Voters in western Summit County will choose their next County Council representatives in June after all four candidates gathered enough signatures to trigger a primary election.

“It was a great opportunity to meet with the community and hear their concerns early on,” said John Kucera, who is running for District 4. “We want the residents to be able to choose and to have a wide pool of people to make that decision, so I think it made sense, and all the candidates agreed that was a good way to go about it.”

County Council candidates still participated in the Summit County Democratic Convention on Tuesday, though, giving speeches and courting potential delegates to garner support for their campaigns.

In District 4, Kucera received “strong support” from delegates, earning 87% of the vote compared to his opponent Christie Babalis’ 13%, according to a press release from the Summit County Democratic Party.

However, Babalis said she isn’t discouraged by Tuesday night’s results, saying she opted to focus on gathering signatures for a primary election instead of working to earn delegates’ support.

“I came out of the convention clearer than ever about why I’m running, and I’m focused on connecting directly with as many people as I can in District 4 and building support around what I think I can do for Summit County,” Babalis said. “I understand that I need to get out there and talk to people, and I need to be really clear on my message.”

County Council Chair Canice Harte, who is running for reelection in District 5 against challenger and Park City school board president Meredith Reed, said he also centralized his efforts on gathering signatures for a primary election. He said that, while the results of the County Convention — with 55% of delegates favoring Reed compared to Harte’s 45% — may seemingly indicate an advantage for Reed, the gap is likely much smaller than it appears.

“We’re talking 15 delegates in a district, so these margin splits are like seven or eight people on one side,” Harte said. “It’s such a small number, so going to the primary is actually great because now people get to vote. It’ll be a totally different experience because we’ll get out, we’ll talk to voters and we’ll get everything out in front of them.”

Reed said it was exciting to see support for her platform at the County Convention, especially because she’s competing against an incumbent. However, she said she’s also looking ahead to the primary and earning support from voters through traditional campaign events, like meet and greets and debates.

“I have a broad base of support and a lot of connections to people who I know through different ways I’ve been involved during my time in the community here, so I feel like that’s a good place to be going into the primary,” Reed said.

This year’s caucus and County Convention experience is unique because it is the first year that Summit County Council seats are confined to specific districts, as required by a new law the state Legislature passed in 2025.

Under the caucus system, County Council candidates could have been eliminated after the local convention, as chosen delegates voted to nominate one candidate in each district. Doing so would have prevented the general public from choosing their next representative because no Republican candidates are vying for County Council positions.

Without the four Democratic County Council candidates intentionally gathering signatures, a primary election would only have been held if neither candidate obtained 60% of the delegation’s support at the County Convention.

Based on the results from Tuesday night, Harte and Reed would have progressed to the primary stage regardless, while Kucera would have eliminated Babalis from the race.

The Democrats have an open primary, which means anyone can request a ballot, even if they aren’t a registered Democrat.

Harte said he hopes unaffiliated voters and Republicans request a Democratic ballot to be able to participate in the County Council race.

The primary election is scheduled for June 23. Voters may request a ballot until 5 p.m. on June 12 by visiting the Summit County Clerk’s website and filling out the necessary forms.

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The Summit County Democratic Party is entering the new year with new leadership.

Anne Kirvan, who has lived in the Park City area since 2020, took over as the party’s chair on Wednesday. The move followed former chair Rory Swensen’s decision to step down after he was elected to the mayor’s seat in Coalville this past November.

“Serving as chair of the Summit County Democratic Party has been an honor,” Swensen said. “Stepping down from party leadership enables me to serve all Coalville residents with greater focus and integrity. I am confident in the continued strength of the party and in Anne Kirvan’s leadership during this transition.”

Kirvan will serve as the interim chair until the party’s internal elections in early 2027. She said her involvement in local politics began when she still lived in her home state of Michigan.

“We were doing the same ballot initiative as prop four, and I moved to Utah before it hit the ballot in Michigan, but I learned right away that Utah was working on the same thing,” Kirvan said, referring to Utah Proposition 4, which modified the state’s redistricting process before the 2020 election. “I picked up here where I left off in Michigan, gathering signatures and doing the footwork.”

Swensen invited Kirvan to serve as a delegate at the party’s state convention last year. Since then, she said she’s been “dabbling” in state and local committees, as well as networking with other Utah Democrats.

