In early January 2021, several of Ally Isom’s friends asked her to consider running for the U.S. Senate. The women wanted her to challenge incumbent Mike Lee and reached out to her on Jan. 4, 5 and 6 to talk about the idea.

“I’m a spiritual person so by the third day, I was taking notes,” Isom said. “Then later that day, I watched the Capitol under attack.”

After President Donald Trump finished speaking at a “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse, his supporters marched to the U.S. Capitol seeking to block certification of the 2020 election. An angry mob breached the building, ransacked offices and attacked law enforcement officers. Five people died in the violent protest.

The riot helped Isom decide to seek the Senate office.

“I thought, ‘I want my country back and I want my party back,’” she said. “I wondered, ‘How did we get to this place?’ I’ve done a lot of thinking and talking to other people trying to understand what was happening to our nation that day and I think people felt unseen and unheard across the spectrum. Many of those marching in our nation’s capital didn’t resort to violence. Too many people are feeling like nobody’s listening and nobody’s getting anything done.”

Isom, a community and business leader who lives in Kaysville, is one of three candidates facing off in a June 28 primary for the Republican nomination for the Senate. Also on the ballot are former state legislator Becky Edwards and Lee, who is seeking a third term. 

Lee is encouraging voters to keep him in office so he can continue to work for constitutionally limited government. Edwards and Isom, who both say it’s time for a change, also are campaigning on a platform of limited government. 

The three each collected at least 28,000 verified signatures to run in the primary. On April 23, under Utah’s dual-path nominating system, they also sought the endorsement of delegates at the state GOP convention, where Lee won approximately 71% of the vote.

A recent Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll asked voters who are planning to vote in the primary who they would select if the election were held today. The results showed 49% would vote for Lee, 19% for Edwards and 6% for Isom, the Deseret News reported. The remaining 26% didn’t know who they would choose.

The poll was conducted by Dan Jones & Associates on May 7-13. The 503 respondents are Utah voters who are registered Republicans or unaffiliated but plan to register with the party. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

Calling for a ‘Republican Renaissance’ 

Isom said she does not consider the convention to be a bellwether for the primary.

“I value the delegate process,” she said. “I value their energy and their diligence. But I also recognize that mainstream Utah might be in a very different place.”

Isom recognizes the challenges of running against an incumbent but said all political officeholders should be held accountable for their service and noted no Republican challenged Lee the last time he ran. The senator has accomplished very little during his time in office and has been the primary sponsor of only eight bills that have been enacted, she said.

“I think it’s important that the people of Utah have a robust conversation about what’s happening in that seat,” she said. “I think it’s time for him to account for his record. He’s refused to help Utah businesses during the pandemic. He’s not defending and protecting Utah’s water. He’s not always advocating for Utah’s interests.”

Isom also criticized Lee, who has supported 12-year term limits for members of Congress, for running for re-election. She has committed to serving only two terms.

Lee said in a 2017 blog post on his website that his advocacy for term limits does not mean he will voluntarily impose one on himself and instead will abide by them when they are in the Constitution. 

Isom is calling for a Republican Renaissance and a return to the party’s fundamental principles including limited government, low taxes, the rule of law and individual freedom. She doesn’t differ much with Lee on values but “the way I would do the job is a big contrast.” 

“It feels like a critical crossroads in our country where we need to refocus on the things that really matter,” she said. “We see the economy in decline. We see international tension. We’ve lost American strength and credibility abroad. It feels like it’s time to make some tough calls and do hard things to get our country focused back on the things that matter most.” 

Making a difference behind the scenes

Isom grew up in the Intermountain West and worked at jobs that included delivering newspapers and cleaning movie theaters to help her family make ends meet, she said.

She was a champion high school debater in Arizona and earned a full academic scholarship from Brigham Young University, where she graduated with a degree in political science and communications. She and her husband, Eric, have been married for 33 years and are the parents of four children.

Isom has served as a Kaysville City Council member, held roles in Republican grassroots organizations and worked on numerous campaigns. She has served as a precinct officer and alternate national delegate and chaired the 2006 GOP State Organizing Convention.

In addition, Isom has worked for two state agencies and as deputy chief of staff and communications director for Gov. Gary Herbert. After that, she worked at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in public affairs, communication and branding and then in the private sector as an executive at tech company EVOQ Nano. She retired from that job in June 2021 to devote her time to campaigning.

