A mobile billboard truck crawling the streets of Salt Lake City flashes the face of Utah’s only openly LGBTQ+ lawmaker. Below her portrait, it says, “Democrat Rep. Sahara Hayes voted against Utah’s girls.”
Earlier this year, Hayes stood amidst her colleagues in the Utah House of Representatives and wept as she pleaded with them not to pass a bill that would establish legal definitions of “female” and “male” to exclude transgender people and bar them from using locker rooms and bathrooms in government-owned buildings. With a few exceptions, Republican lawmakers approved the bill along party lines.
“The ads are oversimplifying everything that went down with really clear intent,” Hayes said in an interview. “A lot of the discussion that happened in the Legislature was around fear, and I think that’s what these ads are playing into. However, it led to just scapegoating trans women.”
As the deadline for reporting spending and donations before the general election passed Tuesday, it remains unclear who is funding the attacks that align with Republicans’ national campaign strategy.
Texts and mailers of similar images to those on the truck, featuring photos of nearly every member of the Democratic caucus, have been sent to voters living in the few legislative districts not held by the GOP in Utah. Lawmakers in the supermajority — which, against Democratic opposition, have passed restrictions impacting transgender Utahns for three consecutive years — have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to flip those seats.
In one ad that turned up in mailboxes, a seemingly digitally altered image shows a young woman washing her hands in a restroom while a man stands next to her looking at himself in the mirror. Messages accompanying the same image sent over text say, “In [Democratic state lawmaker’s] world, it is perfectly fine to let men use girls’ restrooms and locker rooms. Vote against this dangerous nonsense.”
On each of these advertisements, a disclosure in small font says that they were “Paid for by Preserving Utah Values PAC.”
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City, consoles Rep. Sahara Hayes, D-Millcreek, during discussion of HB 257 on the House floor at the Capitol, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024.
But according to state campaign finance records, Preserving Utah Values PAC has not raised any money, nor has it spent any money. A disclosure filed before the Oct. 29 general election reporting deadline says contributions and expenditures both total “$0.00.”
Meanwhile, the PAC registered preservingutahvalues.com, a website ads refer voters to, on Oct. 14, according to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — the nonprofit that, among other things, helps maintain a database of website domains. According to domain hosting platforms Squarespace and GoDaddy, it costs around $20 a year to purchase a similar website address.
The general election reporting period, which applies to political action committees, ran from Sept. 26 to Oct. 24.
The only officers listed for the PAC, which says it is based in Wisconsin, are Thomas Datwyler and Timothy Datwyler — renowned treasurers for Republican candidates and campaign committees that champion their causes. Thomas Datwyler’s clients include U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, state Sen. Mike Kennedy (who is expected to be elected to represent Utah’s 3rd Congressional District) and former Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes.
Thomas Datwyler has a long history of being connected to dark money flowing into politics. He serves as the treasurer for Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles’ campaign, the finances of which the FBI is investigating for fraud, Tennessee Lookout reported. He is treasurer for a shadowy PAC that has raised legal questions in an Arizona congressional race, reported The Arizona Republic. And in July, the Conservative Nevada Leadership PAC accused him of wire fraud.
It’s not clear who may have paid the pair to organize Preserving Utah Values.
An ad for Hayes’ Republican opponent in the race, Sarah Dawn Montes, appears alongside the one attributed to Preserving Utah Values PAC on the mobile billboard truck. When asked about the ads, Montes said, “I’ve never heard of the PAC. I don’t know anybody that’s in that organization.”
Montes said she wasn’t sure whether her campaign arranged to place the Preserving Utah Values ad, but that she would look into it. The GOP candidate suggested a reporter reach out to a Democratic senator who had posted critically about the ad for more information.
Screenshots of what appears to be a temporary story she posted to Instagram including a photo of both her campaign ad and the Preserving Utah Values PAC ad side-by-side have been shared across social media.
Montes’ campaign finance disclosure says she paid $500 to mobile billboard truck company Bright Mobile Media late last month.
‘What is happening here?’
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.” A person who “intentionally or knowingly gives false or misleading material information in a statement of organization” could be charged with a felony.
Laws also require the PAC to file a “verified financial statement” of contributions and expenditures if each of those total $750 or more. The report must include: the name and address of any person or entity who donates to the PAC, and how much, and the amount of the contribution, as well as nonmonetary contributions and the value of those. The committee’s treasurer or chief financial officer is required to submit a statement certifying the financial report is accurate.
The lieutenant governor’s office — or county clerks, in relevant races — is responsible for enforcing campaign finance laws in Utah.
Responding to questions about whether the lieutenant governor’s office had sought additional information on the PAC, a spokesperson for the lieutenant governor’s office said, “We typically reach out to PACs or other reporting entities when we receive a written complaint containing specific information that is missing from their reports.”
That follows what Utah’s elections code gives the office permission to do. Under the section of law governing how to respond “if [a] statement is false or unlawful,” the lieutenant governor’s office must make statements public, and then ”any candidate or voter may file a written complaint with the chief election officer alleging that a filed financial statement does not conform to law or to the truth.”
Since reaching out to the lieutenant governor’s office, The Salt Lake Tribune has confirmed that at least one complaint regarding the PAC has been submitted.
Thomas Datwyler has not responded to repeated requests for additional information on whether he has a client who paid him to organize the PAC, and why contributions and expenditures were not included in its general election report.
Democratic candidates targeted by the PAC, meanwhile, are left fielding questions from voters about the messages in Preserving Utah Values’ advertisements.
“I had a trans constituent message,” Hayes, who represents one of the most left-leaning districts in the state, said over the phone as she looked for the correspondence. “She said, ‘Getting a transphobic mailer didn’t make my day.’ So this has obviously impacted people. All of the feedback that I received has been in the, ‘What is happening here?’ vein.”
