LAYTON – A clash of deadlines, combined with strong anti-incumbent sentiment from the Republican party’s far right, came close to eliminating a longtime Davis County lawmaker.
Rep. Steve Handy has represented House District 16 in the Utah Legislature since 2011. But Davis GOP delegates voted him out at their county convention in March.
At 71, the moderate lawmaker now has only one remaining avenue to get re-elected. it’s a longshot, but one he decided to take. In early September, Handy filed as a write-in candidate.
The question is, can he win?
Thrift or miscalculation?
This year’s state legislative session ended at midnight on March 4, and the candidate filing period closed at 5 p.m. that same day.
Handy, who had already filed for re-election, had no Democrat or Repubiican challenger until late that afternoon when he was in the thick of last-minute lawmaking with 103 other legislators.
That’s when he learned that 30-year-old Trevor Lee – a relative unknown – had filed as a Republican to challenge him.
“At 4 p.m I get a text from the GOP chair and she said ‘you just got a challenger,’” Handy said in a recent interview.
Utah’s unique dual path to the primary allows candidates to either win at their party’s convention with at least 60 percent of the delegate vote, or to gather enough voter signatures to secure a spot on the primary ballot.
In Handy’s case, he would have needed 1,000 valid voter signatures, which would have been costly to gather.
So Handy decided to take his chances at the March 28 Davis County Republican Convention, banking on his ability to at least deprive Lee of clearing the 60 percent threshold.
“It would have cost me $10,000 to get 1,000 signatures. I thought that was not a very good use of money, and I didn’t have the money in my campaign account at the time,” Handy said. “So we went to caucus night on March 8 and it was very poorly attended. I knew a fair number of the delegates, but many I did not.”
Even so, he decided to skip signature gathering and just “work the delegates really hard.” However, he ended up walking out of the March 28 convention three votes short.
“There was an alternative group working this that we’ve never seen before,” Handy said. “And they had a slate – they came after every one of us.”
Handy listed three other Davis County legislators who also got ousted at convention but gathered the signatures to secure their spot on the ballot.
“They all lost at convention but won pretty easily in their primary in terms of numbers,” Handy said.
Don’t quit now
As Handy licked his wounds and pondered what could well be the end of his legislative career, a robust group of supporters began urging him to wage a write-in campaign.
Part of the problem, Handy believes, is that people in his party don’t relate to caucus night anymore.
“There has certainly been a lurch to the far right. And because of that, there are many mainstream Republicans that don’t attend the caucus night,” Handy said. “That’s a big issue.”
So he hired consultants to gauge if there was a way he could win as a write-in. Such wins are rare, but based on the feedback he received, “we decided to do it,” Handy said.
A few factors leaned in his favor:
- The District 16 race lacks a Democratic challenger. No Democrats have been elected in Davis County for three decades.
- The Legislature eliminated straight party voting. So voters need to consider each race on the ballot.
- Handy has significant name recognition which Lee lacks.
- Mail-in ballots allow voters to navigate the write-in process in the comfort of their own homes – not at the polls on election day.
Ballots for the Nov. 8 election will begin reaching voters around October 18. In the House District 16 race, they’ll see only two names: Republican Trevor Lee and Libertarian Brent Zimmerman – a perennial candidate who typically abstains from fundraising and campaigning.
So Handy’s narrow path to victory could depend on effectively educating constituents on how to cast a write-in vote that will count.
The floodgates open
Coming out of convention, Handy’s campaign finance report showed he had just over $14,000 left in his fund. But from April 1 to Sept. 15, more than 80 contributions flowed in, totalling over $69,000.
Top contributors include Education First Utah and former District 16 Rep. Kevin Garn who each gave $10,000. Harris Adams and Bob Stevenson contributed $3,000 apiece, and Park City-based Newpark Retail LLC and Newpark Preserve LLC each kicked in $2,500.
During his years of campaigning, Handy said he hadn’t seen this level of financial support or the need to increase spending.
“One time I spent close to $20,000 in a contested race. But most of the time, I’ve only spent $6,000 to $8,000 doing signs and a couple of mailers,” Handy said. “So this is a whole new world for me.”
Distinct differences
Lee, who reported being about $150 in the hole coming out of convention, had raised $9,440 by Sept. 15 – which includes a $2,000 loan from himself. His top donors include the Davis County Republican Party ($3,000), the Northern Utah Legislative PAC ($1,000), and Layton resident Jared Brown ($1,000).
Lee’s website, votetrevorlee.com, lists his support for basic issues that resonate with most Republicans:
- Lower taxes to help families struggling with inflation
- Protect parental rights and support teachers
- Support law enforcement
- Defend the 2nd Amendment and Constitutional rights.
But details of Lee’s views aired in recent podcasts sparked controversy.
During Jon Harvey’s April 26 podcast of “The Modern Conservative,” Lee touted Republican delegates as the “most educated and informed voters in the state.”
Lee told Harvey that eliminating the signature-gathering option for candidates to get on the primary ballot would cure the problem of RINOs (Republicans in name only) getting elected – pointing to Gov. Spencer Cox and U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney as being too “liberal” to represent the GOP.
Harvey, an ultra-conservative black man, quizzed Lee on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL), two issues that the nonprofit Utah Parents United conflates and decries as part of a liberal agenda to indoctrinate children.
“It’s garbage. It’s one of those things that will destroy not only our society but it’s going to destroy the family unit,” Lee told Harvey, adding that he recently had to take unconscious bias training at his place of employment.
