AI attack ads fly in contentious Republican primary for ‘vulnerable’ Utah Senate president’s seat

For the first time in the 16 years he’s held his seat, Senate President Stuart Adams — one the most powerful leaders of the Republican-controlled Utah Legislature — is facing a primary with not one, but two GOP challengers: Braden Hess and Stephanie Hollist.

The Adams-Hess-Hollist matchup is shaping up to be the most high-profile legislative contest in a long list of legislative races that voters will decide in the June 23 primary. 

The race is unlike anything Adams has faced. It’s attracted out-of-state interest from both the left and the right, and inflammatory artificial intelligence attack ads are flying in every direction to sway voters in District 7 in Davis County.

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Even though Adams holds the incumbent advantage with two challengers that could hurt each other by splitting the vote, one Utah political pundit watching the race described it as Adams’ “toughest” reelection bid ever.

“He’s vulnerable in a way that he has never, ever been vulnerable before,” Taylor Morgan, a political consultant with the Utah-based lobbying and public affairs firm Morgan & May, told Utah News Dispatch on Friday. “And even in a three-way race, that remains true.” 

Despite the challenge ahead for Adams, Morgan predicted the Senate president will win the primary and keep his Republican-controlled District 7 seat — but “it will be too close for comfort,” with single-digit margins, Morgan said. He expects that the “outlandish” AI attack ads will turn off voters and “backfire in a way that actually helps” Adams. 

The race is still a test — not just for Adams, but also Republican leaders of the Legislature’s supermajority, Morgan said. 

He sees Adams as a “proxy” for frustration among voters fueled by a sense of “a lack of transparency” and a “lack of voter relations by the Utah Republican legislative leadership” around several big issues that have roiled Utah politics in recent years, including redistricting, voter ballot initiative power, and anti-public union legislation. 

Then, right as primary election season began to heat up, a new controversy exploded statewide: a proposal for a massive data center project being pushed by celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary in Box Elder County — and Adams has direct ties to the project in his role as chair of the Military Installation Development Authority, known as MIDA, a special district that gave the proposal an initial green light. 

Amid outcry, Adams demanded O’Leary dramatically scale back the size of the 40,000-acre project area. But the controversy remains a top issue in the race. After initially bristling, O’Leary has said he will cut the data center campus in half. Due to its timing and intensity, Morgan predicts the data center debacle will have a large impact on Adams’ bid to keep his seat. 

“Honestly, the timing of the data center controversy and the frustration in response to it is the key factor in this election,” Morgan said. “It really is. … It is fair for voters to be concerned about the rollout involving the data center. No one can pretend the data center was rolled out the right way. There was a real lack of voter education. There was a real lack of public relations … I think (Adams) has been responsive to the concerns, but the problem is this should have happened six months ago, not right now.” 

The winner of the District 7 GOP primary will advance to the November election to compete with Democratic candidate Garret Rushforth and Constitution candidate Jeffrey Ostler. However, because the district has a Republican majority, the winner of the GOP primary will likely go on to win the general election. 

Adams is facing his first primary for two reasons. Even though he got the majority of support from delegates at the Utah GOP’s nominating convention, with 55% of the vote, Hess got 44.9% — putting Adams below the 60% required for an outright nomination, and advancing both men to the primary. Meanwhile, Hollist also qualified for the primary ballot by gathering signatures. 

MIDA

Hess says if he’s elected, he’d repeal MIDA, arguing it’s grown “bloated to the point where it’s addressing projects that have nothing to do with the original intent” of military development. And Hollist says Adams only reversed course on the issue for political reasons, noting his demand letter to O’Leary came the day before ballots started hitting Utahns’ mailboxes. 

“It’s hilarious to me, because it’s like he’s coming in to be the savior of this situation when he was the creator of this situation,” Hollist said. 

Adams, however, argues his response shows he’s “listening” to voters and responding to their concerns, not “playing games.” He joked that if he could control the timing of the data center issue “we wouldn’t have done this until after the election.” 

“I didn’t ask for this to happen just before ballots went out, but I can be accused, I guess,” Adams said. “That’s a hollow accusation. Because it happened when it happened, and I have very little control over it. Mr. O’Leary made his application, and we responded to it.” 

He also said O’Leary still needs to obtain a slew of permits and approvals before the data center project can advance, and he has told the “Shark Tank” star that “he’s got to make sure he’s got a public-facing website and we bring the public along, because we’ll get better outcomes when we listen to the public, and I think I tried to do that.” 

Adams also defends MIDA as integral for Utah’s economic strength, military footprint and energy needs. 

“I’m not sure what (Hess is) talking about by (MIDA) losing our focus,” Adams said. “We’re going to continue to make Utah and America the best nation and the best state in the nation. … I like Braden a lot, but I don’t think he understands all of what MIDA is trying to do.” 

Hess argued that he would work to “get rid of” MIDA and other public infrastructure districts in the name of limited government, saying government entities should not be in the business of incentivizing development.

