Sen. Daniel Thatcher, who bucked Republicans on trans sports, dormitories, food tax and labor bills — before leaving the GOP altogether — says he is stepping down from the Utah Legislature.
After more than 14 years in the Utah Senate, which saw him defy his Republican Party leaders and eventually leave the party entirely, Sen. Daniel Thatcher abruptly announced Tuesday he will be stepping down.
Thatcher, a member of the Utah Forward Party since March, made his announcement on social media Tuesday night, saying that he was stepping aside before the upcoming legislative session in order to give his constituents “the best outcome.”
Recently, Thatcher had dealt with the aftereffects of a stroke suffered in 2022 that tested his ability to sustain his work as a senator.
His departure from the body will, it appears, give the fledgling Utah Forward Party, which has just over 2,100 registered members, its first opportunity to select a state senator.
Thatcher won his first election in 2010, knocking off an entrenched Democrat in a district that covered Salt Lake County’s west side.
“I have now served more than half my adult life,” Thatcher said in his retirement announcement. “I am rightfully proud of the work I’ve done, the friends I’ve made, the votes I’ve cast and for always keeping my word, no matter the cost or difficulty.”
Thatcher said Wednesday he hasn’t submitted his official resignation to Senate President Stuart Adams and he would likely wait on that — and to put a date on his departure — until he has assurances the Forward Utah Party and not the Republican Party would get to choose his replacement.
In 2019, he voted against a massive overhaul of the state tax code that would have slashed income taxes while raising the sales tax on food. Legislators later repealed the measure after residents quickly gathered enough signatures to put a referendum to repeal the food tax on the ballot.
He opposed a measure in 2022 that sought to ban transgender girls from competing in high school sports, saying that “we want to protect our girls, but this bill hurts our girls.”
“It hurts the trans community. I think it violates the Constitution. And I think it wastes money,” he said during debate on whether to override Gov. Spencer Cox’s veto of the bill. “It’s political theater.”
In 2021, the Republican Legislature significantly redrew Thatcher’s Senate district, but he fended off Republican challengers and won reelection.
And last August, he voted against a constitutional amendment that sought to empower the Legislature to repeal voter-passed ballot initiatives at will, predicting it would “give us the biggest black eye we could have as a Legislature.”
He spoke at a rally opposing that amendment, saying voters get the final say on whether to change the Utah Constitution. The Utah Supreme Court later struck down the amendment.
“The question before us is: Is there a limit?” he said at the time. “Either there is a limit, and it is this reasonable boundary [the court established], or there is no limit, and we surrender the final bulwark forever.”
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, makes remarks at a rally against a proposed constitutional amendment to reform the citizen initiative process at the Capitol in Salt Lake City, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024.
Soon after, he lost his long-held spot as chair of the government operations committee, lost his Capitol office and was assigned to sit among the Democratic members of the Senate.
Earlier this year, he cast a loud vote against Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, being reelected as the head of the body — the only member from either party to oppose Adams’ reelection.
Weeks later, he was the only Republican to oppose a bill that would have banned transgender students at Utah universities from living in a dorm that aligns with their gender identity.
“In our rush to show that we’re doing something,” he said during debate on the bill, “I think we’re doing the wrong something.”
In March, Thatcher became the first lawmaker since 2016 to change parties, abandoning the Republican Party to join the Utah Forward Party, frustrated, he said, with the majority party’s unwillingness to listen to constituents and their propensity for enacting laws that limit individual freedom.
“We used to reason together,” he said at the time. “We used to listen to the people who would be impacted by our bills and try to find a way to solve policy problems without creating bigger problems and we just don’t do that anymore. The respect is gone. The human dignity is gone.”
The same week he left the GOP, he had voted against a bill that would facilitate the deportation of legal migrants who commit misdemeanors and another bill that banned pride flags from government property.
And he opposed legislation that sought to crack down on labor unions by prohibiting public employee unions from negotiating with their government employers.
In his resignation announcement, Thatcher said, following state law, the Forward Party would be replacing him in the Legislature.
“It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve in the state Senate,” Thatcher concluded, “I will continue to serve to the best of my ability as this process unfolds; a better process, that respects all voters, and restores the representation necessary for a functional republic. Time to move FORWARD.”
Note to readers • Oct. 22, 9:55 a.m.: The story has been updated to note that Thatcher has not formally submitted his resignation to Senate leaders and has not identified an effective date for his departure.
Source: Utah News