Cullimore concedes Utah Senate race to Democrat who wants new leadership in both parties

SANDY – Utah's Senate majority leader has conceded defeat to a Democrat who leads the Senate District 19 race by more than 3,600 votes.

Sen. Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, said he sent a LinkedIn message on Friday morning congratulating Shana Anderson on her win. Anderson, a stay-at-home mom and U.S. Army veteran, is part of a major shakeup in the Utah Legislature that has Republicans set to lose more than a dozen seats.

"Life goes on, and public service is meant to be a temporary thing, and so it was always going to come to an end at some point," Cullimore said, "and so (I'm) looking forward to the next phase of life."

Meanwhile, Anderson said she looks forward to taking her seat on Capitol Hill, but she wants to see some changes on all sides of the aisle.

"I think that we need new leadership," Anderson told KSL. "I'm glad that we have new leadership on the Republican side, and I think we need new leadership on the Democratic side, too."

Political rise halted

Cullimore, who has served in the Utah Senate since 2019, was a rising political star. As Senate majority leader, he was widely viewed as the frontrunner to succeed Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, who lost his reelection bid earlier this year.

But Anderson put a stop to that. She and other Democrats, along with two unaffiliated candidates, are on track to unseat 13 incumbent Republican lawmakers and flip three other seats currently held by the GOP. A Senate seat currently held by the Forward Party may flip back to Republicans, based on the latest election results.

If the results hold, Republicans will lose their supermajority in the House of Representatives for the first time in decades, although they will maintain it in the Senate. County clerks are processing remaining ballots over the next few days.

"I've been a part of this amazing group of people that stood up and got involved this year for the first time," Anderson said in an interview with KSL on Friday. "Most of us have never been involved in politics before, but we stood up because we have been so troubled with the directions that things have been going in for the country, but more importantly for our state."

Anderson is originally from Idaho and moved to Utah about 10 years ago. She served five years active duty in the U.S. Army and two years in the Utah National Guard. Anderson has a degree in economics. She and her husband and their children live in Sandy.

When she initially decided to run, Anderson said it was mostly over concern about national politics, and she didn't even know that Cullimore was the Utah Senate majority leader.

As she studied the issues, Anderson said she became concerned about Cullimore's support of a controversial union bill – which the Legislature eventually repealed – and a school voucher program.

"He thought he was so powerful that he was untouchable," Anderson said, "and we sent the message that he's not, and that's what I'm the most excited about."

What happened?

Cullimore said he believes his defeat is largely the result of "trickle-down" voter sentiment nationally. Democrats across the country made huge gains on Tuesday, retaking control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.

But Cullimore said he feels the part-time Utah Legislature is much different from the political animosity on display at the national level.

"There's a lot of new people coming into the Legislature," he said. "Hopefully they can see that the partisanship that they may have thought got them here is not really what's going to help them be pragmatic leaders for our state."

Asked if the Legislature is to blame for the shakeup that occurred in Utah on Election Day, Cullimore agreed in part. He said lawmakers "could do better about listening," but he said the public is not as engaged and spends more time in "echo chambers" on social media.

At town halls he's attended, Cullimore noted, only a "select few" actually show up.

"Yeah, I blame the Legislature a little bit, but I think it goes both ways," Cullimore said. "I think the public needs to be a little bit more engaged and be willing to engage in deeper discussions and dialogues and understand what's going on."

But Anderson believes voters wanted another option, and that Republicans in the Legislature stopped looking out for Utahns.

"The biggest reason for that is Stuart Adams and Kirk Cullimore," she said. "They were the ones with all of the power."

What's next?

Cullimore said he looks forward to exploring new professional opportunities, promoting performing arts in Utah, and spending time with his family. He said future public office is "not on the horizon for me right now at all."

As for Anderson, as the apparent winner in the Utah Senate race, she plans to take part in Senate minority caucus leadership elections Friday evening. She's not sure who she'll support to lead the caucus, but she said she does not want current Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, to continue.

"She's been in there for 18 years," Anderson said. "I believe in term limits. I think that's long enough."

Anderson went further, saying she's "upset with what has happened in our state in general, and I feel like (Escamilla's) been a part of that."

Utah Senate Democrats have been in upheaval lately as they voted this week to remove one of their members, Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, from their caucus over allegations workplace harassment and discrimination. After an independent investigation found "a pattern of conduct towards others that was likely motivated by race, national origin, or ethnicity," Senate Democrats called on Riebe to resign.

KSL has received a redacted copy of that report and is reviewing it.

Riebe, meanwhile, has rebuffed calls to step down. She told KSL earlier this week she believes the allegations against her were a result of her own leadership ambitions as well as concerns she expressed about a legislative staffer doing campaign work for Escamilla.

Escamilla has not responded to requests for comment, while the staffer in question said she supports "appropriate transparency regarding the investigation and its findings, while protecting the identity and privacy of witnesses and other individuals involved."

As details emerge about the allegations against Riebe and her counterclaims, Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Millcreek, has called for leadership elections to be postponed.

Utah Senate Republicans will also elect new leadership on Friday evening. Sen. Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, is expected to become Senate president with Cullimore out of the race.

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