“I’ve tried to make a difference, usually behind the scenes, with Utah policy,” Isom said. “Most of the best work of my career is largely unseen. I’m really proud of the contributions I’ve made in terms of bringing people to the table on some really tough issues and helping increase understanding and advance solutions. In most of my roles, I’ve been a voice for people not in the room.”

Amanda Hansen, who worked in the Church’s communication department, said Isom is an innovative leader who pushed for data-driven ideas “that were a little outside the box to help us find better ways to do things.”

Working for Isom and being mentored by her was an incredible opportunity, she said.

“She was incredibly organized and also just a really inspiring leader. She was very encouraging and really focused on my growth as an employee,” Hansen said, adding that Isom continues to mentor her.  

Focusing on what’s important

There have been challenges in Isom’s life, including difficult pregnancies and children’s health problems. The hardest time was when her daughter Alyssa Nicole Isom died at age 21 in 2012.

“That changes your perspective,” Isom said. “It changes everything about your world. I came back from bereavement leave very impatient with politics. Her death changed my lens and made me realize life is too short to worry about things that don’t matter and relationships are too important to be distracted by the trivial. I think our country has become distracted by the trivial and we’ve forgotten how to have the harder, bigger conversations because we’ve stopped seeing each other.”

She was working for Herbert then and set up a framework with five lenses to deal with issues and focus on what’s important, Isom said. 

“No. 1 is people,” she said. “I put a face on it. What are their stories, what are their experiences, what are the data that tell their experiences, that tell their story?”

The guiding principles that help solve problems was the next lens, followed by policy, then process and finally politics.

“Good policy lasts between administrations,” Isom said. “Good policy endures and becomes timeless because it makes sense and is based on truths.”

Process, she said, brings stakeholders to the table.

“I learned both in state government and working for the Church that you can invite people into the conversation and find the biggest potholes and weaknesses in your proposed solutions and make them better by bringing in voices with whom you disagree strongly,” Isom said. “People, principles, policy, process and then politics. If I kept things in that order, we got to good outcomes.” 

When she filed to run for the Senate, Isom pledged to walk in all 253 of the state’s communities to find out what matters to local residents. So far, she’s strolled in about half of the cities and town wearing red walking shoes.

Jeff Strong, a retired business executive who met Isom about six years ago when he worked as a volunteer advisor on a global project for the Church, describes her as smart and talented. People like working with Isom because she’s respectful, a good listener and finds value in what they’re doing, he said.

“She’s a great communicator,” said Strong, who is a volunteer on Isom’s campaign. “She’s a strategic thinker. She’s good with data. She’s also good with synthesis, which is putting everything together and coming up with solutions.”

Finding inspiration 

Isom has been inspired by a number of people, including Sen. John McCain and Gov. Rose Mofford when she was a teenager living in Arizona. She also had enormous respect for President Ronald Reagan.

“I thought he did a great job of uniting the party at an important time,” Isom said. “He inspired me with his oratorical ability but also his ability to give the country a vision of what we could be and remind us who we were.”

At BYU, professors helped shape her paradigm and think about the future, she said. 

Another influence was H.E. “Bud” Scruggs, chief of staff to Gov. Norm Bangerter, whose principled approach to Utah politics she appreciated, Isom said. 

In both the Herbert and Gov. Jon Huntsman administrations, she was able to work across the aisle, Isom said. 

When she was deputy director in the Utah Department of Community and Culture, the executive director was Democrat Palmer DePaulis, a former mayor of Salt Lake City. Ted Wilson, also a Democrat and another former Salt Lake City mayor, was Herbert’s environmental advisor.

Herbert has had a huge impact on her public policy approach, Isom said.

“He and I share a paradigm that we’re conservative in principle, moderate in tone and inclusive in process,” she said.

Isom also gets inspiration from a Ukrainian mother and father and their three children, ages 2, 7 and 12, who came to live with her family in February. Her son had taught them when he served a mission for the Church in Ukraine and the visitors will be staying at the home while their petition for asylum is pending.

The Ukrainians call their family members every day to check if they’re OK, Isom said. Their nephews, brothers and fathers who are still in their home country have been conscripted, she said.

“We have daily reminders of the courage it took for them to leave everything they knew and everything they had to make the journey here and the price that they’ve paid for freedom and the price that their country continues to pay,” Isom said.

One day, the 12-year-old was playing an online video game and talking through ear buds with a boy who lives in Russia, she said. The two were speaking in Russian.

“It struck me how surreal that was that these two boys are connected across all those miles and through a language and a video game,” Isom said. “Their countries are at war with each other but they’ve managed to find a way to connect and bridge that gap.”