13 Utah lawmakers won’t seek reelection in 2026 — but nearly every open seat is contested

After a year in which the Utah Legislature made headlines for conflict and controversy, a number of its prominent lawmakers will see intraparty challengers as they mount 2026 reelection campaigns — while others are quitting the Capitol altogether.

A chaotic 2025 included contentious battles over a bill to restrict public employee unions, an ongoing legal fight over redrawing the state’s congressional boundaries, retaliation against the judiciary and protests against its actions on a host of culture war issues.

All told, 285 Utahns have filed to run for 90 seats — 15 in the Senate, 75 in the House. Four races are uncontested.

The dynamics include a powerful politician facing an intraparty battle, a freshman House member attempting to knock off an established senator, a veteran Davis County politician going up against a young House bomb thrower and one-seventh of the current Legislature deciding it’s time to leave.

Here are highlights of the election cycle ahead:

Seeking an upset

Sen. J. Stuart Adams has typically won reelection without breaking a sweat, but this time, Adams, one of the most powerful politicians in the state, has some competition within the Republican Party.

Three Republicans have filed to run against the Senate president in Davis County’s 7th Senate District. That includes Stephanie Hollist, who recently stepped down as general counsel at Weber State University; Jennifer Garner, who is a business owner and conservative activist; and Braden Hess, a lawyer who previously worked as an attorney for the Legislature.

The challenges come after Adams, who has been in the Legislature since 2010 and is entering his eighth session leading the Senate, was at the center of a series of controversies in 2025.

The Salt Lake Tribune first reported that the Layton legislator initiated a change to Utah law that ended up helping a relative who was facing child rape charges avoid additional jail time and being put on the sex offender registry. Adams denied any wrongdoing.

And The Utah Investigative Journalism Project reported that Adams may have benefited from selling land to the Utah Department of Transportation for a highway expansion. Adams declined to respond to the story.

Adams’ challengers have not directly attacked those decisions but are raising issues about accountability and business entanglements.

“When leaders hold immense power, the standard should be higher, not lower,” Hollist writes on her campaign website. “Transparency protects institutions and the people who lead them.”

Garner, meanwhile, said in her campaign announcement that real estate and development interests are overrepresented in state government, and that “public office should never be a pathway to personal enrichment or special treatment.”

The winner of the Republican nomination will be on the November ballot against Democrat Garret Rushforth and Constitutional Party candidate Jeffrey Ostler.

Fiefia challenging McCay

Rep. Doug Fiefia, a Herriman Republican, is challenging Riverton Republican Sen. Dan McCay. The 18th District senator was first voted into the Legislature as a representative in 2012. McCay has held his Senate seat since 2019.

Fiefia was elected to the House in 2024, and announced his Senate campaign on New Year’s Eve.

“Serving Herriman, Riverton & South Jordan in the House has been an honor,” he wrote in a post on social media. “Now, I’m ready to take our fight for strong families, fiscal discipline, and responsible innovation to the Senate.”

McCay said last year that he would not run for reelection if his wife, former Riverton City Council member Tawnee McCay, was elected as Riverton mayor. She lost the general election in November.

The senator has been behind a number of controversial bills in recent years, including a near-total abortion ban and a failed push in 2024 to ban pride flags in schools. In 2025, McCay joined with Rep. Trevor Lee to sponsor a bill that banned pride flags in both schools and government buildings, which ultimately became law without the governor’s signature.

Fiefia has largely focused on technology legislation in his first year in the House. He has also been central to the state-level pushback against federal restrictions on artificial intelligence regulations in recent months.

Seasoned local politician takes on Lee

Former Layton Mayor and current Davis County Commissioner Bob Stevenson is challenging Rep. Trevor Lee for his 16th House District seat.

First elected in 2022, Lee entered the Legislature with a reputation as a conservative culture warrior. He previously ran a personal social media account from which he made derogatory comments about women and LGBTQ+ people.

And over the past few years, Lee has weighed seeking to amend the Utah Constitution to bar noncitizen immigrant children from public schools and introduced a bill banning government entities and employees from displaying pride flags on public property. The Layton lawmaker has already made headlines ahead of the upcoming session for a bill that would prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving public benefits, including vaccines, health coverage and food aid, and a proposal to rename Salt Lake City’s Harvey Milk Boulevard — 900 South — to Charlie Kirk Boulevard.

Stevenson was first elected to the Layton City Council in 1981. He later became Layton mayor, a position he left in 2019 to join the County Commission. In 2020, he ran for Congress in Utah’s 1st Congressional District but lost to now-U.S. Rep. Blake Moore.

Keeping it in the family

Fruit Heights Republican Rep. Stewart Barlow, who has represented his central Davis County district since 2011, is not seeking reelection. One of the candidates who wants to replace him is his son, Sam Barlow. If Sam is successful, he will be the third generation of Barlows in the Legislature. Stewart’s father, Haven Barlow, was Utah’s longest-serving legislator, spending 42 years in the body.

Republicans Adam Sorensen and Lili Bitner are also running. Eric Last and Jorge Quinones are competing for the Democratic nomination. And Kimberly Wagner is the Utah Forward Party’s candidate for the seat.

Stewart Barlow’s exit is just one of a host of upcoming retirements.