“When Rory was elected mayor in Coalville, we started talking about who would take his place,” Kirvan said. “There are four vice chairs, but none of them could step up. I said I would, and here we are.”

She said she viewed the position as “a need that needs to be filled,” but she felt comfortable accepting it because of the support of other Democratic Party members. So far, she said everyone’s been more than welcoming and willing to help show her the ropes when necessary.

“I want to effectively fill Rory’s shoes and other previous leaders,” Kirvan said. “They have a good protocol set.”

Kirvan’s first challenge as the party’s chair is organizing the caucus, which is currently scheduled for mid-March.

“For the remainder of my interim year, I’ll focus on our volunteers and fundraising and assisting our candidates through the general election,” she said.

Information on the Summit County Democratic Party is available online by visiting scdems.org.

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The Utah Democratic Party elected a new executive board last weekend, ushering in what Summit County Democratic Party Chair Rory Swensen hopes will be a new, energizing era for the organization.

“There’s going to be a little bit of a learning curve, but it was really a good opportunity to rub shoulders and talk to fellow Democrats,” Swensen said. “I spent a good bit of time speaking with other northern county chairs, and we’re working to coordinate together and do what we can to advance the causes in the northern counties, like Summit, Davis, Weber and Cache.”

Democrats from across the state convened for the Utah State Democratic Party Organizing Convention on May 31 at Ogden High School. They elected an entirely new slate of leadership, including former gubernatorial candidate Brian King as chair; Susan Merrill as vice chair; Brad Dickter as secretary; and Catherine Voutaz as treasurer.

“I’m honored to have earned the trust of our delegates to serve as chair for the next two years,” King said. “Over the past four months, we’ve traveled the state, hearing directly from Utah Democrats about their hopes, frustrations and vision for the future. Today’s incredible turnout shows what we’ve known all along: Utah Democrats are energized, motivated and ready to fight for the values we share.”

King also said he was “ready to lead the charge to hold out-of-touch Republicans accountable” and to connect with voters to flip seats from red to blue “from the top of the ballot to the bottom.”

Swensen, who attended the convention in person, said he was pleased to see King elected as chair.

“He represented a portion of Summit County during his time in the Legislature, and he has good name recognition,” Swensen explained. “He has good relationships. He knows how the politics work, and I’m hoping he can bump us up to the next level and bring in some additional resources from the national groups that will help us in our races locally.”

Swensen also specifically praised Dickter, who he said has “innovative ideas to increase transparency and better communicate with the counties.” Dickter has been heavily involved with the Utah Democratic Party since he moved to Utah from California over a decade ago, serving as a fundraising subcommittee member, region coordinator and mobilization co-chair in addition to general volunteer work.

The state Democratic Party is responsible for administrative work, coordinating with the national organization and fundraising to help support local county parties and Democratic candidates. Both Swensen and a press release from the Utah Democratic Party touted the number of involved delegates this year — a record-breaking 1,450 voters participated in the party leadership election.

The resources the statewide organization provides to the county Democratic Party will be more important in 2026 than 2025, however. The open seats this year are largely non-partisan races for mayoral and city council positions, Swensen explained.

“For 2026, we’re going to have a new environment with the districting of the Summit County Council,” Swensen said. “One of the things the state started this year was that Summit County was able to get a full-time field organizer, and that’s something I think needs to continue going forward, so we’ll be lobbying hard for that support here. That was instrumental in at least one of the recent races, but the state is mostly giving logistical and financial support. We’ll be working hard to make sure Summit County is seen and prioritized at the state level.”

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The Summit County Democratic Party is “disappointed” with how the local GOP and state Legislature are handling the districting process for Summit County Council seats, pointing out rising tensions from political polarization and the importance of setting aside differences to ensure smooth governance at the county level.

“I think districting is a fair question to debate and to see which method is a better method for the residents of Summit County, but it’s one we should debate openly and fairly,” said Democratic Party Chair Rory Swensen. “This bill was engineered and rushed through the Legislature, so our issue isn’t so much the map but the motive.”

The state Legislature this session changed how Summit County’s governing body is elected in what county leaders called an 11th-hour passage of House Bill 356. The new law requires Summit County to implement geographical districts for council seats instead of having five at-large councilors.

