After a hard-fought organizing convention, Utah Republican state delegates ultimately chose to stay the course. The 2,650 delegates, by a vote of 1,340-1,215, reelected party chair Rob Axson to a second term at the May 17 GOP gathering at Utah Valley University. He defeated former state representative and gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman.
Voting was done via paper ballots, and the hand count was done by volunteers.
Axson, who secured the endorsement of President Donald Trump in the days leading up to the convention, pledged to continue the momentum of his first term.
“I believe in this party, and I always have, and I am committed to build this party,” he said. “But our party is not perfect. We don't always live up to our own ideals. We certainly don't always live up to even the level of our own platform. We have to do better.”
In a rebuke to divisive party politics, he instead called on the state GOP to come together over shared goals.
“Strength comes from learning and it comes from building, not through burning,” he said. “With our platform as the foundation of our principles, we have things worth rallying toward. We must find converts to the cause, rather than chasing away people through purity tests.”
Sen. Mike Lee, who has built a strong base of support with delegates over the years since he first entered the political scene 15 years ago, lent his support to the incumbent chair.
“My friend Rob Axson is somebody I believe in, and it's not just because he got me elected in 2010 against all odds when challenging a three-term incumbent,” Lee said as he introduced Axson on the main stage. “I can't think of anyone who has done more to mobilize and unify our delegate base.”
Axson told reporters shortly after the results were announced that while he doesn’t think he could have won without the support he received from sitting electeds, he did his best not to leave any votes up to chance.
“I called every single delegate, all the delegates that we have,” he said. “I called them, I texted them, I engaged with them. That's where I found a lot of value.”
Looking ahead to his second term, one of his main focuses will be to recruit more young Utahns to the Republican cause. This was also a first-term goal of Axson’s.
“We need young people in this party, and we need young people to be passionate about what Republican principles and Republican values are, and that needs to become theirs,” he said. “If we don't do this, this party is no better than any other institution that provides zero value, and we will be kind of past our shelf life within 20 years.”
The party also reelected Secretary Stafford Palmierei Sievert to a second term. She defeated challenger Olivia Dawn Horlacher Williams by a vote of 1,430-1,127.
The other two senior leadership seats were filled by Melanie Monestere as party vice-chair and Chris Null as treasurer. Both Monestere and Null ran unopposed.
On the business side, delegates ultimately decided to remove a proposed party constitutional amendment from the agenda. It would have stripped party membership for one year from any candidate for office who chose to gather signatures to appear on the primary ballot instead of going solely through the caucus-convention system. Additionally, it would have effectively prevented the party from recognizing a primary election if a candidate got a majority of support at the party’s nominating convention.
The motion to remove the agenda item was made by delegate Arnold Gaunt, who also was the amendment’s sponsor. Now is “not the right time” to take action on the issue, he said. However, Gaunt does expect the party to take action on this in the future.
Acting chair Thomas Wright ruled the voice vote was in favor of removing the proposed amendment.
The move is the latest in the saga over the 2014 state law that opened the door for candidates to gather signatures to appear on the primary ballot. The law has created a significant amount of friction between the state and the Utah GOP. The party has challenged the law in court and Republican legislators frequently attempt to tweak the signature gathering process.
If the amendment were to return in future years, it could cause turmoil for the party, since many current GOP members of the Legislature and nearly all statewide elected officials, including Gov. Spencer Cox, Attorney General Derek Brown and Sen. John Curtis, have chosen the signature gathering route in the past.
For his part, Axson said he is supportive of attempts to repeal SB54, but insisted that the effort must be one of coalition building, not coercion through threats or lawsuits.
“If we build a [caucus-convention system] that every Utahn and every community feels that there's a value in that, well, they're going to come along with us,” he said. “They're going to be supportive of what we're trying to do, and the Legislature is going to listen to that.”
Delegates did adopt an amendment that would require Republican candidates for office to show party membership in the previous year. According to the amendment sponsor, this would help prevent candidates who are not ideologically Republican from registering with the party immediately before an election and then running for office. Delegates were overwhelmingly in favor of this change, despite criticism that this would effectively create a “loyalty test” for party membership.
Delegates also chose not to support a resolution to promote term limits for state and federal elected officials and “condemn actions allowing a president to serve longer than two terms.”
Those who opposed the resolution said that while they broadly support term limits, President Trump’s flirtation with running for a third term — which would violate the 22nd Amendment — was only rhetoric. If it isn’t, they said it’s an issue to be addressed closer to the 2028 election.
The next test for Utah GOP leadership will be the 2026 election, where the party hopes to keep its monopoly on the state’s federal delegation and retain its supermajority in the Legislature.
“We've got to be building something that is of value to our fellow Utahns,” Axson said. “I'm committed to doing that with all Republicans.”
Utah Democrats will hold their organizing convention on May 31 at Ogden High School in Ogden, where they are also holding leadership elections.
