Utah House Democrats’ wins come with mixed feelings over loss of some moderate Republicans

After polls closed on election night, Ofa Matagi wasn’t able to join her fellow candidates at Utah Democrats’ watch party. Instead, she was at home with family under strict doctor’s orders to rest. 

She was caring for a days-old, newborn baby boy, whose birth she was still recovering from. He had been born just the week before. 

Leading up to Election Day, Matagi had been knocking door to door in House District 43 neighborhoods — which includes parts of Sandy, Midvale and Cottonwood Heights — while “heavily pregnant,” she said. 

Matagi wasn’t glued to the screen while waiting for results to post. Instead, to help ease her anxiety, she decided to wait and see what kinds of texts she’d start receiving from her friends. She figured she would get one of two types of text messages: either some that said, “You did a great job, but better luck next time” or more congratulatory ones. The latter, she thought, seemed like “a long shot.” 

But the message she got from one of her close friends, Rep. Verona Mauga, D-Salt Lake City, told her “You’re ahead!” 

“I started crying,” she told Utah News Dispatch on Thursday. “It was just so surreal.” 

As the dust settles from Election Day — which brought a historic blue wave that hit not just nationally, but also washed over typically ruby red Utah — Matagi’s lead over Republican incumbent Rep. Steve Eliason continues to hold by nearly 12 percentage points, according to preliminary results. 

Matagi, with nearly 56% of the vote to Eliason’s 44%, hadn’t yet declared victory on Thursday, noting that there are still some outstanding votes to be counted. But thanks to her double-digit margin, her race is unlikely to flip. 

She’s one of 13 Utah House Democrats and two unaffiliated candidates on pace to take 15 seats from House Republicans — breaking the Utah House’s GOP supermajority for the first time in more than three decades. House Republicans are still on track to keep a simple majority, about 46 out of the chamber’s 75 seats.

Matagi’s campaign, by her estimates, had one of the smallest budgets. 

“I did as much as I could, but I ran a very humble, shoe-string budget for this campaign,” she said, so she never expected she would have such a lead over Eliason, who had served in the Legislature for 16 years. 

Matagi’s win, however, is one of several that some Democrats in power consider a bit bittersweet.

A bittersweet win

Eliason and some other Republicans currently trailing their Democratic challengers — including Reps. Jim Dunnigan, Clint Okerlund and Anthony Loubet — were considered more moderate members of the GOP caucus that in some ways reached across the aisle and worked in a bipartisan fashion. 

Eliason, for example, was known as a longtime champion for mental health and homelessness issues. 

‘Blue tsunami’ hits Utah: House Republicans on pace to lose 17 seats, breaking supermajority

On Thursday, Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson, one of the state’s most high-profile Democrats, sat next to Eliason on a panel in front of a crowd of providers, state officials and others who had gathered for a Utah Office of Homeless Services’ summit in Salt Lake City. 

Wilson and Eliason had spent about an hour discussing ways they have been working to improve the way Utah responds to mental health crises — and the many changes that still need to happen — for nearly an hour before Eliason told the crowd he likely would not be returning to Utah’s Capitol Hill next year as a legislator. 

“Unfortunately I won’t be there in an official capacity,” Eliason said, acknowledging his likely loss to Matagi. 

However, he said he’ll be looking for sponsors to carry on “some really good bills queued up,” including two omnibus bills that include improvements to Utah’s homeless and behavioral health systems, as well as another to use $200 million from Utah’s settlement with Meta for youth mental health services. 

Wilson ended their panel discussion by calling on the room to give Eliason a standing ovation for his work in homelessness, mental health and suicide prevention. 

“This is not partisan work,” she said. 

The crowd stood and gave Eliason extended applause while he smiled and nodded. He and Wilson shared a hug after. 

“He will still be an influence … and he’s a dear friend,” Wilson said. “I’m happy, frankly, about a blue wave, and I’m happy about changes in the state. (But I’m) not happy about a couple of seats that were lost (from) committed Republicans who have made a difference. In my book, he’s No. 1.” 

Eliason, in an interview with Utah News Dispatch, said he had “no idea” that Wilson was going to acknowledge him like that, and he expressed deep gratitude to her. 

Eliason said he does consider himself a casualty of the blue wave, swept up in the national and local enthusiasm to support Democrats over Republicans even if he tried to work as a bipartisan legislator on issues that were often shared priorities between the two parties. 

