State Sen. Emily Buss was a lifelong Republican, but she couldn’t help feeling like politics in Utah was shifting away from the principles she grew up with.
“I felt like the Republican Party had changed,” she said. “My values didn't change. The party and how they were going about things changed, and I did not feel that that accurately represented me.”
An unsuccessful 2025 run for city council in her hometown of Eagle Mountain was the tipping point. That’s when she was first introduced to the Forward Party of Utah. Fast forward a few months, and she was on the party’s ballot in a special election to serve out the remaining term of retiring Sen. Daniel Thatcher in Senate District 11. Thatcher was a longtime Republican before announcing his party switch earlier that year following tensions with Senate leadership over LGBTQ+ issues and the proper role of the Legislature.
Buss won that election and is now the only third-party legislator in the state.
What initially attracted her to the party was its unique values platform and the priorities that stem from those core values. Buss said not being tied to a traditional party platform allows her to better act in the interests of her constituents than a politician who juggles party loyalty.
“I do enjoy being that independent voice where I don't feel like I'm tied to ‘What does party leadership expect me to do?’” she said. “I get to think: ‘What does the district need? What do the people actually want to happen here?’”
It’s a strategy Utah State University political scientist Damon Cann thinks is ripped directly from the playbook for a third-party incumbent to win reelection.
“The best message that a third-party candidate can send is, ‘I'm going to be voting Republican when what Republicans are offering is in the best interests of the people of my district, and I'm going to be voting Democrat when what the Democrats are offering is consistent with the best interests of my district,’” he said.
Not getting caught up in a state party’s agenda or the national political issue du jour could be the deciding factor in a fractured political climate. An April poll from the Deseret News and the Hinckley Institute of Politics found that 6 in 10 Utah voters don’t feel well represented by either Democrats or Republicans.
That’s something Buss is well aware of and hopes to capitalize on come Election Day. Her conversations with voters, she said, have focused on someone in that seat who “listens and goes with what the district needs.”
“I think a lot of districts are more purple than some people would like to give them credit for, and I also think nobody is happy with their parties,” she said. “There is no better time for the Forward Party to really start to skyrocket.”
The numbers suggest she may be right. There are more than half a million active Utah voters who don’t affiliate with any political party, making up more than 28% of the state’s electorate.
For party chair Michelle Quist, this moment is a golden opportunity not just for Buss, but other Forward Party candidates as well.
“[Utah has] a large number of people who are politically independent, pragmatic and tired of partisan dysfunction,” she said. “Forward was built for those voters.”
Quist said the party’s midterms strategy is to focus on county-level races and seats in the Legislature, where Republicans enjoy a supermajority, rather than compete in congressional races.
“We are a smaller party. We want to build a name brand,” said Quist. “Congressional districts take a lot of money, and we want to win races, and we want to do that right now at the county level and at the state level.”
Including Buss, there are 18 Forward Party candidates on the ballot this year, something Quist sees as meeting the moment.
“I don't think you have to agree with your legislator all the time as long as you know what they're going to do and that they're honest with you, and I think independent Utahns are comfortable with independent legislators,” she said.
She hopes candidate authenticity will matter more than partisan labels, especially in Buss’ race, where GOP leaders are eying an easy pickup in an already GOP-leaning district.
The single biggest thing working in her favor is the power of incumbency, Cann said. Buss and the Forward Party have already established a viable path; they just need to keep that momentum going until Election Day.
Cann doesn’t expect the electoral advantages of incumbency to be as strong for Buss as they would be for another candidate backed by a major party. But there’s still some value in taking a legislative record to voters. Showing people you’ve done the job before is half the battle.
“She will benefit to some extent from name recognition, from the broad discussion that's happening right now in the media in Utah, the novelty of her selection and then from the opportunity to serve her constituents and get out there, get to know them, try to work with them, help them get their issues and concerns addressed,” he said.
Even if Buss is not reelected, Quist won’t take the loss too hard. For her, the Forward Party in Utah is a long-term project that’s just getting started.
“We're building a durable political home for voters who believe democracy works best when people have real choices,” she said. “Of course we want to win races, but the success is also expanding voter participation, recruiting credible candidates, introducing new ideas, and creating more competition in places where voters have not had meaningful choices.”
