that were passed on to state Republican parties, including $10K to the Utah GOP.

As ICE enforces Trump’s increasingly aggressive immigration policies, four Utah companies are making money off of contracts with the agency. One has ties to a U.S. senator, and another has recently lobbied Congress to put more funds toward detaining migrants. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Deluged with criticism, Mike Lee has deleted some of his posts spreading misinformation about the shooting of two Democratic Minnesota lawmakers. Lee has not apologized for his remarks, and other misleading posts blaming the violence on “the left” remain. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

After he made unfounded claims tying the shootings of Democratic Minnesota state lawmakers to their Democratic governor and “the left,” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar has a message for Utah Sen. Mike Lee: “This is not a joke.” With @robertgehrke.bsky.social www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

The Utah lawmaker who pushed the bill banning pride flags, setting up another standoff between SLC and the supermajority GOP Legislature, has set his sights on erasing another symbol of LGBTQ+ belonging in the capital city: Harvey Milk Boulevard. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Since last year, Utah has extended health coverage to as many as 2,000 immigrant kids at a time. But the Trump administration sent a letter this week warning the 14 states that have such programs to discontinue them, or be audited. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Utah Democrats have a nearly three-decade losing streak in statewide races. I talked with front-runners for party boss — one a recent gubernatorial hopeful and the other a young politico who oversaw Democratic wins last year — about how they would try to change that. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

The evidence review required under Utah’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth is out, 2 1/2 years after the law took effect. Some lawmakers, including one of the bill’s sponsors, are already dismissing its conclusions: that such care has positive outcomes. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

At its annual organizing convention today, the Utah Republican Party voted down a resolution that would have condemned any effort by President Donald Trump to seek a third term in office. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

I’m delighted (and so grateful) to be included among the 2025 class of @ire.org fellows, and can’t wait to bring new ideas and tools for investigative reporting back to Utah. Other journalists who are going to New Orleans: hmu, I wanna hangout. www.ire.org/ire25-confer...

Update: Over 24 hours after I contacted DHHS, and the dept saying it wasn’t sure why reports were removed, deletions were attributed to “privacy concerns.” The disappearance coincided with similar actions by the Trump admin, but DHHS says there’s “no … political motivation.”

Utah is getting its own DOGE — sort of. Gov. Spencer Cox said he’s “excited” about efforts to cut government, “but unfortunately, [DOGE is] not looking at outcomes.” State agencies won’t see mass layoffs, per the governor, but “there may be some changes.” www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Utah’s trans teens are 3 ½ times more likely to consider suicide than their peers, per a statewide student survey. But conservative Utah, which passed anti-trans laws for the fourth year in a row, quietly purged that and other mental health data from a state website. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

The idea for a three-digit crisis line started in Utah. Here's what the lawmakers behind it say about a leaked Trump administration budget proposal that would defund the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline's LGBTQ+ youth services. ⬇️ www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Utah’s Planned Parenthood will shut down a quarter of its clinics after the Trump administration froze all of the state’s Title X money for services like providing birth control and STI testing. About 26,000 Utahns received care under Title X last year. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

. @robertgehrke.bsky.social and I wrote in January about one of Utah's most prolific posters — Sen. Mike Lee — and his online interactions with X owner Elon Musk. Since Trump took office, the online presence of the senior member of Utah's federal delegation has grown. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Amid a slew of controversial firings by Trump, Utah’s former solicitor general is embroiled in a dispute over whether seemingly political terminations of Democratic federal trade commissioners — meant to protect consumers and prevent monopolies — were illegal. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

“Europeans despise Americans,” Utah Sen. Mike Lee wrote in a post last month, urging the U.S. to leave NATO. But in an interview today, EU Ambassador Jovita Neliupšienė wanted to correct the record amid an increasingly strained transatlantic relationship. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Utah lawmakers took up RFK Jr.’s “MAHA” agenda as it became the first state to ban fluoride from water, stopped SNAP recipients from buying soda and pulled foods with certain additives from schools. Now he’s coming to Utah for a victory lap.

Utah Sens. Lee and Curtis just voted to kill a rule capping bank overdraft fees at $5. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimated that limiting what banks can charge for overdraft fees would save Americans $5 billion annually. www.utahpoliticalwatch.news/lee-curtis-v...

A recording reveals a Utah GOP Senator saying legislative leaders deliberately changed media credential rules to target one journalist. "They don't think he's particularly honest. I think the legislative leadership is showing who's the boss." www.utahpoliticalwatch.news/utah-gop-sen...

