Stuart Adams is out: Utah Senate president concedes to Republican challenger

Senate President Stuart Adams, one of the most powerful leaders of the GOP-controlled Utah Legislature, conceded to one of his Republican challengers, Stephanie Hollist, on Tuesday night after early election night results showed him trailing her by more than 8 percentage points. 

According to results posted after polls closed at 8 p.m., Stephanie Hollist had about 43% of the vote to Adams’ 35%, while Braden Hess trailed in third with 22%.

“I congratulate my opponent on their victory and wish them every success as they continue the important work of serving the people of Utah,” Adams said in a statement issued by his campaign manager Tuesday night. “My hope is that our great state will continue to lead the nation and remain the number one state in America, a place where families thrive, businesses prosper and opportunity abounds for future generations.” 

Adams expressed gratitude to Senate staff, his supporters and his family while also saying he worked to “champion policies that have strengthened Utah, supported businesses, helped working families and benefited Davis County and communities across our state.”

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“While campaigns come and go, I’m proud of all that we have accomplished together and of the progress we have made on behalf of the people we serve,” Adams said, while calling his time in the Legislature “one of the greatest honors of my life.” 

After Adams conceded, Hollist said she was feeling “a little bit overwhelmed,” expressing gratitude to her supporters. 

“It was an incredible race, and it was a hard one, I think, for my entire district,” she said. “Everybody was seriously invested. Everybody was torn in different ways. But I do think the outcome honestly reflects the feeling of my community, their desire for something different, for a government that focuses on them.” 

Hollist said the early results showed how many people “really do want change,” and that’s what won her this race.

“Really, I was just in a position to amplify what so many in our community had already been feeling,” she said. “It’s everybody who is feeling like their voices haven’t been heard, that we’re just fighting instead of solving, that we’re not actually fixing the things that are important to us. And that it seems like nobody cares. People don’t see themselves reflected in government, and I was just able to harness that and able to show that I am the one who can come in and change that.” 

In response to Adams’ concession, Hollist said she knows him “to be somebody who is willing to own when they’ve lost.” She said he sent her a text message that said “congratulations.” 

“While we’ve had disagreements, he has done some good things for our state, so I appreciate that,” she said.

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With Tuesday’s results, Hollist is on track to advance to the November general election to face Democrat Garret Rushforth and Constitution candidate Jeffrey Ostler.

Hollist’s win is a stunning upset for Adams, who is now on his way to losing his top position in the Legislature, along with the District 7 seat he’s held for 16 years representing Davis and Morgan counties. After Adams’ term ends at the end of the year, Senate Republicans will need to pick a new Senate president. 

Election results aren’t final until after a two-week county canvass period and the statewide canvass on July 20.

Tuesday marked the first time Adams’s ever faced a primary, with not one but two Republican opponents. 

To pundit Taylor Morgan, a political consultant with the Utah-based  lobbying and public affairs firm Morgan & May, the contentious three-way race was unlike anything Adams has ever faced, and he was “vulnerable in a way that he has never, ever been vulnerable before.” 

Morgan also predicted the Senate president would win the primary, but it would be “too close for comfort,” with single-digit margins. But ultimately, voters gave Hollist enough support to hand her an early election night win. Adams’ concession Tuesday night showed he saw an unsurmountable vote margin to beat her, despite any outstanding vote tallies. 

The Adams-Hess-Hollist matchup attracted out-of-state interest from both the left and the right, as well as inflammatory artificial intelligence attack ads. To Morgan, Adams became a “proxy” for frustration among voters fueled by 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. 

But then, right as the primary election season heated up, a new controversy exploded statewide that would become a key issue in Adams’ race: a proposal for a massive data center project being pushed by celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary in Box Elder County. 

Adams had 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. After initially bristling, O’Leary has said he will cut the data center campus in half. But the controversy remained a top issue.

Utah Senate president and his GOP challengers debate data center, MIDA ahead of primary

During a candidate forum last week, Hollist and Hess both attacked Adams over the data center project. Hess called for MIDA to be repealed, while Hollist said she’d look for ways to “clean up” the entity, which she said had “grown so big and has so many tentacles that to unravel it would be challenging.” 

Adams, however, defended MIDA as a longstanding state entity that’s helped expand Utah’s military footprint, protect Hill Air Force Base and spur the creation of thousands of jobs. 

“Nobody’s done more to protect Hill Air Force Base and protect the economic validity of this area,” Adams said at the candidate forum. “I’m proud of that record, and it’s one of the great things I’ve been able to accomplish as a legislator.” 

Hess told Utah News Dispatch he was disappointed by the election night results, not just because he was trailing in third place, but also because he didn’t want to see Hollist have a lead over Adams, which he attributed to a general “anti-Stuart sentiment” in the race. 

“I think Stuart’s getting a bad rap,” Hess said. “Obviously, I disagree with him. I wanted to replace him. … But if it wasn’t going to be me, I wish it would have been him.” 

Hess has criticized Hollist, saying she hasn’t been “clear” on all of her policy stances — but he also acknowledged her message calling for more transparency and listening to constituents seems to have resonated with District 7 voters. 

“Everything she was saying was exactly what other Republicans believe, and even Democrats and independents believe, that, ‘We need transparency. We need a leader who listens. And we need good government,’” Hess said. “Well, everyone believes those things. It’s just what people wanted to hear right now.” 

Along the campaign trail, Hess said he heard frustration from District 7 residents not just about the data center controversy, but also issues like redistricting and ballot initiatives. 

Hess said he didn’t think Adams “didn’t listen” to voters’ concerns, but rather “when you’re in as long as he is and you’ve got as much power, he’s got his hands in lots of different cookie jars, being on the board of MIDA … people begin to think you’re not transparent, even if you do what you can.” 

“I think people were ready for change,” Hess said. “I think people weren’t feeling listened to, which goes to one of Stephanie’s points, right? … So even though she didn’t state her stances, she made it very clear she’s going to listen, and I think that’s really what people wanted.” 

Though Hess disagreed with Hollist’s approach, he said “I wish her the best of luck.” 

Other legislative upsets 

Senate District 18: Incumbent Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, was on track to lose his seat to challenger Rep. Doug Fiefia, R-Herriman, who had nearly 70% of the vote to McCay’s 31%. 

At the GOP nominating 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.

Fiefia will now go on to face Democrat A. Dane Anderson in November. 

House District 16: Incumbent Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, trailed Republican challenger Bob Stevenson, who had 66% of the vote to Lee’s 34%. 

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