“I’m going to put that in the same category as SEL and CRT,” Lee said, noting that “it isn’t just stuff they’re pushing on kids.”
Chris Williams, communications director for the Davis County School District, said he’s unaware of any connection between CRT and SEL.
“We’re not allowed to teach CRT. It doesn’t exist in our school district or anywhere in the state,” Williams said, adding that SEL is taught in their schools.
The Davis School District website defines SEL as the “process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
Lee told Harvey that he blamed former President Barack Obama for the push to raise awareness about racial inequities.
Lee cited Obama’s comments that Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teen who was shot by George Zimmerman in Florida in 2012, could have been his son – or even Obama as a teenager.
“This is when they really started to make the race wars bad,” Lee told Harvey. “That’s where it really started to seep into our society. It has no place and it needs to go.”
Davis County’s population is 91.6 percent white and 1.5 percent black or African-American.
In November 2021, 10-year-old Izzy Tichenor – a black Davis County student – committed suicide. She had been bullied at school, but an investigation found no official documentation of the incidents even though Izzy’s mother, Brittany Tichenor-Cox, reported the behavior to the teacher, school and district.
During a recent phone interview, Lee said he totally stands by his comments on Harvey’s podcast. He also voiced concerns about the LGBTQ community.
“If gays and lesbians want to marry, that’s fine, that’s the law of the land now,” Lee said. But “they have drag shows with kids at them. I don’t think kids need to be involved in that kind of stuff … that’s where I have a problem.”
While Lee said he doesn’t support book bans, he does oppose pornography in schools, which in his opinion consists of any nude photos or graphics.
“Pornography is huge. It’s everywhere and it’s destroying love and families,” Lee said. “It’s a problem when every student is given a laptop in schools. We shouldn’t make it accessible in our system that we pay for with our taxes.”
Running on his record
Handy’s website, www.stevehandyutah.com details some of his lengthy legislative record. His list of accomplishments reflect a focus on nuts-and-bolts needs in fast-growing Davis County.
Here are a few highlights:
- Layton Hills Mall Interchange – Handy worked with Layton City officials and other legislators to advocate for massive UDOT reconstruction of this Interstate 15 exit to improve traffic flow and relieve congestion.
- Layton Parkway Interchange – similar collaboration brought about the new $90 million interchange off of I-15.
- Highway 89 – This project, 40 years in the works, is finally coming into fruition. Handy said he attended many stakeholder meetings and open houses, listened to resident feedback and interfaced with UDOT on adjustments and improvements.
- Animal Control – Handy co-sponsored and passed legislation that allowed Davis and other counties to impose tax levies to improve animal control.
- Voter Registration – Handy sponsored and passed legislation to coordinate drivers license applications and voter registration updates.
- Clean School Fuel Buses – At the request of educators, Handy worked four years to obtain $7 million for 115 new clean-fuel school buses (34 for Davis County). That appropriation came from the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal settlement.
Handy co-chairs the Legislature’s bipartisan clean air caucus, an issue he initially dove into “because my constituents asked me to do it.”.
“Clean air and smart environmental policy shouldn’t be a partisan thing. We all need a healthy environment,” Handy said. “It’s something in which I’m interested and have developed some expertise.”
Getting another term would enable him to continue that work.
Handy’s biggest campaign challenge at this point could be that his name does not appear on the ballot.
Art of the write-in
No consistent data has been compiled on the history of write-in candidates in Utah. But Utah Elections Director Ryan Cowley said write-ins are rare – and tend to be in municipal races for city council or mayor.
Very few succeed in their efforts, and to Cowley’s knowledge an incumbent has never filed as a write-in. So Handy could be breaking new ground in that respect.
While it may be fun to pencil in Mickey Mouse for president or governor, that equates to a throwaway vote because the big-eared Disney mascot never filed as a write-in candidate in those races.
For Utah’s 2022 general election, candidates had to file as write-ins by Sept. 6. And after considerable deliberation, Handy obliged.
So the mail-in ballot for the Layton District 16 race will contain an oval to fill in plus a blank line where Handy supporters need to write his name.
“State law allows that even if they don’t fill in the oval, if they write the name we can count it,” Cowley said.
Utah is a voter intent state, Cowley added, and that allows some leeway for human error.
“If they write Stephen Handy or Steve Handy or S Handy – as long as we can clearly determine the intent of the voter – then that can be counted.”
While pre-printed voting stickers used to be popular for write-in campaigns, Cowley said the Legislature eliminated that option because the stickers would peel off and gum up machines that tally the votes.
“I’m actually one of the people who championed outlawing stickers because this equipment is very expensive and super-sensitive,” Cowley said. “It’s really up to the candidate at this point to get their name out and make people aware.”
Write-in successes
In 2010, at the height of Tea Party fervor, Republican Lisa Murkowski from Alaska won her write-in campaign for U.S. Senator. Such victories seldom happen.
And more locally, there was a successful write-in candidate for Utah’s Legislature in 1970, as recently reported by The Salt Lake Tribune. Republican Charles Bullen managed to oust former Utah House Speaker Franklin Gunnell. Both were Republicans, but Gunnell evidently had fallen out of favor with the party.
And in 2019, Hayley Alberts won a South Weber City Council seat as a write-in.
But a seasoned incumbent waging a write-in? Handy could be Utah’s test case.
“I think the write-in is a little bit of a novelty,” Handy said. “People like something different, something new – and I’m giving it to them.”
