Republican Rep. Trevor Lee, a culture-war firebrand and one of the most polarizing figures in the Utah Legislature, now has a heavyweight coming for his seat. Late Thursday, Davis County Commissioner Bob Stevenson filed to run against Lee for the Republican nomination in House District 16.

Stevenson, who is retiring from the Davis County Commission after two terms, has a long political pedigree to lean on. He won a seat on the Layton City Council in 1981 and was reelected three times, then served as Layton’s mayor before stepping down in 2019 to join the County Commission.

In 2020, Stevenson ran for Congress in Utah’s 1st Congressional District to replace Rob Bishop. He narrowly lost the GOP primary to Blake Moore by fewer than 3,000 votes.

Lee, meanwhile, toppled six-term incumbent Republican Steve Handy in 2022 by winning the Davis County GOP Convention. Handy mounted a write-in bid that fall, but Lee still won by 1,745 votes. In 2024, Lee edged Republican Daniela Harding for the nomination by just 524 votes, then cruised in the general.

Lee’s tenure has been defined by headline-generating culture war battles.

  • Before he was elected, Lee ran an anonymous X/Twitter account where he posted anti-LGBTQ content and promoted conspiracy theories about non-existent fraud in the 2020 election. He also made transphobic comments during an appearance on a conservative podcast.
  • In 2024, Lee was accused of being Islamophobic after he posted a video of a group of Muslims walking in Taylorsville during a religious pilgrimage.

    In the small town of Taylorsville, Utah,” he wrote, then added, “Not an American flag in sight.”
  • In 2025, Lee sponsored legislation that sought to ban Pride flags from public schools and buildings. At the time, Lee admitted one of the motivations behind the legislation was to “make sure during Pride Month in Salt Lake City, that you’re not able to fly Pride flags all over the place, which is something people are sick and tired of.”

    Salt Lake City later sidestepped the ban, exploiting a loophole in the bill.

For the upcoming 2026 session, Lee is sponsoring legislation to make ivermectin available without a prescription at pharmacies, so long as a doctor authorizes it.