“You know, I understand voters get upset about issues, and that’s fair,” he said. “When you’re down ballot, people don’t oftentimes know as much about the candidates as they do as, you know, higher ticket candidates. But I’ve appreciated the opportunity to serve for 16 years. It’s been a fabulous experience.” 

Eliason, who also works as the senior director of Behavioral Health Policy at Huntsman Mental Health Institute, said he’s “not done” with the work, he’ll just carry it on in a different way. 

“I feel like I’ve accumulated too much information and relationships and passion to just say I’m moving to Lukenbach, Texas,” he said. “What exactly that looks like, I don’t know, but I will be working hard, I guess as a citizen lobbyist, to try to get these bills through that I actually feel really good about. I’ve actually been more prepared for this coming session than I have in a long time.”

Utah House Democrat gains slip slightly as 2 races flip, but GOP still pacing to lose 15 seats

Asked why he thinks he lost, Eliason said he hadn’t yet heard much “feedback about my performance,” though he had received “lots of positive outreach from constituents since the election.” 

“Maybe time will tell, but I attribute it more to higher-level issues that I’m not really involved with,” he said. 

Political pundits have credited Utah’s blue wave to a combination of intense frustration with President Donald Trump and his administration and a frustration with how Utah’s Republican-controlled supermajority has handled redistricting, ballot initiatives, unions and other issues, along with an ongoing wave of outcry over data centers and development. 

“Hopefully the work (in homelessness and mental health) will keep going on,” Eliason said. “There’s lots of great people up there, and these are very important causes. So I’ll do what I can to continue to make progress.” 

Matagi reflects on her win 

Asked about Eliason’s reputation as a moderate and Wilson’s acknowledgement that she had mixed feelings about his loss, Matagi told Utah News Dispatch that she has no “ill will” toward Eliason. 

“We’ve talked a few times. I think he’s a great person and has been a great leader, and I don’t want to disparage that in any way, the work that he’s done,” she said, calling him a “bridge builder for over a decade.” 

But she said “it comes to a point where, especially in this kind of climate,” that people want change, especially those who have felt “unheard.” 

“So it’s no longer, in my mind, OK to just play it safe … or not stir the pot,” she said. “There comes a juncture point … where people are now finally feeling emboldened or empowered to be able to speak up.” 

Matagi, who is Tongan American, was born and raised in West Valley City, one of Utah’s most diverse cities. In late 2024, she moved to Sandy, which she said “is a little different” when it comes to demographics, “coming from the west side going to somewhat of the east side.” 

“But what’s interesting … is a lot of the community members here on the Sandy side share a lot of the same sentiments of what’s been frustrating for them, with the economy, with the cost of living, with healthcare, childcare or the lack thereof,” she said. “It’s the same thing that I hear on the west side.” 

While the district does encompass some affluent areas, especially in parts of Sandy and Cottonwood Heights, Matagi said there are plenty of “pockets” of neighborhoods that are struggling to afford groceries “that are impacted by the policies at a federal and statewide level.” 

While she was on the campaign trail, Matagi said she also heard from many longtime House District 43 residents that Eliason didn’t seem responsive to them. 

“A sentiment that I heard a lot actually … were people expressing that they’ve reached out to Eliason, (but) they hadn’t heard back from him,” she said. “ So it was a history of not feeling heard from our current representative … but also when they were able to contact him on specific issues, they felt like it fell on deaf ears or they felt like there wasn’t really a genuine desire to address their specific needs.” 

Matagi said her win shows those who voted for her wanted a stronger voice to represent them. 

“What I’ve been hearing is the community is wanting a leader that’s going to speak for all communities,” she said. 

Matagi has been involved in a variety of causes, but she said her biggest areas of expertise and passion include equitable and sustainable environmental work and affordable and accessible healthcare. 

She’s executive director of the nonprofit Utah Pacific Islander Health Coalition, which advocates to improve health disparities impacting Pacific Islanders. 

She also works at an offsite department of the University of Utah as the environmental partnership manager for University Neighborhood Partners, acting as a convener for community members to access resources. Specifically, she said she focuses on environmental work, particularly for people on the west side who are disproportionately impacted by climate change. 

Matagi said that Eliason’s loss doesn’t mean that work on homelessness or mental health issues will stall. 

“To say that we’ve lost a champion altogether and that type of work can’t move forward, I don’t necessarily agree,” she said. “I presume that we’ll continue to see that in big ways develop, and that it’s not something that’s completely a loss.”