Gov. Spencer Cox signed the bill in March, but he said he intends to call a special session to make adjustments to it because of “unintended consequences.” For example, Wasatch County has both at-large seats and councilors elected in districts, and the new legislation forces Wasatch County to eliminate the at-large positions.

The Summit County Republican Party has praised the legislation, saying it ensures better representation for the East Side, which tends to lean more conservative than Park City and the Snyderville Basin. All the current county councilors are Democrats, and a Republican hasn’t been elected to a seat since 2016.

Yet Swensen said he doesn’t believe the issue is really about East Side representation. Instead, he claimed the Republican Party has struggled with unity and putting forth “good candidates who put good governance above party loyalty.”

He added he views H.B. 356 as the Republican Party’s way to deal with “being upset” about recent elections.

“We have a history of electing council members from the East Side, and we value that and we work hard to do that, so we agree with local representation, but we think this bill with five districts ultimately hurts the East Side,” Swensen said.

Swensen said the population is large enough around Kamas for the area to have its own district, but other unincorporated East Side residents would likely need to be grouped in with Pinebrook, Jeremy Ranch or other neighborhoods on the western side of the county to meet the state’s population requirements for voting districts.

“That dilutes the East Side,” Swensen said. “I live in Coalville, and I see this as a net negative and less representation for those of us in that area. We will always be, on the East Side, generally, a minority on the council. … What we would like to see is larger districts that have the East Side and the West Side incorporated into three districts with two-at large (seats).”

Summit County residents currently have five points of contact if they need to get in touch with a county councilor, Swensen said. If all five seats end up tied to geographical districts, though, he said a resident would only have one point of contact: the councilor assigned to their district.

“If we look at a middle ground with three districted, two at-large, that guarantees that every resident, no matter where you’re at, has at least three members accountable to them on a five-member County Council. You have a majority that you can lobby,” he said.

The original version of H.B. 356 also wiped all County Council members from their seats in November, but it was ultimately modified to allow seated councilors to retain their positions for the remainder of their terms.

However, four East Side mayors — Mark Marsh of Coalville; Kay Richins of Henefer; Jeremie Forman of Francis; and Matt McCormick of Kamas — recently sent a letter to the governor and state Legislature leadership asking for a special election to wipe the County Council clean.

Swensen and the county’s Democratic Party staunchly oppose the idea.

“I think it’s clear that they want a majority and to define county governance in the future,” Swensen said. “This [letter] was a completely partisan blitz attack on democracy. … It really seems to be an effort to nullify the voice of the voters. The voters made a choice in a free and fair election. This call is not a call for better representation. It’s an attempt to overturn the results of legitimate recent elections. Voters made their choice, and calling for a re-do is not democracy.”

The Democratic Party is also worried about potential gerrymandering, especially because the committee creating the district boundaries only includes the six municipal mayors — four of whom signed the letter asking for a special election — and one representative from unincorporated Summit County.

The Democratic mayors of Oakley and Park City were not included in the letter’s circulation.

“Redistricting must never be used as a tool to entrench partisan advantage or dilute the voices of voters,” the Democratic Party said in a press release. “We must reject gerrymandering in all forms and commit instead to fair representation for every resident of Summit County.”

Swensen said he and his party hope more representatives from unincorporated Summit County will be added to the districting committee if the bill is reviewed in a special session.

“In local politics, we have avoided a lot of the division and partisanship that’s infecting the nationwide politics, and we don’t want to see that happen here. We’re seeing that with this effort,” Swensen said.

He continued, “We are left and right. We are Republicans or Democrats or moderates, but we’re also neighbors. We live in these communities that are great places to live, and we all have the same goals to ensure that these remain great places now and in the future. There isn’t room for the partisanship and the division that we see at the national and state level, and I would encourage us to resist any effort to introduce more partisanship into our local governments.”

The County Council has shared similar viewpoints throughout discussions on the legislation, mainly expressing concern about the logistics of implementing districts and philosophical issues regarding state overreach and interference.

However, the council has also been criticized by the local Republican Party for its desire to amend the bill to allow a few at-large seats, with the mayors’ letter calling the council’s actions “a troubling disregard for representative balance.”

Summit County Chief Civil Deputy Dave Thomas in April said he expected Cox to call a special session the third week of May, but the governor has not yet made any announcements confirming a special session date.

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