Voters living in Utah’s few blue legislative districts have been pinged in the final weeks before the election with texts criticizing incumbent lawmakers for their votes against bills that restrict the rights of transgender Utahns — a move out of Republicans’ national campaign playbook.
The group sending them, however, is mysterious — Preserving Utah Values PAC only lists campaign finance consultants from Wisconsin, Thomas and Timothy Datwyler, as the officers of the committee.
“Protecting women’s sports: It’s not a Republican issue. It’s not a Democrat issue. It’s a Common Sense issue,” reads a graphic sent with the text, which, depending on the district where a voter lives, includes a photo of the legislator representing them.
A website linked in the text initially listed fourteen state lawmakers — a dozen Democratic, and two Republican — who voted against bills that it characterizes as “against Utah’s girls.” The website was edited Thursday to include more Democrats, and remove references to Republicans.
Of the more than a dozen pieces of “related legislation” that it lists, three-quarters are now law.
Photos of female athletes on the website are stock photos, some of which have been used in other anti-transgender campaigns.
The most notable among the laws passed this year was HB257, which changed the legal definitions of “female” and “male” to exclude transgender people and includes criminal penalties for trans people who use locker rooms, showers or dressing rooms that don’t align with their assigned sex at birth in government-owned or controlled buildings.
It also encourages government facilities to build more single-occupancy spaces. And while there aren’t explicit penalties for using a restroom according to gender identity in such a facility, it does criminalize loitering there, or “if the actor intentionally or knowingly remains unlawfully.”
An investigation by The Salt Lake Tribune of arguments made by GOP lawmakers during debates over the bill found that misinformation about transgender people was repeatedly employed to justify restricting their access to restrooms.
One of the Republican lawmakers who broke from his caucus to oppose that bill, Sen. Todd Weiler of Woods Cross, sponsored some of the pieces of legislation the website praises, such as “School Gender Identity Policies.”
After three consecutive years of the Legislature passing restrictions on transgender Utahns, the LGBTQ+ community has experienced a heightened number of hate crimes — they rose by 256% last year, according to the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification, from 36 in 2022 to 92 in 2023. So far this year law enforcement agencies have reported 19 incidents.
Both women’s rights and transgender rights and access have ranked low in surveys on Utah voters’ priorities this year, trumped by topics like the cost of living and political dysfunction, according to the Utah Foundation.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) A group of protesters hold a transgender flag during a protest in opposition to HB257 in front of the Utah Capitol during the legislative session in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024.
The new PAC has not yet reported its donors
Preserving Utah Values PAC’s attacks come amid a blitz in GOP campaign spending nationwide on anti-transgender ads. Multiple news outlets, citing advertising analytics company AdImpact, have reported that tens of millions of dollars have been spent in both the presidential contest and congressional races on culture war messaging that attacks Democrats’ stances on LGBTQ+ rights.
Despite costs associated with sending targetted text messaging campaigns, opening an account with WordPress and purchasing a website domain, the PAC has not yet reported any contributions. Preserving Utah Values PAC filed organizing documents with the Utah lieutenant governor’s office Oct. 8 and registered a website linked in the messages Oct. 14.
Thursday marks the end of the reporting period for the general election, and reports are due Oct. 29. Expenditures have to be reported at the end of each filing period.
Under Utah law, candidates are required to report all contributions within seven business days of receiving them, but PACs are only required to report donations within 31 business days — which, in the new PAC’s case, will land after the Nov. 5 election.
Thomas Datwyler did not respond to questions about why he organized the PAC, or whether he has a client who paid him to do so.
The state’s election code mandates that PAC organization filings include “the name, address, telephone number, title, and occupation of ... each individual or entity represented by, or affiliated with, the political action committee; and other relevant information requested by the lieutenant governor.” It is a felony if a person “intentionally or knowingly gives false or misleading material information in a statement of organization.”
A spokesperson for the lieutenant governor’s office did not respond to questions about whether it possesses, or has requested, additional information about the PAC.
Datwyler is no stranger to Utah politics. In 2022, while serving as the treasurer for U.S. Sen. Mike Lee’s campaign, he was also listed as the treasurer for Liberty Champions PAC — a super PAC backing Lee and attacking his opponent, independent Evan McMullin.
Other Utahns who have retained Datwyler’s services, according to the Federal Election Commission, include four candidates who lost Republican congressional primaries this year — former state House Speaker Greg Hughes, Colby Jenkins, Carolyn Phippen and Jason Walton — as well as state Sen. Mike Kennedy, who is the GOP pick to represent Utah’s 3rd Congressional District.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rep. Rosemary Lesser, D-Ogden, at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023.
Using anti-trans messaging to try to grow a supermajority
Named at the top of the list on Preserving Utah Values PAC’s website is a Democratic lawmaker who represents the bluest legislative district outside of Salt Lake County — Rep. Rosemary Lesser, of Ogden. Her race is likely the most competitive of those targeted by the organization.
Lesser is an OB-GYN, and while she doesn’t explicitly outline her views on transgender rights on her campaign website, in discussing reproductive rights she writes, “Although these decisions are undeniably complex, what is unequivocally clear to Rosemary is that no politician — especially a state legislator — should dictate them. They should remain within the privacy and sanctity of the doctor-patient and family relationship.”
In an interview, Lesser said she feels the messages on the PAC’s website are misleading, and that she sees restrictions on transgender Utahns as an example of legislative overreach.
“I believe that parents and doctors and their kids have the authority to make their own medical decisions independent of the Legislature,” Lesser said. “It was only a few years ago that very same refrain was being used for people who did not want to receive a COVID vaccine, and they didn’t want the government telling them that they were required to get a vaccine. But it seems like there is a willingness to tell other people what sort of medical treatment that they should receive.”
The GOP currently holds a supermajority in the Legislature — one large enough that, in 2022, overrode Gov. Spencer Cox’s veto of a bill banning transgender girls from playing school sports with their peers. Cox, who is up for reelection this year, has since signed legislation restricting the rights of transgender Utahns.
Members of the legislative majority and Republican groups, including the House Speaker Leadership PAC, the Utah House Republican Election Committee, the Northern Utah Legislative PAC and the Weber County Republican Party have nonetheless spent over $115,000 trying to help Lesser’s opponent, Jill Koford, unseat the Democrat.
That accounts for nearly 70% of funds Koford has raised, according to her campaign finance disclosures.
In an email, Koford said, “My campaign does not have a connection with [Preserving Utah Values] PAC. For the last five months, we have been completely focused on spending time with voters on the phones, on their doorsteps, and in their neighborhoods. We are focused on running a positive campaign centered around the issues affecting Weber County. It is unfortunate that outside groups have entered into our race.”
Koford does not mention issues related to transgender rights on her campaign website. Among the endorsements included there, though, is one from Datwyler’s client Sen. Mike Lee.
