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The Utah Democratic Party looked internally to find its next executive director, elevating Salt Lake City-native Lauren Littlefield to the post.
She now will play a bigger role in the party's fundraising and candidate-recruitment efforts and she will supervise the party's core staff.
"I feel like this is a position I have been working toward my whole career," said Littlefield, who was previously the political director for Utah's minority party. "I think we have done good work in the past, but we haven't necessarily got the results that we want. I'm excited to work for a strong organization. I hope I can take us to a place where we get the results that we want."
She will replace Matt Lyon at the end of the month. Lyon has served as the party's director for four years. He will be a lead consultant on Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker's re-election campaign. He's also a new father.
Lyon's departure followed some disappointing elections for Democrats. In the 2012 and 2014 elections, Utah Democrats lost four state House seats and a state Senate seat. The party also lost a seat in the U.S. House, after Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, declined to run again.
Democratic leaders praised Lyon for leaving the party in better financial shape than he found it.
As a sign of that support, Utah Democratic Party Chairman Peter Corroon and the executive committee reviewed 38 candidates and decided to elevate Littlefield, who was a key part of Lyon's team.
"Lauren's wealth of experience and background in community organizing throughout the state makes her the ideal candidate to grow the Utah Democratic Party in all 29 counties," Corroon said in a statement. "She is passionate, committed, and extremely talented. We are lucky to have her."
Littlefield attended the University of Utah, where she focused on gender studies. While learning about racism, sexism and homophobia, she was left wanting to do something about these persistent problems. So, she started taking political-science classes. She interned on Jenny Wilson's unsuccessful mayoral campaign in Salt Lake City and then got a job with Equality Utah, one of the state's leading gay rights organizations.
Littlefield served as the executive director of the Salt Lake County Democrats in 2012 and then moved to the state party in January 2013.
Asked how the job of political director and executive director differ, she said that she'll have more managerial and fundraising responsibilities and then she joked: "A lot more people will want to talk to me than before."