Midterm Madness in the House

I think it’s safe to say that Jess Birtcher is in, and Jordan is out in Utah House District 44. On January 4, 2027 at 12PM (noon), Jess will be sworn in as the new Utah House Representative for Utah House District 44. My god, but it has been a long time coming.

https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title10/Chapter3/10-3-S828.html
“Elected officials shall take their oath of office at 12:00 noon on the first Monday in January following their election or as soon thereafter as is practical.”

Here are the results posted this morning from https://electionresults.utah.gov/results/public/Utah:

Compare this to my numbers in the 2024 election, and what’s remarkable is the number of people who came out to vote. It’s typical to see fewer people voting in a midterm election, but the significant drop in R’s voting this cycle is crazy.

• 70% of the Democratic vote was a significant retention/buildup from 2024.
• Only 38% of the Republican vote was retained from 2024 (5,017 vs 13,359)
• 50% of the overall vote (10,926 vs 21,898) was still a good showing for a midterm election

If you look across the map, the number of precincts that flipped to blue can be interpreted as either Republicans choosing not to vote in the midterms, or Democrats pushing to get to the polls. The clear picture in mapping precincts is that precincts flipped from red to blue this election cycle.

I want to note that Jess raised a little over $13,000 in campaign funds. Here is where the majority of Birtcher’s money came from:

• In-State Personal Donations ($6504.65)
• Direct Family ($2800)
• Union Contributions ($2100): PACs for UEA, Smart TD, OE3, Local 222, and AFSCME showed up and supported Jess. Notably absent was AFL-CIO Utah
• Other Political Candidates and Reps ($843.51)
• Democratic Groups ($500): Utah Democratic Party, Women’s Democratic Club of Utah and SLCo Progressives donated small contributions towards Jess’ campaign.

You can see these numbers for yourself at https://disclosures.utah.gov/.

Compare that to the little over $153,000 that Jordan Teuscher collected in 2026. This is what makes the win for Jess so incredibly salacious.

• $15,500 from Howie Rich, a real estate investor and political influencer, who ironically believes that term limits need to be a thing. The irony is all for Jordan.
• $35,000 from the Utah House Republican Election Committee
• $30,000 from the House Speaker Leadership PAC
• $5,000 from retired Utah House Rep Jefferson Burton (HD64)
• $5,000 from Travis Anderson, an investment advisor for Gilver Gagnon Howe & Co
• $5,000 from the Fresh Air PAC led by David Garbett and Travis Suite (aka Stewardship Utah) – begging the question WTAF has Jordan done to improve environmental quality?
• $5,000 from Utah Doers Network¹ and “Doers Network Utah” whose mission focuses on getting “results-oriented conservatives elected by delivering the 10%+ vote shift that determines who wins (and who loses) primary elections.” – note that this money came in two separate donations on Sept 9 and Oct 9, well AFTER our Utah primary election when Jordan was running against Scott Stephenson. It’s worth noting the extra $500 from All In For Utah PAC as well.
• Notable: $1,000 from Altria Group, the parent company of Phillip Morris and Marlboro cigarettes
• Notable: $1,000 from Encode AI, a pro-AI group based in Washington DC, with additional donations from fiber data and data infrastructure companies.
• Notable: $800 from VGW Luckyland Casinos and Resorts
• in a first-review there were blocks of donations from lawyer groups ($6,350), power & gas ($4,150) medical ($4,000), banks & credit unions ($3,500), and apartment associations ($1,000)

I’m sure that there’s worse stuff in there, but that’s enough to say that a lot of money was invested in the Teuscher campaign thinking “safe bet”.

---