If Tori Broughton wins her campaign for Wasatch County Council Seat D, her victory will be more than just a personal triumph: It will be the first time a member of the United Utah Party has been elected to public office.

Since its 2017 conception, several candidates affiliated with the political group have ran for local and even state positions, but no candidate has yet found enough voters who value and support the party’s centrist foundation in order to elect party members.

According to the party’s current chair, Ladd Johnson, that could soon change, and the growing divisiveness and mud-flinging from the party’s right and left counterparts could help accelerate its progress.

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The party itself, he said, was born out of frustration with the two-party system and the candidates that came from it during former President Donald Trump’s first year of his term.

“The idea was, ‘Why don’t we have an option that’s not these two polarizing options that common-sense people can vote for.’ And so the party was formed,” Johnson said. 

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It met immediate resistance.

“We turned in our signatures to get the party formed, and Republicans at the state denied it,” Johnson said. “We had to file a lawsuit to get them to accept our signatures and put us on the ballot for that special election.”

The election was to replace Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who relinquished his seat in The House of Representatives before his term expired. Though Republican John Curtis was elected to the position, the United Utah Party won its lawsuit and was able to have its own candidate on the ballot.

“Since then, we’ve had candidates in every election … and then we’ve got another slate lined up for (2024),” Johnson said. “I think a lot of people thought we were going to die after that 2017 election. I think they thought this was just sort of a flash in the pan, sort of a one-and-done situation. But I think to their surprise, and maybe a little bit to their annoyance, we have stuck around.”

Johnson — who has been involved in politics all his life — personally got involved in the party at the Salt Lake County level in 2020. In 2022, he ran for a position in the state House of Representatives. He’s no stranger to Utah politics, nor is he a stranger to the accusation that anyone who runs with a centrist position in Utah is actually running as a liberal in disguise.

“On the national level, what the two-party system has generated is gridlock. If you’re the minority, all you do is block, obstruct, complain. If you’re the majority, all you do is try and implement your policies and shove them down the other side’s throat no matter what they think or whether it’s a good idea or not,” he said. “What it looks like at the state level is power hoarding, for lack of a better term. You’ve got all the red states getting redder and the blue states getting bluer.”

In states like Utah, Republican representatives go to great lengths to make Democrats’ lives difficult and safeguard their advantageous power. In more Democratic states, Johnson said, it’s just the opposite.

“We see that in Utah a lot, and it’s sort of like death by a thousand paper cuts,” he said.

He gave examples like Utah’s legislature working against independent redistricting measures and its love of closed primaries, which he said makes their decisions more extreme.

“You realize these folks who are in power are really trying to lock in their power, and it’s just not very representative right now,” he said. 

The Utah United Party has five main focuses, and they all conveniently start with the same letter — economy, education, environment, equality and ethical government. Though it has yet to back an elected candidate, even its failed campaigns have allowed the party to begin growing support throughout the state, and it currently has 11 running for various positions throughout the state — Broughton for Wasatch County Councilor, Michelle Quist for Attorney General, Vaughn Cook for Utah’s District 4 Representative in the House of Representatives, Alan Wessman for Utah County Commission and seven other candidates seeking spots in the Utah House of Representatives.

The party seeks less partisan influence, more government transparency and more voter participation through ranked choice or other progressive methods.

More thorough information about the five pillars of the party’s platform is available on its website at unitedutah.org.

Broughton, who’s only lived in Utah for a few years, was attracted to the Utah United Party for similar reasons as Johnson. After her defeat following a campaign for Heber City Council and subsequent decision to run for Wasatch County Council, she was required to run within a party. As the left and right grew further apart on state and national levels, the United Utah Party best suited her values.

“Securing the Wasatch County Council seat would be a big win for me and the United Utah Party,” Broughton said. “Despite not being their highest-profile candidate, their robust support is evident. … As I gear up for a summer of campaigning, I’m confident that the voters of Wasatch County will resonate with the UUP’s platform.”