Utah senator announces he's leaving the Republican party, joining Utah Forward Party
Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, speaks against HB267, a bill that would ban collective bargaining for public employees, at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
This story story has been updated.
A Republican Utah senator says he's had enough of a party that he believes is becoming disconnected from Utahns and straying from true conservative and freedom-focused principles.
Standing in the Utah Capitol rotunda, Sen. Dan Thatcher, of West Valley City, told a group of reporters Friday — the final day of the Legislature's 2025 session — that he would be unaffiliating from the Republican Party.
Instead, he said he'll be joining the Utah Forward Party — a centrist party that has the slogan 'Not left. Not right. Forward.'
Standing alongside a handful of Forward Party leaders, Thatcher said he and his wife had been discussing the change for 'a really, really long time.' But he said the Utah Legislature's 2025 session (which has included legislation focused on facilitating the Trump administration's deportation goals, restricting voting by mail, banning LGBTQ+ flags from schools and public property, and more) was the final straw — or bale of hay, as he put it — that broke the camel's back.
'Yes, this legislative session did accelerate the program, but I think this was always the way,' Thatcher said. 'Because I can't be a part of this anymore.'
Thatcher then used a tablet to switch his party affiliation to the Utah Forward Party online, exclaiming 'boop' when he submitted the change.
'Guess what, I don't have to be part of the crazy-making anymore.'
Thatcher's announcement comes as he said he's been increasingly frustrated with not just the state of national politics, but also the general direction the Utah Republican Party has been heading. In recent years, he's also become no stranger to bucking his party's line, especially on LGBTQ+ issues.
'I believe that at present, the Forward Utah Party represents a more conservative position than the Utah Republican Party,' Thatcher told Utah News Dispatch. 'Because when they say 'liberty,' they mean liberty according to the dictates of your own conscience, not liberty as dictated by the Legislature.'
It's been about a decade since the Utah Legislature last saw a third-party candidate. In 2016, Sen. Mark Madsen left the Utah Republican Party to join the Libertarian Party. Thatcher, however, becomes the state's first lawmaker to join the Forward Party.
The day before, on Thursday, Thatcher was one of the few Republicans to vote against two hotly debated bills, one to restrict LGBTQ+ flags in schools and city and county buildings, and one aimed at helping the Trump administration accomplish its deportation goals by repealing a 2019 law that shielded migrants from being deported if they commit a misdemeanor offense.
Thatcher argued against the flag ban while wearing a yellow Gadsden flag pin with the 'Don't Tread On Me' logo.
'I feel like we have been doing an awful lot of treading this year,' Thatcher said during Thursday's debate. 'And I think liberty is liberty, even if people want to liberty different than us.'
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During a contentious debate over the immigration bill, Thatcher said it 'might be the worst bill I've seen this year,' arguing it would disproportionately target legal immigrants, since people without lawful status are already being deported. ICE doesn't need a migrant in the country illegally to serve a one-year sentence to deport them — they can deport them for the lack of documentation alone.
Thatcher has repeatedly clashed with fellow Republicans including Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, who sponsored HB77, the bill banning pride flags from classrooms and city and county buildings.
'We're all dying with surprise,' McCay said sarcastically while standing outside the Senate chamber on Friday after catching word of Thatcher's party change.
Thatcher's divorce from the Republican Party also comes amid rising tensions between him and Utah GOP leadership as he's increasingly bucked the party line.
Thatcher lost his longtime committee assignments ahead of the 2025 session. Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, reassigned him from leadership of the Government Operations Interim Committee, and instead assigned Sen. Ron Winterton, R-Roosevelt — who led that committee in place of Thatcher as he recovered from a stroke that he suffered in 2022 — to chair that committee.
Thatcher was also reassigned from the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee — which he sat on for 14 years — to instead serve on the Health and Human Services Committee.
Senate leaders also recently moved Thatcher's seat near the right side of the chamber, previously with other Republicans, to the far left side, next to the Democrats.
As recently as Friday morning, Thatcher publicly clashed with both Adams and McCay on the Senate floor during a debate on HB233, a bill to ban Planned Parenthood educators from public schools.
'I don't support Planned Parenthood. I don't like Planned Parenthood. I hate elective abortions,' Thatcher said, before McCay shouted something from the other side of the chamber, interrupting Thatcher's floor remarks.
Thatcher looked at McCay and called him out by name, saying 'that was grossly inappropriate.'
Adams then interjected, saying 'we're not going to do that on the floor, we're not going to call anybody out.'
'I agree, Mr. President,' Thatcher said, 'we shouldn't do that on the floor.'
Adams then cut Thatcher's mic, telling him if he's 'going to call somebody out on the floor like that I'm not going to recognize you.' Adams, however, didn't address McCay for interrupting Thatcher's comments.
Later on in the debate, when Thatcher cast his vote against the bill, Adams wouldn't allow Thatcher to explain his vote. Thatcher repeatedly tried to push back on the Senate president.
'We will not allow another senator to be called out on the floor,' an audibly frustrated Adams said. 'We've talked about decorum. You used another senator's name and you went after him. I don't have to recognize you, and I'm not going to recognize you. So you can either vote and you can sit down, but I'm not going to recognize you.'
Thatcher will no longer caucus with Senate Republicans. Asked who he will caucus with, Thatcher said, 'that is a question for another day.'
He was also adamant that he'll continue to serve out his term, which doesn't end until Jan. 1, 2027.
Adams, when asked about Thatcher's move during a media availability Friday afternoon, told reporters, 'that's obviously his decision.'
'Wish him well, I hope he does well,' Adams said, adding that it's 'healthy' to have people in the Legislature with 'different ideas.'
To Thatcher's complaints about the Utah Republican Party, Adams said he believes the GOP has been doing a 'good job' leading Utah, pointing to Utah's economic rankings.
'I think we're doing pretty good,' he said.
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