LIVE BLOG: Utah GOP Convention results

This post is a live blog. Updates regarding the GOP Convention will be added throughout the day.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Utah Republican Party is convening its 2025 State Organizing Convention today, May 17, at Utah Valley University in Orem. The convention was officially called to order at 10:30 a.m.

A primary focus of the convention is the election for state party chair, featuring incumbent Rob Axson and challenger Phil Lyman. Axson has served since 2023 and has been endorsed by President Trump and Senator Mike Lee. Lyman is a former state legislator and gubernatorial candidate.

Delegates will also vote on amendments to the party constitution. Outcomes of today’s convention are expected to significantly impact the Utah GOP moving forward.

Live Updates

• 11:08 a.m. — Delegates have decided to move up voting on all the party business forward to the agenda right after the chair vote. A big round of applause for that proposal, and it passes.
• 11:20 a.m. — Delegates have decided not to vote on the amendment that would have stripped party membership from signature-gathering candidates. This has been pulled from the agenda.
• 11:24 a.m. — Here is the agenda with links to the proposals (minus stripping party membership, amendment #7 — delegates pulled that.) Business is taking place before the elections of the chair, so there’s a lot of participation.
• 11:36 a.m. — Delegates approve amendment #1, allowing them to change their party platform at any convention. That means they can adopt them in nominating years and organizing years, so every year instead of every two years (there’s typically higher turnout in voting years).
• 11:38 a.m. — Delegates vote to change their fiscal year from July – July to October – October. They say that will give newly elected officers more time to budget better after they’re elected in April – May.
• 11:44 a.m. — Delegates shoot down a proposal to make their precincts defined by the county parties and not the state. Delegates tried to argue that they should not be locked into precincts for caucus or delegate allocation that are defined by a government entity, especially if that entity is a member of the democrat party (or another different party) and does not have their best interests in mind.
• 11:53 a.m. — Another precinct proposal — allowing county parties to combine adjacent government precincts in order to create a larger party precincts — fails.
• 12 p.m. — A proposal on how the party calculates the number of delegates in a precinct fails.
• 12:12 p.m. — The party passes a proposal that a person seeking to run as a state Republican candidate for a partisan elected office must “demonstrate continuous voter registration with Republican Party affiliation for the previous year.” The sponsor of the amendment also alleges that a democrat registered as a republican to fill a vacancy. It also would have impacted Rep. Celeste Maloy when she ran for office because her voter registration wasn’t up to date when she filed to run for office.
• 12:33 p.m. — A proposal to lower the threshold of the state central committee — the governing body of the delegates — fails. This is a proposal that some see as a way to make it easier to change the direction of the party.
• 1:24 p.m. — Intra-party business continues, chair vote still pending. There are two party bylaws left to debate, then the chair’s race.
• 1:41 p.m. — Utah GOP delegates are starting a vote to elect a new party chair between current chair Robert Axson and Rep. Phil Lyman. Here’s some recent delegate polling on the race.
• 1:56 p.m. — Up first is Olivia Dawn who is running for party secretary. She and Lyman are “on a ticket” together, meaning he wants her to be elected with him, so many of his supporters may support her too. She’s running against current secretary Stafford Palmieri Sievert. Dawn gets a lot of applause when she says to vote for Phil.
• 2:01 p.m. — Robert Axson is up first for his candidate speech. Sen. Mike Lee takes the stage to introduce and back him. Lee says Axson has done a ton to raise money and support the caucus convention system.
• 2:03 p.m. — Axson is defends himself against attacks that he’s supported signature candidates, not convention candidates. He says the signature path still rewards popularity but says, “The law is the law.” He says they must repeal it but not if they’re trying to beat down one another. “I am not willing to break the law,” Axson adds.
• 2:06 p.m. — Up next, Phil Lyman, who gets a standing ovation from the delegates. Applause is not an indicator of votes — but it’s hard to argue that Lyman doesn’t seem to have more applause than Axson.
• 2:10 p.m. — Lyman is taking an inspiring approach — much less burn it down approach — and saying that the party belongs to the delegates. He gets another standing ovation when he sits down.
• 2:52 p.m. — Votes continue to be tallied.
• 3:04 p.m. — Still waiting for results to be announced. Mike Kennedy and Burgess Owens are participating in a panel discussion. Reps. Moore and Maloy got stuck in D.C. and sent video messages.
• 3:13 p.m. — Volunteers are 25% of the way through counting votes.
• 3:44 p.m. — Party chair says all votes are counted, but volunteers are double-checking.
• 4:22 p.m. — Results announced: Incumbent Robert Axson wins party chair with 1,340 votes out of 2,560 votes.