In 2022, Dan Thatcher ran for re-election in Senate District 11 with no opponent and 100% of the votes cast. The district he won runs from the fast-growing suburbs of Eagle Mountain and Herriman through Kearns, Magna, and West Valley City, then out into rural Tooele County, a mix of new subdivisions still being built and small towns that have been there for generations.

Less than a term later, that same seat now has a new senator in a new party, and a unique general election approaching. Here’s what happened and why we’re supporting Brooks Benson against the incumbent in this race. 

 

From Republican to Forward Party

Thatcher, of West Valley City, first won the seat in 2010, unseating Democratic incumbent Brent Goodfellow with 53.25% of the vote. He won again in 2014 (58.8%) and 2018 (50.38%), then ran unopposed in 2022, spending 14 years in the Senate. He chaired the Executive Offices and Criminal Justice Appropriations Subcommittee. 

During the first ten years of his tenure, Thatcher tended to vote in line with the Republican party but during his last term, he voted less along party lines. In March 2025, he left the Republican Party and joined the Utah Forward Party and in October 2025, he announced he'd resign before the 2026 session started. He’d been struggling with health issues since 2022. 

"My first obligation is not to any political party, but rather to my constituents," he said in his resignation post on X. He added: "This will be the first election I can think of that will actually be decided by voters with different or in some cases no party affiliation."

 

How the seat got filled

Utah legislative vacancies are normally filled by a closed party convention. The Forward Party opened the process to any registered District 11 voter, regardless of party (partially because there were very few registered Forward Party members in the area). Candidates filed to run like always but had to be members of the Forward party. Voters then weighed in using approval voting, believed to be the first time that method has been used to elect a state legislator anywhere in the country. Despite this open method, few people cast a vote. 

Emily Buss, a social worker and nonprofit co-founder from Eagle Mountain, won with 625 votes, 47.21% among five candidates. She spent zero dollars on the race. She was sworn in on December 17, 2025, becoming the only third-party state senator in Utah and, at the time, the youngest sitting member of the chamber.

This was an extremely low turnout election. In 2022, 24,680 people voted in this Senate race, even with Thatcher running unopposed. Buss's 625 votes were about 2.5% of that. District 11 also leans heavily Republican. Thatcher held the seat as a Republican for fourteen years before switching parties and the district voted heavily Republican in the 2024 Presidential election. 

Utah GOP Chair Rob Axson argued the seat should have stayed Republican, saying, "People of the district, when casting a vote for a Republican, expected to be represented by a Republican."

 

One session in: Buss's record

Buss served her first legislative session in January to March of 2026 and sat on five committees– Government Operations and Political Subdivisions, the Government Operations Confirmation Committee, Health and Human Services, Social Services Appropriations, and General Government Appropriations.

She sponsored six bills, cosponsored by a mix of Republicans and Democrats, none of which passed the main body:

• SB247, Road Funding Amendments
• SB189, School District Funding Amendments
• SB297, School Social Worker Amendments
• SB320, School-Based Food Pantry Amendments
• SB291, Student Transportation Amendments
• SJR017, a resolution on legislative analysis and information services

She also floor sponsored bills such as HB541, First-Time Homebuyer Assistance Program Amendments, and HJR011, a resolution recognizing neonatal abstinence syndrome, which didn’t pass, and HB22, Vintage Vehicle Amendments, which was signed into law. 

 

An attempt to change the rule

The process that seated Buss didn't sit well with everyone at the Capitol. Senator Mike McKell tried to do something about it through SB194, which would have required future legislative vacancies to be filled by someone from the same party the previous officeholder belonged to at their last election, not whatever party they'd switched to afterward. 

"That was a seat voted for by Republicans, and that's just common sense," he said, adding, "that's what the voters originally intended, and I think we need to respect the voters in that situation." Buss called it "a scare tactic to keep people within party lines," arguing "it's OK to change your mind when you have new information."

That language was ultimately cut from the version SB194 that passed. Current Utah law still doesn't require a legislative seat to stay under the candidate’s original party.

 

Doers Endorsement

Brooks Benson is the Doers Network's endorsed candidate for Senate District 11, after defeating other candidates solidly in the state convention in April 2026. 

Benson's background is in behavioral science and family studies, with years spent building infrastructure systems, from pipelines to software, and managing operations budgets. He's a long-time Utah resident who went to school in the state and raised his family in the district.

His campaign is built around catching infrastructure up to growth:

• Roads, schools, and utilities in place before new housing gets approved
• Parental rights and school choice
• Using Utah's own energy resources to lower costs
• Water security as the district keeps growing
• Reducing government spending and taxes

Originally, the campaign seemed like it was going to be a more divided field until  Democrat MacKenzie Miller of Magna dropped out on September 1, saying a three-way race would split the vote and hand Republicans an easier path. 

"I don't want me and Emily competing and kind of ruining both our chances," Miller said. That leaves Benson facing the incumbent. Although the district’s strong Republican lean in the past favors Benson heading into November, he’s still going up against an incumbent and the Forward Party is likely going to spend a lot of money in hopes to keep their first and only state-wide seat. 

 

A Republican Seat Again

The general election is coming up on November 3 and the candidates’ campaigning is just starting to really heat up. This will be an election to pay attention to as November approaches and as we and other Republicans attempt to get the seat back where the voters want it to be. 

Stay tuned here for any updates on SD 11 and other races Doers is endorsing in this general election.