Outgoing Oakley Mayor Zane Woolstenhulme is tossing his hat in the ring for Utah House District 4.
The district’s current representative is Tiara Auxier of Morgan County, who the Utah GOP appointed to replace Rep. Kera Birkeland when she stepped down last January.
Woolstenhulme believes he can be a voice for everyone in the district, which includes most of Summit County and all of Morgan and Rich counties.
“I have dear friends and associates in the whole district, and so I'm anxious to hear what the concerns are and figure out what I can do to bring a voice to the table. I think my experience as mayor, city government, [Oakley] planning commission, what I do for Ogden school district, and what I've done for the last 40 years in my career brings a breadth of experience to the table,” he said.
Woolstenhulme said he hopes to address issues like housing, taxation and good government. In a Jan. 8 campaign announcement, he lamented polarization and pledged to build bridges.
“I grew up farming and ranching, working in a small business with my father, and I believe that's a voice that's missing right now,” Woolstenhulme said. “There are a lot of agriculturally focused individuals in both of those counties [Rich and Morgan], a lot of small business people in every one of these counties.”
He said he is excited by the opportunity to serve on a “grander scale” and that he was approached years ago to run as a Republican but said it didn’t work out.
He’s running now as a Democrat, one of two vying for the party’s nomination. State records indicate the other is film director Zeppelin Zeerip. Auxier has also filed for to run in 2026.
Woolstenhulme has been Ogden City School District’s business administrator for 12 years and previously served on the board of Mountainlands Community Housing Trust for almost 10. He touted his work to conserve open space in Oakley with the Summit Land Conservancy.
He was the city's mayor before losing to City Councilmember Steve Wilmouth in the November 2025 election.
House District 4’s boundaries were revised for 2023, so neither a Summit County resident nor a Democrat have been elected from within the current boundaries.
The other statewide seats on Wasatch Back ballots include Utah Senate District 20 and Utah House District 59, which covers the rest of Summit County and all of Wasatch County.
