The financial landscape of Utah elections

Where there are elections, there’s often big money — to the tune of millions of dollars. That’s true in Utah, which doesn’t come close to being a state with the most expensive races.

A lot of the spending in Utah elections for statewide seats comes before convention and before the primary, likely because those seats are often considered safe for Republicans. That money is spent on things like ads and gathering signatures to make it onto primary ballots.

Now that the election is wrapped up, here’s a look at how much money was brought in for candidates and where it was spent.

Utah Results

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Governor

Gov. Spencer Cox (winner of election): The 2024 General Report showed Cox received more than $2.4 million in contributions (year to date). Throughout the year, the Cox campaign reported spending $3,782,382.19. At the beginning of the reporting period, the Cox campaign reported having more than $1.5 million as its balance.

The ending balance of the Cox campaign when it submitted its report was $158,370.28.

Leading up to the final weeks of the election, the Cox campaign spent less than half a million on things like the Governor’s Gala as well as various types of ads.

The report from the time heading into the state Republican convention shows the campaign spent close to $700,000. The campaign reported spending $147,000 on signature gathering. A fair amount of the campaign’s spending was on Lincoln Day dinners, booths at county conventions and advertising.

During the primary election reporting period, the Cox campaign reported it spent more than $1.4 million — a fair amount of it going toward advertising. The biggest single campaign donation the Cox camp reported during this time was to Derek Brown (now Utah attorney general-elect) at $50,000. The single biggest expenditure was $300,000 to Fluid Advertising.

The Cox campaign continued to spend into the general election, reporting around $1.16 million between June 14 and Sept. 25, and then more than $471,000 from Sept. 26 to Oct. 29.

Rep. Brian King: According to the report, King received over $632,000 in contributions (year to date). Throughout the year, the King campaign reported spending $651,962.94. The ending balance of the campaign at the conclusion of the general report’s period was $24,436.94.

The King campaign spent around $126,000 headed into convention. The campaign spent slightly less during the primary season (King was unopposed).

Most of the campaign’s spending happened during the general election — $405,237.56 (total from two reports). The single largest expense during the final reporting period was $45,000 to Elevate Strategies for advertising.

Senate

Rep. John Curtis (winner of election): A look at Open Secrets shows that Curtis raised around $5.4 million and spent about $4.67 million, leaving him with around $1.1 million. The last report is dated just a couple weeks before the election on Oct. 16.

In terms of outside spending, there was more than $7.7 million spent in support of Curtis and just under $100,000 spent opposing Curtis.

Caroline Gleich: During the campaign, Gleich raised around $1.1 million and spent about $1 million, leaving her with $102,819 at the end of the reporting period, according to Open Secrets.

$6,724 was spent in support of Gleich by an outside group: Protect Our Winters Action Fund.

More on the outside groups: There were three outside groups that spent more than $1 million, according to Open Secrets.

The Conservative Values for Utah PAC spent close to $5 million for Curtis. The group also spent $353,009 against Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, a Republican candidate for Senate who lost to Curtis.

Another outside group, Defend American Jobs, spent just under $2 million in support of Curtis. The group also spent $1.5 million against Staggs. Then, the Conservative Outsider PAC spent $1.8 million for Republican candidate Brent Orrin Hatch who was eliminated at convention and didn’t gather enough signatures to qualify for the primary ballot.

Attorney general

Derek Brown (winner of election): The Brown campaign reported over $1.19 million in contributions year to date. The campaign also reported spending close to that same amount during the year and ending with a balance of $215,694.27. The balance at the start of the year was around $200,000.

During the primary reporting period (April 18 to June 13), the Brown campaign spent around $589,474 — much of that amount unsurprisingly going toward advertising.

Much of the Brown campaign spending was either during the primary or headed into the Republican convention. There are two reports filed after the primary election — one shows the campaign spent around $90,000 and the other shows the campaign spent around $152,000.

From January to April 17 (the convention part of the campaign), the Brown campaign reported spending right around $352,805 — $248,000 of that amount went toward signature gathering.

In the final month of the campaign, the Brown team reported spending more than $30,000 to Reagan Outdoor Advertising, which has billboards across the state.

Rudy Bautista: The Bautista campaign did not accept outside donations. The campaign spent $100 on a fine for late disclosure on the primary report — the campaign didn’t collect any donations during that time. The only other expenditure reported by the Bautista campaign is $60 for a website.

Third party candidates: Libertarian candidate Andrew McCullough raised around $500 during the campaign and unaffiliated candidate Austin Hepworth received just over $12,000.

United Utah Party candidate Michelle Quist had $146,000 year to date in contributions received — the Quist campaign ended up spending around $139,000 throughout the year. The largest single expenditure in the report headed into the generation election was $15,000 for advertising to Elevate Strategies.