I got ahold of an email sent to members of the Utah Army National Guard this week encouraging “voluntary separation” of trans service members. The office of Gov. Cox, who is the commander in chief of the state force, ignored multiple requests for comment. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

As Utah House GOP championed a bill to effectively end vote by mail, I kept hearing one organization repeatedly cited: The Heritage Foundation. Here’s how the group that wrote Project 2025 got Utah lawmakers to vote to stop sending a ballot to every voter ⬇️ www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

As Utah House GOP championed a bill to effectively end vote by mail, I kept hearing one organization repeatedly cited: The Heritage Foundation. Here’s how the group that wrote Project 2025 got Utah lawmakers to vote to stop sending a ballot to every voter ⬇️ www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Barely 24 hours after Utah lawmakers voted to quash a bill that sprung out of the state’s Women in the Economy Commission that would have used empty state office space for child care, the Legislature voted to kill the commission, too. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

This bill passed yesterday. Its sponsor said it was the "most important bill" that got the senate president's signature today. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

This year's budget, set to be voted on by the Utah Legislature today, excludes millions of dollars that advocates sought for Utah domestic violence shelters and sexual assault prevention efforts, as lawmakers move forward with tax cuts. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Utah lawmakers voted unanimously to extend health coverage of IVF to public employees. But as Utah defends a near-total abortion ban in court — while abortion remains legal up to 18 weeks — some GOP legislators were hesitant to support the infertility treatment. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

All four of Utah's representatives voted to censure Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas for disrupting President Trump's address to Congress on Tuesday night.

ICYMI: An independent commission has organized debates in Utah elections for over a decade. After multiple public tiffs between their party and the commission, some GOP lawmakers want to have a hand in overseeing debates. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

GOP lawmakers were pushing a bill that would have effectively eliminated Utahns' ability to vote through the mail. A new version makes it easier to opt in to voting through the mail, but would make it so ballots are not automatically sent to every active voter. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Before vote by mail, odd-year elections in some cities and towns saw single-digit voter turnout rates. Municipalities worry election reforms being weighed by the Legislature would reverse participation gains in recent years. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

“I know people are really worried that they’re next, and I hate to be grim, but they are,” a worker laid off from the USGS in Utah told me. There are thousands of stories like these from fired federal workers across the country. Hard to fathom. More here: www.sltrib.com/news/environ...

Utah was the last state to have laws on its books barring Native Americans from voting, with their enfranchisement in the Beehive State coming only a generation ago. Native American communities see election reforms GOP lawmakers are pushing as continuing that discriminatory legacy.

A Utah lawmaker is proposing expanding transgender care restrictions to adults in the state, barring public funds from going toward gender-affirming care. It would impact Medicaid enrollees and potentially close one of Utah’s largest trans health programs. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

From Utah’s air quality to evaluating judges’ performance, hundreds of boards and commissions give input on policies that impact Utahns’ everyday lives. A new proposal would eliminate a barrier to the Republican supermajority filling them with political allies. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

A GOP lawmaker is working to block Utah public schools from partnering with Planned Parenthood to teach sex ed — but they could continue sex ed instruction from faith-based entities, including a crisis pregnancy center and the state’s predominant religious institution. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

More than half of Utah's ballot drop boxes assessed by @dlcofut.bsky.social in 2022 were not accessible to people with disabilities. Without adjustments to drop box requirements, GOP lawmakers are pushing a bill forcing most Utahns to leave their ballots in a box. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

ICYMI: GOP lawmakers are again attempting to change Utah court rules to ban abortion. A fast-moving bill would limit judges’ ability to block potentially unconstitutional laws and would likely give the state another swing at implementing its trigger law. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

An ad purchased in an annual legislative guidebook declared in hot pink, “Abortion is health care.” A Republican lawmaker didn’t like it, and got the book banned from most of the Utah Capitol. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

NOW: Loud chants of “veto” echoing through the Utah Capitol after the Legislature passed HB267 yesterday, eliminating public workers’ access to collective bargaining. Here’s how each lawmaker voted: www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

“Birthright citizenship allows people to exploit American tax dollars,” Utah AG Derek Brown said of his decision to join a brief backing Trump's order to end birthright citizenship. The move is a split from Utah's governor, who has questioned its constitutionality. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

A Utah GOP senator has a bill meant to protect access to a federal program requiring drug manufacturers to sell medications at a reduced rate to hospitals and clinics that serve disadvantaged communities. A dark money group is running ads to undermine it. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

The DOJ sued Utah last year after an incarcerated transgender woman “performed dangerous self-surgery” after allegedly being denied gender-affirming care. Now state lawmakers are weighing a bill to stop incarcerated people from initiating that care altogether. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...