The 2026 midterms marked big wins for Democrats across the country and in the Beehive State.
The Utah House of Representatives GOP supermajority was broken for the first time in over three decades. Republicans are set to lose 16 House seats, with 14 going to Democrats and two to unaffiliated candidates.
Two of those seats cover Summit and Wasatch counties. The Associated Press declared Democrat Zane Woolstenhulme the winner of the House District 4 race Tuesday. He defeated incumbent Republican Tiara Auxier.
The House District 59 race is not decided, but Democrat Celeste Johnson is ahead of Republican Luke Searle with 51% of the vote.
Utah Democratic Party Chair Brian King isn’t surprised.
A longtime House representative and minority leader, he said the Democratic Party has long been focused on winning Wasatch Back races.
“Although Republicans have been getting elected and have represented that area for a number of years now, they've never been able to win by huge margins,” he said.
King said rapid population growth has brought in voters from out of state and led the once rural counties to lean more blue.
He said both Johnson and Woolstenhulme are well known in their communities. Johnson served as Midway’s mayor for eight years. Woolstenhulme was the mayor of Oakley for four.
“Summit and Wasatch County have always been wise and careful to elect moderate pragmatists, individuals who were problem solvers, who represented the community [and] were longtime residents of the community,” King said.
Still, King said breaking the GOP’s supermajority in the House took time and effort. Democratic Party leadership spent the last six months of 2025 identifying candidates to run for more than 100 coordinated races statewide.
King said dissatisfaction with Republican actions at the state and federal level also contributed to Democratic wins.
Gov. Spencer Cox said something similar during a PBS Utah broadcast Monday.
“I've heard concerns about growth and development, including data centers,” he said. “I've heard frustration about transparency, about trust in government, and about whether the people making decisions are really listening to the people that are affected by them.”
Cox pointed to Republican redistricting efforts and the 2025 bill banning public employees from collective bargaining as deeply unpopular measures that led to mistrust.
He said lawmakers will have to find ways to work together as well as disagree while respecting each other.
The GOP now has a simple majority in the House. Republicans retained their supermajority in the Utah Senate.
Final results in the remaining Wasatch Back contest between Johnson and Searle are expected Nov. 17.
