2023 SLCO Party Officer Candidates
The Salt Lake County Republican County Delegates will elect a Party Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer. To learn more about the roles of the party officers please read Article III of the SLCoGOP ByLaws.
Letter Draw as of January 18, 2023: B F I J S O R W A E U K V Q H D L X Z M N P Y C G T
Thomas Young
I recently ran for House District 40 (Sandy, Midvale, Murray) and serve as a state delegate. I spent 15 years as a staff member to the Legislature. Professionally, I’m an economist.
I think we as a party should be more involved in thought leadership. Working with our elected officials, we should be pushing policies that are consistent with our party platform. As an example, here’s an opinion piece I recently wrote for the Deseret News:
https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2023/2/17/23602814/utah-800-million-tax-cut-legislature-budget-inflation.
Overall, working with you and our party’s leadership for the coming two years, I think we should focus on:
• Making the party the center location for thought leadership on policy and economics through content and activities.
• Winning County Mayor, maintaining a majority on the County Council, and increasing Republican state house seats.
• Increasing the younger generation’s interest in the GOP.
• Improving data accuracy for better election turnout and interest in the conservative vision of the future.
I ask for your support.
Mackey Smith
You can pretend to care, but you can’t pretend to show up. My name is Mackey Smith, and I am excited to share how I plan to show up for the party as our new Vice-Chair.
I am currently in my third year serving as the State Chair for Utah Young Republicans, educating and enrolling Utahns 40 and under as Republicans and helping get them involved for the first time in our party. In my time as chair, we have nearly doubled the number of state delegates under the age of 40, increased registered membership 10-fold, and launched an autonomous Chapter here in the county that regularly has 50+ members in attendance to events. I also serve as a County and State Delegate, an auxiliary member of our County Executive committee, and a member of the State Central Committee. If you can’t tell, a lot of my “free time” is already dedicated to our party and getting stuff done!
As a professional, I am the Head of Strategy Consulting at Tanner Accountants and Advisors, leading strategic planning efforts for the biggest local consulting firm in Utah. I regularly work with businesses, cities, counties, police departments, and nonprofits on setting effective strategy. I plan to leverage my experience to work alongside our Chair, Chris Null, in setting a sound strategy for the party to achieve the following:
• Continuing to improve our convention system through a smoothly run caucus night and increased attendance in local precincts
• Maintaining our majority on the County Council and retaining Republican state house seats in battleground districts
• Increasing millennial and gen-z registration and participation in the GOP
• Obtaining cleaner party data and incorporating advanced analytics to increase conservative voter turnout
As Lincoln once said: “I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.” To any party delegate, I am excited to become your friend and assist in your success and your goals for our party. I love the work we are doing here in Salt Lake County! The party remains relatable to everyday people because we champion winning issues: protecting individual liberties, promoting parental rights in education, and limiting government overreach. We have a lot to look forward to these next few years, and I am excited by the opportunity to assist in this endeavor. I humbly ask for your support.
Andrew G Nieto
I am a data and information hawk! Having personally experienced the depths of poverty and the comfort of middle class stability, I’m keen on how to seek out and stretch financial resources.
Recently, I ran for Utah House of Representatives in District 31. As I met and coordinated with other legislative candidates, I witnessed the capacity of a determined political party apparatus to get candidates elected. Japeth has done a phenomenal job as treasurer, keeping the SLCo GOP solvent during hard times. I share much of his vision, and I have vision of my own!
I commit to hitting the pavement, mining our huge Party membership for donations and fundraising ideas. I commit to seeking out fantastic merchant partners for getting better and better GOP swag onto the heads, backs, cars, homes, and desks of everyday Republicans. I commit to working closely with the other officers to make the PC, Mac, Android, and Apple online experiences pleasant and inviting for our website, calendar, event pages, and fundraising pages. I commit to strict integrity, choosing only the best accountants to join me in making the finances of Salt Lake County Republican Party as efficient and powerful as they can be! I commit to always place caucus planning, convention planning, and candidate support in the forefront of my mind as I fulfill the duties of treasurer.
Lifelong Republican!
Politically active since 1996.
Utah resident since 2013.
SLCo resident since 2014.
Taylorsville homeowner since 2018.
State Delegate.
County Delegate.
Precinct Chair.
Senate District Chair.
Former candidate, SLCo GOP Secretary.
Former candidate, Utah House of Representatives.
Co-founder, 2019 Utah Tax Referendum.
Married, 2 dogs, 2 cats, nieces & nephew, godchildren, honorary brothers.
Substitute Teacher, Jordan School District.
Avid hiker, photographer, and polyglot.
One of you, an average joe!
