This post is a shared statement by Salt Lake DSA’s Electoral Working Group explaining how we’re thinking about the upcoming election in Utah.
Introduction
The 2026 general election is fast approaching, and once again the working class faces a crucial question: how should we participate in an electoral system structured to disempower us? As always, voting is neither the beginning nor the end of politics. Building a better future requires building collective power to take action and affect the conditions of our lives year-round. Nevertheless, voting plays a distinct and important role in expanding our capacity to organize and advance the socialist movement.
Our enemies understand this. The far-right Trump regime has continually sought to undermine elections, threaten voters, and attack left-wing elected officials, while tech oligarchs increasingly openly oppose democracy itself. Salt Lake DSA (SLDSA) is committed to protecting the right to vote, and as part of that commitment, we will participate in the No Kings: Vote Early! rallies in Salt Lake City and Ogden on Saturday, Oct.17. We encourage all SLDSA members and fellow comrades to show up and demonstrate that we will not be intimidated by the Trump regime’s attack on our voting rights!
That said, SLDSA’s Electoral Working Group is not endorsing or recommending any specific candidates in Utah elections this year. We are, however, recommending how to vote on this year’s proposed constitutional amendments and offering guidance on what socialists should consider when evaluating candidates.
Constitutional Amendments
Two proposed constitutional amendments are up for consideration: Amendment A and Amendment B. The Utah State Legislature, dominated by landlords and developers, has put forth both amendments amid the ongoing fight over the Proposition 4 Redistricting Initiative. Together, they give the legislature more power while making it harder to pass citizen-proposed initiatives, which Utah workers have historically used to create better organizing conditions. For this reason, SLDSA’s Electoral Working Group recommends voting AGAINST both constitutional amendments.
Amendment A
“Shall the Utah Constitution be amended to change how proposed constitutional amendments are published, requiring publication for 60 days immediately before the general election in a manner established by state law instead of in newspapers?”
SLDSA’s Electoral Working Group recommends voting AGAINST Amendment A.
Amendment A strips essential checks and balances on the legislature’s power to amend Utah’s constitution. If passed, this amendment would remove a long-standing provision requiring the legislature to publish all proposed constitutional amendments publicly, specifically in newspapers, at least two months before Election Day, and would let the legislature set its own rules for proposing constitutional amendments and notify the public only as it sees fit.
This is only the latest entry in the Utah legislature’s long history of trying to deny working-class participation in the democratic process. Year after year, the legislature has proven that it will always take the opportunity to set rules that increase its own power at our expense.
The History of Amendment A is a Lesson in Organizing
In 2024, the Utah State Legislature attempted to place two misleadingly worded constitutional amendments on the ballot at the last minute:
- 2024’s Amendment D would have allowed the legislature to rescind Proposition 4’s redistricting requirements despite it being approved by voters and later upheld by the Utah Supreme Court.
- 2024’s Amendment A would have allowed the legislature to redirect income taxes away from education and services for people with disabilities and towards other legislative priorities.
The directionality here is instructive: both of these measures were designed to shift power away from voters and workers and toward the reactionary legislature.
Because the legislature proposed both initiatives at the 11th hour, overriding statutory safeguards to ensure they appeared on the 2024 general election ballot, it neglected to publish the initiatives to newspapers statewide, violating the mandatory notice requirement. In response, the Utah Education Association and the League of Women Voters successfully sued to remove both amendments from the ballot.
In retaliation for a teachers union successfully standing up to its attempt to seize power, the legislature passed HB 267 attempting to eradicate the ability of all public unions in Utah to bargain collectively. The sponsor of the bill, Jordan Teuscher, who is also an executive in the LDS Church’s business arm, posted an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal airing his grievances with public unions in general (a broadside which earned him a $15,000 check from “school choice” real-estate investor Howard Rich).
The story doesn’t end there. Throughout the spring of 2025, Utah Unions and community organizers formed the Protect Utah Workers Coalition, which gathered more than 250,000 signatures to put forward a ballot measure to overturn HB 267. Rather than face an embarrassing defeat at the ballot box, the Utah legislature repealed its own bill in December 2025.
This saga offers an important lesson for socialist organizers: the Utah legislature is a power center that is structurally and personally opposed to workers’ interests. Any power given to it will be used to attack our ability to organize collectively. Allowing it to set the terms for publishing constitutional amendments can only undermine our position.
Amendment B
“Shall the Utah Constitution be amended to require that citizen-proposed laws that increase taxes compared to existing law be approved by at least 60% of voters, instead of a simple majority?”
SLDSA’s Electoral Working Group recommends voting AGAINST Amendment B.
Amendment B directly attacks our ability to organize for better policies through the ballot initiative process. If passed, this amendment would raise the bar for passing initiatives that increase taxes from 50% (a simple majority) to 60%. The legislature defines initiatives that “increase taxes” as creating new taxes, expanding existing taxes, or raising existing tax rates. This definition, combined with the increased pass threshold, effectively eliminates our ability to organize for policies that redistribute wealth and fund public goods and services.
Citizen-led ballot initiatives in Utah are a crucial tool for workers to create better organizing conditions. Escalating attempts to undermine the referendum process only reaffirm its importance in challenging the power of the oligarch-aligned Utah Legislature.
Like workers everywhere, we understand how frustrating it is to see our taxes go toward unjust causes and wasteful advertising campaigns. However, we still believe it needs to be made easier, not harder, to organize for policies that actually meet the needs of the working class, especially policies that increase taxes to fund material change.
Candidates
SLDSA remains focused on empowering workers and running candidates that our members democratically choose to represent our chapter’s socialist values. We don’t believe that change is held in the hands of politicians, or that voting alone can fix the everyday challenges we face. Instead, we believe an organized working class and collective action are the only means to enact real, systemic change. As such, we offer no endorsements or recommendations of specific candidates for any 2026 Utah general election race.
Nevertheless, we recognize voting as an important tool for creating conditions that make it easier for us to organize. We encourage everyone to vote in their local races and consider issues raised in DSA’s Workers Deserve More program when deciding who to vote for. SLDSA, in particular, is focused on our campaigns to protect our communities from ICE and to protect our ability to organize by forming the Coalition to Defend Freedom of Speech and Democratic Rights. As you fill out your ballot, we invite you to consider whether the candidates you vote for have demonstrated the moral and structural fortitude to take on ICE and whether they have taken actions that expand and protect our ability to organize or actions that undermine it.