The Utah political process includes the use of party delegates. Delegates are representatives chosen at a party caucus to represent voters. These delegates then choose party candidates at political party conventions.
This report, Party Lines: Where Utah’s Delegates and Voters Align and Diverge, details party delegates’ survey responses to the 2024 Utah Priorities Project. By comparing responses to those of Utah voters, the reports seek to understand how voters and delegates are similar and different across a wide range of topics that affect all Utahns.
Key Findings
- Pessimism: Delegates from both parties are more pessimistic than their voter counterparts, noting that Utah is on the wrong track and that their quality of life has decreased.
- Ideological differences: Utah’s Republican delegates are somewhat more conservative than Republican voters, while Democratic delegates are about the same as Democratic voters.
- Issue priorities: Republican delegates place less importance on housing, roads, air quality, and crime when compared to Republican voters, while Democratic delegates focus more on education content and less on healthcare and homelessness when compared to Democratic voters.
- Demographic composition: Both Republican and Democratic delegates are more likely than voters to be men, actively religious, older, and white, and have more education and higher incomes.
