Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Republican state senators in Utah elected new leaders, including Sen. Kirk Cullimore as majority leader.
- Senate Democrats also shuffled two seats on their leadership team, but Sen. Luz Escamilly will retain her role as minority leader.
- Utah House Republicans retained all four leaders in their current positions, keeping Mike Schultz as House Speaker.
SALT LAKE CITY — Republican state senators in Utah elected three new leaders to serve alongside Utah Senate President Stuart Adams for the next two years, and Democrats in the Senate also reshuffled some of their leadership positions last week.
The shakeup in the Utah Legislature followed a "cordial and classy" election process Thursday evening, according to Sen. Kirk Cullimore, R-Draper, who was elected as the Senate majority leader to replace Sen. Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, in leadership. Cullimore previously served as the majority whip and was the only member of leadership, aside from Adams, to retain a role.
Sen. Chris Wilson, R-Logan, was elected majority whip to replace Cullimore, and Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, will replace Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, as assistant whip.
Adams and others thanked Millner and Vickers for their service. While the president said he felt some "anxiety" during the caucus election, he praised the newcomers to the leadership team.
"I'm going to miss Sen. Vickers and Sen. Millner, yet we've got a great leadership team here," Adams told reporters.
McKell, Cullimore and Wilson said they sought their new posts as new opportunities to serve the GOP caucus and their constituents and said there were no specific policy differences on which they clashed with their predecessors.
"I didn't feel like there was tension," McKell said of the process. "I feel like all of the races to bottom were very respectful, very professional," but added that running against colleagues and friends for leadership posts can be difficult.
Senate Democrats announced minor changes in their leadership on Friday, as well, although Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, will retain her role as the caucus leader. Sen. Karen Kwan, D-West Valley City, was elected as minority whip, replacing Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, in that role.
Riebe, meanwhile, will serve as the minority caucus manager, and Sen. Jen Plumb, D-Salt Lake City, will continue to serve as the minority assistant whip.
"I am honored to continue serving as Senate minority leader and to continue serving with the Senate minority caucus to represent and stand up for all Utahns, especially those who often feel underserved and underrepresented in our Capitol," Escamilla stated Friday. "We will continue working collaboratively with the majority to create good policy — always upholding integrity, respect and the values that strengthen our Senate and our state."
The Utah Legislature will convene for its annual general session in January and will do so in a very different national environment with former President Donald Trump returning to power with what could be Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress. Adams said state lawmakers look to prioritize energy policy — specifically as it relates to artificial intelligence.
"The country who controls AI is going to control the world," Adams said, and he believes Trump's second administration will help reduce energy costs to power the massive data centers needed to improve artificial intelligence models.
Utah House Republicans also held leadership elections Thursday, following Tuesday's election, but all four leaders retained their positions.
Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, also welcomed a second Trump presidency and said he hopes to focus on state sovereignty, particularly around public lands. He said states should ideally operate as "laboratories of democracy" and criticized what he called "pressure from the federal government" during President Joe Biden's tenure.
The House GOP caucus met Tuesday, but Schultz said they have not discussed specific policy priorities for the upcoming session.
He did address recent court rulings that struck down a pair of constitutional amendments proposed by the state Legislature. The state Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers failed to publish the text of Amendment A and Amendment D in newspapers ahead of the election and the ballot language of Amendment D — which was written by Schultz and Adams — was misleading.
"I made some mistakes, and I'll own that," Schultz said when asked about the ruling. "I probably have a regret in that we used the word 'strengthen' (in the ballot question). ... I mean, it was factual. We could have been a little more clear on what strengthen it meant, but ... I think taking that word out probably would have been better."
Adams more or less agreed.
"Well, we all can do better, and I think Speaker Schultz and I ... we would have redone the language," he said, adding that the issue of the constitutional amendments didn't come up in the leadership races.