“I don’t think unelected board members should be able to exercise taxing (authority), even if local governments try to delegate that authority,” Hess said. 

Hollist said she has “real concerns” about MIDA, though she wouldn’t go as far as to say she’d support a repeal, saying she’d study the issue before deciding what to do. It’s possible that it can’t be “salvaged” and it needs to be dismantled, she said, but she also wants to make sure there’s a plan to continue protecting Hill Air Force Base.

“I am not one who would want to come in and just tear things apart,” she said. “I need to understand the repercussions of doing something like that before I make a decision.”

The candidates and their issues

Adams, a real estate developer who lives in Layton, has had a long legislative career. He was first appointed to the Utah House in 2002, where he served for four years. Then in 2009, he was appointed to the Utah Senate, where he’d go on to win reelection for four four-year terms. He has been Senate president since 2018.

Adams points to Utah’s high economic rankings and his track record of supporting conservative priorities, especially tax cuts, as evidence of why Utah has been on the right trajectory under his leadership. He argues that not only his district, but also the entire state benefits from his “expertise and institutional knowledge” that has helped drive investments in transportation and other major infrastructure projects, which he says is at stake if he loses both his District 7 seat and his role as Senate president. 

“We have the best economy, we’ve had the best quality of life, we have the best people, and it’s why I’m running,” Adams said. “I want to keep it that way.

Hollist, an attorney who lives in Fruit Heights, spent 18 years working as senior legal adviser for Weber State University. She’s running on a platform of change and accountability, arguing Adams has been in power for too long and has become disconnected from his constituents. 

The data center controversy, she said, “is just the latest example of a deeper frustration. So many people feel their government no longer represents them.” 

Hess, of Kaysville, is an attorney who previously worked in the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel where he helped lawmakers draft bills. He left to run for office and start his own law firm. He also works as a real estate agent. 

Hess is also running on a platform of change — but while also painting himself as the candidate with “real conservative values.” He has pledged to push for more aggressive income tax cuts and advocate for more limited government in a variety of ways, including pushing local governments to loosen land use restrictions to pave the way for more housing.

Hess and Hollist have struck starkly different tones when it comes to Adams. While Hollist has criticized Adams for “pushing things that aren’t reflective of people’s voices,” Hess said that even though he disagrees with him on certain issues — like the creation of MIDA — he respects Adams as “straightforward.” 

Hess and Adams had virtually matching criticisms of Hollist. They said her platform is based on vague ideas like “transparency” and “accountability,” and that she doesn’t communicate specifics on where she stands on policy issues. 

In response, Hollist said she shapes her decision-making based on what she hears from people and if she were elected she would prioritize “reflecting what my constituents want.” She also called it a “campaign tactic” from both Adams and Hess, to “cast doubt on how Republican” she is.

Attack ads

The District 7 race has heated up with the help of inflammatory AI-generated attack ads — some that have come after Adams from Make Liberty Win, a national conservative group that targets legislative incumbents, the Deseret News reported — and some that have come from Adams’ campaign to attack Hollist. 

One ad from Adams’ campaign depicts Hollist blowing a kiss to prominent progressive donor George Soros — which Hollist called “nuts” and “just insane.” 

“I don’t know George Soros. I’ve never been in alignment with George Soros,” she said. “Putting that picture together for people? That just blows my mind.” 

Adams and his campaign manager Greg Powers pointed to two examples that led them to draw that connection: a local chapter of the national progressive advocacy group Indivisible encouraged voters to write postcards urging voters to support Hollist in the primary. And Powers sent a screenshot of Hollist’s husband commenting on a post by progressive group Alliance for a Better Utah urging registered Republicans in District 7 to vote Adams out. 

“She can say that she’s not running around with the George Soros types, but this has George Soros’ fingerprints all over it, and she was even soliciting help from his group,” Powers said. 

Hollist pushed back, saying her husband posts comments “on all sorts of forums where people are angry about the data center or Adams and posts the same message. You could probably find that in plenty of other groups across the spectrum who are frustrated.”

“To me that’s a signal that my husband supports me, rather than some kind of alignment with every group out there angry about the data center decisions,” she said.

As for the Indivisible postcard, Hollist said she was “not involved in any way with” that letter writing campaign or Indivisible. She argued it’s more “demonstrative of how many people across the spectrum are frustrated” with the data center project. 

By far, most of the tension and heated rhetoric in the District 7 race is between Adams and Hollist.

“That’s one thing that’s been consistent through this entire campaign, and that is criticism,” Adams said. “Her campaign has been built on criticizing me but not taking a position or solving problems.”

Adams argued Utah is “the No. 1 state in the nation with the best economy, the most conservative Senate president in the United States,” and yet “dark money” groups are “trying to attack me. Why?”

“I’ll talk policy with anyone … but to attack somebody’s integrity, their personal integrity, I believe is wrong,” Adams said. “That has happened in this race, and it’s very discouraging to see that happen.”

