Trump-aligned group paying out-of-state signature gatherers in bid to undo Utah’s new House map

As Republican-dominated states like Texas and Virginia, pressed by President Donald Trump, redraw their congressional boundaries to shore up a GOP majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, a Trump-affiliated dark money group is paying to deploy out-of-state signature gatherers to Utah in hopes of rescinding a court-imposed map that could yield a seat for Democrats.

Utah Republican Party Chair Rob Axson said recently that the party is taking an “all-of-the-above strategy” when it comes to gathering the nearly 141,000 valid signatures it needs — to include using hundreds of volunteers, as well as paid signature gatherers, both from Utah, as well as many brought into the state.

If the effort is successful, voters will decide next year whether to repeal Proposition 4, also known as the Better Boundaries initiative, clearing the way for the Legislature to repeal new court-ordered congressional boundaries that create a Democratic-leaning Salt Lake County district.

Legislative leaders, meanwhile, have said they will also continue their court fight to try to block the judge’s chosen map from being used in the 2026 election.

The paid signature-gatherers, inside Utah and outside of the state, are being recruited by Patriot Grassroots, a political consulting firm registered in Wyoming and headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Patriot Grassroots was paid more than $27 million in 2024 by Turnout for America PAC, an organization affiliated with the Trump campaign that spearheaded a door-knocking blitz bankrolled by Elon Musk ahead of the presidential election.

Axson said that about half of the permanent staff at Patriot Grassroots are returned missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or went to school in Utah. For example, Elijah Day, who is the company’s president, according to Day’s LinkedIn profile, attended Southern Utah University.

“You knock doors for Jesus,” Axson said, “it becomes a lot easier to knock doors for pest control or gathering signatures.”

About half of the signature gatherers being paid are from outside the state, Axson said, which he acknowledges costs more than hiring in Utah, because importing workers means having to pay for lodging and per diem.

“From an efficiency perspective, hiring local is the more efficient thing to do,” he said.

The Utah GOP’s efforts are being run through a Utah-based political issues committee, Utahns for Representative Government, which thus far has been bankrolled exclusively by Securing American Greatness, Inc.

“That’s obviously one of the Trump-aligned [nonprofits] that exist,” Axson said. “It’s one of the vehicles that Elon Musk worked with on a lot of the voter turnout in the 2024 election cycle, definitely an entity out there that cares about issues on the political right and securing American systems of government.”

It is a “dark money” group, so-called because it is not legally required to disclose its donors. In 2024, it was run by Taylor Budowich, who went on to become deputy chief of staff overseeing communications and personnel in the Trump administration until his September departure. The entity also spent millions advocating for passage of Trump’s budget bill earlier this year.

Securing American Greatness has channeled more than $4.3 million to the Utahns for Representative Government committee, which does not have to disclose how it has spent the money — including how much was paid to signature gatherers — until Jan. 12, 2026.

Elsewhere around the country, Republicans are trying to increase their advantages ahead of next year’s midterm congressional elections. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Texas, at least for now, to use a redrawn U.S. House map aimed at adding five new GOP seats. Other states are also attempting to do the same. Democrats in states like California are attempting to retaliate by redrawing their maps, as well.

But the efforts by Utah Republicans to bring paid signature gatherers into the state is rubbing some in the party the wrong way.

Former GOP state Rep. Phil Lyman — who ran an unsuccessful Republican, then independent, campaign for governor last year —posted on social media that one of his followers was asked to sign the repeal initiative outside a Salt Lake City grocery store by a woman who said she is from Michigan and was working with a team of 22 out-of-state signature gatherers.

“Is this really the state of the Utah Republican Party?” Lyman posted.

Republican legislative leaders, like Senate President J. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, have railed against what they said were out-of-state interests fueling ballot initiatives in Utah.

“We cannot let unelected special interest groups outside of Utah run initiatives and override our republic, destroy our businesses, demean, impugn and cast aside those who are duly elected to represent their neighbors and friends in Utah,” Adams said earlier this year. “We will not let initiatives driven by out-of-state money turn Utah into California.”

Axson said he agrees with the sentiment. “I don’t like the idea of things going to the highest bidder … and especially folks outside of Utah dictating to Utah how things are done,” he said.

But when “those outside forces” on the other side are still able to pour money into the state, it doesn’t make sense for the party to tie its hands when it comes to fighting back. And since the GOP’s initiative seeks to undo Proposition 4, “this is really just an effort to get back to where Utahns decide to be.”

Defenders of Proposition 4 have begun raising money to oppose Republicans’ efforts. Former Democratic Salt Lake County Council member Jim Bradley has formed a political issues committee Defend Utah’s Ballot, which has brought in about $100,000 so far. All of that money is also from political nonprofits outside the state — Western Leadership and Western Futures Fund.

When the Better Boundaries initiative passed in 2018, about half of the $2.8 million raised came from entities outside of Utah.

Elizabeth Rasmussen, executive director of Better Boundaries, said Axson is right that meeting with voters and gathering signatures is expensive, and her group raised the money needed to communicate its message.

Salt Lake City Council member Alejandro Puy, whose firm Landslide Political was hired to gather signatures for Better Boundaries in 2018 and has worked on dozens of other initiatives across the country, said there are professional signature gatherers who make a living traveling around the country working on initiatives, but hiring them “often is done either in desperate moments or when you need a boost.”

“It’s more expensive that way,” he said. “It’s also not a preferred way of doing it, because you have people from outside of the community talking about issues that are going to impact the community.”

When Puy’s firm worked on the Better Boundaries initiative, all of the canvassers were hired locally, he said.

Earlier this year, the labor-backed Protect Utah Workers committee hired Landslide to handle signature-gathering logistics for union groups collecting signatures to repeal a law banning public employee unions from negotiating contracts with their government employers.

That effort relied mainly on volunteers — some of whom were union members who traveled to the state at their own expense, staying in the homes of fellow union workers.

Axson said the party has “strong support” for its efforts to repeal Proposition 4 and, while pushing a new initiative has been a “Herculean effort,” he is confident it will have the resources it needs to succeed.

Gatherers are expected to begin submitting signatures for verification by the county clerks within the next few weeks.

Emily Andersen contributed to this reporting.

Note to readers • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.