Firm believer in US Constitution, Utah values, and representative government.
Will attend all meetings and bring YOUR voice to the SCC!
Here to serve, not to gain. Teaming up with YOU!
Michael E Wilson
My name is Michael Wilson. I was born and raised in Salt Lake County, I have lived here for all but 4 years of my life, and I am now raising my own family here.
I am currently employed as an accountant for the State of Utah, and have been a professional accountant for over 15 years. My past professional experience has been in bookkeeping, financial accounting, banking, auditing and healthcare billing and accounting. I have worked for two CPA firms, a large bank, private companies.
I have served on several boards and committees in local government and non-profit groups.
I would like to serve as Treasurer to not only show my support, but be a part of the charge that protects our freedoms, ideologies, and our chosen way of life.
Carma Brown
Chris Null
I’m currently serving as your Chair of the Salt Lake County Republican Party. I’m asking that you re-elect me for a final term so that I can finish what our team has started. We have already accomplished a lot in these last two years. We started by Implementing a new party data system to manage all of our membership records, positions, email campaigns, text campaigns, surveys, reports, and analytics. I have been careful to choose a system that no one can hijack, not even a disgruntled officer or unauthorized attacker. The implementation required a significant amount of cleanup of the party data, but it is now in a state that will last the party for a very long time. This system is directly tied to our new SLCoGOP.com website allowing the party to be much more effective. Party leaders and candidates can log in and access important reports and live elections analytics. For example, click on 2022 Election Stats to see some of the data we had been tracking during the last 2022 general elections that helped candidates make important decisions on where to focus their efforts and win their races.
Brandscape Logo
We wanted to bring a new look and feel to the party to make it more attractive to the next generation of members and modernize it without losing the significance of our principles. We started with a new logo displayed prominently on the webpage, banners, e-club pins, and t-shirts to help promote the image of the party.
2022 Caucus
In the first year, we were challenged with the redistricting of all precincts. This meant we had to realign leadership at all levels, redraw maps and organize caucus locations based on new boundaries. We met that challenge even though we got the final data only a few weeks before the caucus. In the end, we pulled off the caucus even with the blizzard.
2022 County Nominating Convention
We worked hard and recruited republican candidates for all but 1 of the 47 SLCo races in 2022. Elected delegates were given many opportunities to meet and talk with republican candidates at libraries and events throughout the county. The party communicated with delegates and with candidates to open up the communications that are so important before the nominations. Convention was held at Kerns High School and resulted in some amazing candidate nominations.
2022 Elections
I am very proud of the results of these elections. For many years Salt Lake County House Republicans have been in the minority. But we picked up 3 House seats and won all of our incumbent seats. SLCo House Republicans are now a majority again! We also raised enough money to max out our fundraising donations to the county candidates.
Election Integrity & Poll Watching committees
SLCo is the only county to have a committee dedicated to election integrity in Utah. The committee published this Elections Integrity Report and press conference detailing their findings and ways to improve Utah elections. The Poll Watching committee was present at the SLCo Clerks office throughout the primary and general elections and randomly checked in at the polling locations throughout the county. I have worked closely with legislators on bills, including election integrity and election audits.
Additional events and projects our team successfully executed:
- Special elections HD33 and HD47 and County Auditor
- Lincoln Day Luau – first event after covid restrictions
- Lincoln Day Dinner w/ Sean Reyes at the Aquarium
- Lincoln Day Dinner w/ David Barton
- Reorganization and simplification of the SLCoGOP E-club
- SLCoGOP E-club lunch w/ elected officials
- Improving relationships with legislators, elected officials, and donors
- Bang the Drum campaigns (i.e. Get Out The Vote)
- Party Nominee assistance
- Radio ads
- Billboard ads
- Social media ads
- Text ads
- Meet/Greet events
- Townhall Thursdays w/ candidates
- Campaign/election data analytics
- Constitution Day picnics for volunteers
- Charity Outreach
- Minority outreach committee led by Carlos Moreno
- Parade participation – too many to list
- Work with Young Republicans, College Republicans, Log Cabin Republicans
My goals for the next two years:
- Strengthening and improving the caucus system
- Empower the delegates to represent our principles
- Supporting candidates true to conservative values
- Increasing participation and party membership
- Increasing next-generation interest in the GOP
How will we meet these goals:
- Build a party app for all members (increase privacy, communication, and awareness)
- Increase efforts to increase party membership
- Increase Precinct Officer training
- Survey party membership to help candidates prioritize issues
To get all this done, I need your support. This includes your vote and your help wherever you can provide it. Please vote for me and then volunteer your skills to help make 2024 the year we elect Republican candidates who will protect our Families, Faith, and Freedoms!