Other legislative primaries to watch

In some districts, Republican and Democrat incumbents are seeking to fend off challengers from within their own parties or vying to fill open seats. Here’s a breakdown of the state House and Senate primaries that will be decided June 23:

Senate District 5: Democrats Dakota Wurth and “CJ” Christina Hernandez are competing for retiring Sen. Ann Millner’s open seat. The winner will go on to compete with Rep. Jill Koford, the Republican nominee, in November.

Senate District 6: Two Republicans, Tami Tran and Robert Wanlass, are competing to be the Republican nominee to fill a seat being vacated by Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, who is retiring at the end of the year. The winner will go on to compete with Forward Party of Utah candidate Josh Smith and Democratic candidate Jared Neal. 

Senate District 13: Democrats Evan Done, Taylor Paden and Silvia Catten are all competing to fill a seat being vacated by outgoing Sen. Nate Blouin, who is running for Congress. The winner will go on to compete with Forward candidate Colin Smith and Republican Ryan Mahoney. 

Senate District 14: Democrat Tayler Khater is challenging incumbent Sen. Stephanie Pitcher, D-Salt Lake City. The primary will determine the overall winner, since no other candidates have filed to compete in the November election. 

Senate District 18: GOP incumbent Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, is running against House Rep. Doug Fiefia, R-Herriman. At the GOP convention, McCay narrowly survived a challenge by Fiefia, who got 58% of the delegate vote, but not enough to nab the party nomination, so they both advanced to the primary. Morgan, the political consultant, expects this race to be highly competitive. The winner will go on to face Democrat A. Dane Anderson in November. 

Senate District 21: Republican Sen. Brady Brammer, R-Pleasant Grove, is being challenged by Kelly Smith for the GOP nomination. The winner will go on to face Democrat Kandee Myers and Forward candidate Wayne Woodfield in November. 

House District 14: Republicans Kara Toone and John Taylor are competing for the Republican nomination for a seat being vacated by Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, who is running for Congress. The winner will face Democrat Brandon Young in November.

House District 16: Republican Bob Stevenson is challenging Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton. The winner will go on to compete with Democratic candidate Abigail Treasure. 

House District 17: Republicans Lili Bitner and Sam Barlow are competing for the Republican nomination for a seat being vacated by Barlow’s father, Rep. Stewart Barlow. The winner will face Democrat Eric Last. 

House District 21: Democrats Stephen Otterstrom and Aaron Wiley are competing for a seat being vacated by Rep. Sandra Hollins, D-Salt Lake City, who didn’t file for reelection. The primary will determine the winner of the race, since no other candidates filed to compete in the general election. 

House District 29: Republicans Alexis Wheeler and Sheldon Birch are competing to fill a seat being vacated by outgoing Rep. Bridger Bolinder, R-Grantsville. The winner will face Forward candidate Tynley Bean, Constitution candidate Jonathan Garrard and Democrat Sara Snow in November.

House District 34: Democrats Erin Jemison and Julie Jackson are competing for a seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, the state’s longest sitting female legislator. The winner will be determined by the primary, since no other candidates have filed to compete in the November election.

House District 38: Republicans Gloria Vindas and Chris McConnehey are competing to fill a seat being vacated by Rep. Cheryl Acton, who didn’t file for reelection. The winner will go on to compete with unaffiliated candidate Sergio Sotelo.

House District 40: Democrat Wendy Davis is challenging incumbent Rep. Andrew Stoddard, D-Sandy. The winner will compete with Forward candidate John Jackson in the general election. 

House District 41: Republicans Eryn Russo and Darren Croft are competing for the GOP nomination to face Democratic incumbent Rep. John Arthur, whom delegates picked last year to fill a seat left vacant by former Rep. Gay Lynn Bennion, who was elected as mayor of Cottonwood Heights. 

House District 44: Incumbent Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, is being challenged by Republican Scott Stephenson. Teuscher sponsored a controversial ban on collective bargaining for public unions, which has since been repealed amid outcry. Stephenson is the executive director of the Utah Fraternal Order of Police, and he was among those who pushed for the repeal of Teuscher’s law. The winner will go on to face Democrat Jess Birtcher in the general election. 

House District 48: Republicans Jake Hunsaker and Nik Anderson are competing for the GOP nomination to fill a seat being vacated by Rep. Doug Fiefia, who is running for Senate. The winner will face Democrat Benyde Walker in November. 

House District 59: Two Republicans are facing off to fill an open seat being vacated by Rep. Mike Kohler, R-Midway: Luke Searle and Jeffrey Pierce. The winner will go on to compete with Democrat Celeste Johnson.

House District 67: Republicans JR Bird and Yvonne Jensen are competing to fill an open seat left by Rep. Christine Watkins, R-Price. The winner will face Democrat Carl Ingwell in November.

House District 69: Incumbent Rep. Logan Monson, R-Blanding, is facing a Republican challenger, Daniel Gardner. The winner will go on to compete with Democrat Tracie Yellowman Tso in November.

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