Notable departures and possible newcomers

All told, 13 legislators out of the 90 who would have been up for reelection this year opted not to run, opening the door to considerable turnover at the Capitol in 2027:

• Republican Sen. Jerry Stevenson is leaving his Layton seat after 16 years at the Capitol and is now entering his 10th session as chair of the budget committee. Layton Mayor Tamara Tran and Robert Wanless are running as Republicans to replace him. Jared Neal is the Democrat in the race, and Josh Smith is a Utah Forward Party candidate.

• The former president of Weber State University, Sen. Ann Milner, is also retiring from her Ogden district. Republican Rep. Jill Koford has filed to replace her, as have two Democrats, Christina Hernandez and Dakota Wurth.

• Democratic Sen. Nate Blouin is leaving to run for Congress, and a bevy of candidates are looking to replace him in the Millcreek and South Salt Lake district, including Democrats Evan Done, Silvia Catten, Richard Whitney and Taylor Paden, Republican Ryan Mahone and the Utah Forward Party’s Colin Smith.

• Republican Rep. Christine Watkins is leaving her Carbon County district to run for a vacant County Commission seat. Three Republicans — former Roosevelt Mayor J.R. Bird, Yvonne Jensen and Gina Gagon — are competing for their party’s nomination. Carl Ingwell is the Democratic candidate.

• Davis County Republican Rep. Karen Peterson, who became a point person on education issues during her time in the Legislature, is also leaving. Forward Utah Party candidate Tony De Mille and Democrat Jeffrey Anderson will be their party’s nominees to fill the seat. Republican candidates Roxayn Elmer and former West Point Mayor Erik Craythorne will compete for the GOP nomination.

• Rep. Bridger Bolinder will vacate his seat representing his western Utah district. A flock of hopefuls have filed, including four Republicans — Justin Nielson, Sheldon Birch, Holly Crowley and Alexis Wheeler — Democrat Sara Snow, Constitution candidate Jonathan Garrard, and Utah Forward Party candidate Tynley Bean.

• Clearfield Rep. Karianne Lisonbee announced her retirement last year. Republicans John Taylor and Kara Toone are competing for the spot. Brandon Young will be the Democratic nominee.

• Democratic Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, the state’s longest-serving female lawmaker, also announced her departure from the Legislature. Granite School Board member Julie Jackson and Utah Domestic Violence Coalition Public Policy Director Erin Jemison — both Democrats — have announced bids to replace her.

• Democratic Rep. Sandra Hollins, Utah’s first Black female legislator, said in November she was stepping down. No Republican filed to replace her, but six Democrats will compete for the Salt Lake City seat. They are: James Ord, Jeneanne Lock, Stephen Otterstrom, Anthony Washburn, Darin Mann and Aaron Wiley.

• Rep. Matt Gwynn, R-Farr West, announced last month that he would leave the Legislature to help care for his daughter, who is recovering from injuries sustained when she was hit by a box truck while riding a scooter. Gwynn recruited former Republican Rep. Rob Bishop to run for the seat. Kerry Wayne and Brad Barrowes are also seeking the GOP nomination. James Rich will be the Utah Forward Party candidate.

• Summit and Wasatch counties Rep. Mike Kohler is also hanging it up. Republicans Luke Searle, Mark Allen and Jeffrey Pierce have filed to replace him. Celeste Johnson and Micah Kagan will compete for the Democratic nod.

• Provo Republican Rep. Tyler Clancy has been appointed by Gov. Spencer Cox as the governor’s new homelessness coordinator and will leave the Legislature after the session. Three Republicans — McKay Jensen, Grant Pace and Nikaela Penrod — are running to replace him.

Other races worth watching

• As Koford tries to move up to the Senate, the Ogden-area House seat she won two years ago from Democrat Rosemary Lesser is up for grabs — and Lesser has filed to try to regain her spot representing one of the most competitive districts in the state. Koford ousted Lesser — the Legislature’s only Democrat from outside Salt Lake County — with significant support from House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper. In addition to directing hefty contributions toward Koford’s campaign, Schultz was the sole funder of a shadowy political action committee that targeted Lesser and other Democratic representatives for opposing bills restricting the rights of transgender Utahns.

• Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, made news for sponsoring a bill that aimed to ban public employee unions — representing police, firefighters, teachers and others — from negotiating contracts with their government employers. The Legislature backed down and repealed the bill when labor unions gathered a record number of signatures to put a referendum on the 2026 ballot to repeal the law. Now Teuscher is being challenged by Scott Stephenson, the current executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police and a member of the Board of Pardons.

• Sen. Brady Brammer, R-Pleasant Grove, who has sponsored legislation to reshape the judiciary after the courts ruled against Republicans in the state’s high-profile redistricting case, is being challenged by two Republican city council members from the district. Kelly Smith is an educator and a member of the Cedar Hills City Council, and Seth Stewart is a software engineer and member of the American Fork City Council. Democrat Kandee Myers and the Utah Forward Party’s Wayne Woodfield are also vying for the seat.

• Sen. Daniel Thatcher left the Republican Party last year, frustrated with the heavy-handed way the Legislature’s majority was operating, joined the Utah Forward Party. Then, months later, he resigned from the body, and the party picked Emily Buss to replace him. Now Buss has three Republican challengers — former Rep. John Knotwell, former Tooele County GOP Chair Chris Sloan and Brooks Benson. Democrat Mackenzie Miller will be her party’s nominee. Buss is currently the only third-party member of the Legislature.