On Thursday morning, an internal Republican Party brawl exploded into the public as the Salt Lake County GOP announced eight members were disciplined for “leveling false allegations of criminal election interference” against party leadership. The punishments include official censure, removals from leadership and bans from most GOP events for the next four years.

Most of the eight are well‑known dissidents in Utah GOP circles.

  • Former State School Board member Natalie Cline was formally censured by the Utah Legislature in 2024 for a social media post questioning the gender of a high school basketball player.
  • Tracie Halvorsen, who was a leader in the failed efforts to undo Utah’s new state flag. She also fronted a sprawling federal lawsuit accusing Gov. Spencer Cox and other Republican officials of conducting a vast racketeering and election fraud scheme. That lawsuit was thrown out of court earlier this week. Halvorsen unsuccessfully ran for Salt Lake County GOP Chair last year.
  • Casey Gale, who relentlessly used social media to attack and troll opponents of gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman during the 2024 election. He never disclosed that he was paid by Lyman’s campaign. He was removed from his leadership post on the Salt Lake County GOP in 2024 over his use of a homophobic slur in a social media post.

Seven of the eight, including Cline, Halvorsen and Gale, lost their party posts and face multiyear bans from most party events and from holding leadership positions until May 1, 2030.

What kicked this off? A garden-variety endorsement plan that spiraled into threats and criminal referrals.

Last August, the county GOP weighed endorsing candidates in municipal races. Those contests are officially nonpartisan, but some county parties in Utah endorse anyway; Utah County Republicans have done it for the past few cycles. Candidates were invited to pitch the executive committee, and any endorsement required a two-thirds vote.

The day before the September 2 meeting, Halvorsen and seven allies fired off a letter warning that party endorsements can only be offered through the existing convention system, and the plan amounted to “illegal election interference.”

“Any endorsement or support outside this framework risks disqualifying both the Salt Lake County and Utah State Republican Parties and undermining the integrity of our elections,” the letter claimed.

They cited a Utah law protecting voters “lawfully exercising their rights” and argued that a party endorsement constitutes an “unlawful attempt to influence the outcome.”

Party endorsements are legal in Utah. They are, in fact, a textbook function of political parties.

Sources tell Utah Political Watch the real target of Halvorsen’s ire was Riverton mayoral candidate Tawnee McCay, who was running against Republican Tish Buroker. Halvorsen has a long‑running grudge against McCay’s husband, state Sen. Dan McCay. She’s currently challenging McCay for the Senate District 18 GOP nomination.

Her accompanying email underlined that motivation, zeroing in on a potential McCay endorsement; McCay finished second to Buroker in the primary.

“Riverton does not want to have a city mayor who is married to a state senator, Dan McCay,” Halvorsen wrote. “Even if both were entirely honest, common sense suggests that such a connection would be inappropriate and could raise questions about impartiality and conflicts of interest.”

On Sept. 12, Halvorsen sent a letter to the Riverton City Prosecutor accusing Tawnee McCay of a felony—specifically that a social media contest was an attempt to buy votes.

“Tawnee is offering a chance to win a prize or gift cards from businesses within Riverton City in an effort to obtain political support at an election," Halvorsen wrote.

For extra flair, Halvorsen invoked President Donald Trump and conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed at Utah Valley University just two days prior.

“Given the serious nature of this violation, particularly in consideration of President Trump’s Presidential Action issued on March 25, 2025, titled ‘Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,’ and in the wake of the recent violence and assassination of Charlie Kirk taking place in the state of Utah, it is imperative that we restore law and order. This begins with the integrity of Riverton’s municipal elections,” Halvorsen alleged.

Party leaders pushed back against Halvorsen’s allegations, saying party bylaws do not prohibit endorsements in municipal races and their allegations are “not founded in any application of Utah law.”

“Party endorsements are protected political speech and a standard function of political parties,” the response said. “Common sense suggests evaluating candidates on their merits, and we believe Tawnee McCay is a qualified Republican deserving of consideration, but the endorsement is not granted by default and therefore still hers to earn.”

At the Sept. 2 executive committee meeting, Halvorsen and others objected in person. The committee eventually narrowed the plan, forgoing endorsements in races with more than one Republican. The only candidate to receive the party’s stamp of approval was Sandy mayoral candidate Cyndi Sharkey.

After the meeting, Halvorsen emailed Carey to say the committee narrowing the endorsement process helped to “mitigate a claim against the party.”

“Are we to take your statement about mitigating a claim against the party as a threat that you intended to sue the party if the motion to only endorse candidates in races with one Republican had failed?” Carey responded.

Halvorsen admitted as much in her response.

“What I am saying is that you put the entire party at risk, including the Executive Committee Members personally. Candidates could have sued, citizens from the city could have sued,” Halvorsen wrote.

In that email, Halvorsen leveled a vague threat by referencing an ongoing federal lawsuit filed by her father, Steven Huber, against the Bureau of Land Management over a public lands dispute.

“I think you should reach out to the Bureau of Land Management agents who are being sued individually and in their official capacities. The case is valued at 90 million and the attorney bills are over $100,000 and they have not even had a court hearing. You should ask them how it is going for them and if breaking the law was worth it for them,” Halvorsen wrote.

Huber also filed a racketeering lawsuit against U.S. Magistrate Judge Cecila Romero following a series of rulings against him in the initial case.

In response, Carey said no one can sue the party over an endorsement, and he called out her “vendetta” against the McCays.

“Let’s not be coy, Tracie…this was all about the McCays (sic), as was obvious from your first letter and email. There is no hiding that this was an overtly vendetta for you, so please stop hiding behind misinterpreted Utah law,” Carey wrote, adding if she still believed the party had broken the law, she should go to law enforcement.

She did.

On Sept. 5, the group wrote city attorneys in Herriman, Riverton and Sandy, accusing party leaders of “illegal election interference” and urging prosecution of Carey and former chair Chris Null over the Sharkey endorsement.

They cc’d a trio of Trump administration officials: U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and then FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.

The octet signed the letter with their official party titles. They also misspelled Bondi’s last name as “Bondie.”

That last part—using official titles on a letter urging prosecution of their own party leaders—is reportedly what triggered the disciplinary process

Charges were presented to the executive committee in January. After a reportedly eight-hour meeting on February 9, all eight were found guilty of conduct that "injured the good name of the Salt Lake County Republican Party." Two members, Kaye Sanderson and Laurel Fetzer, were convicted of violating the duties of an Executive Committee Member.

Halvorsen also caught additional charges for violating the party’s standards of conduct for making “repeated social media posts containing personal attacks, name-calling, and derogatory language directed at fellow Party members, officers and delegates” and for engaging in disruptive behavior at Republican Party meetings. She was also accused of posting Carey’s private cell phone online.

In a press release announcing the sanctions, Party Chair Mike Carey framed the discipline as a principled stand.

“Fabricating baseless accusations of criminal activity by Party leadership, only to then be weaponized as lawfare, crosses an unacceptable line,” Carey said. “Let this serve as a clear message: Accountability is non-negotiable, and those who seek to tear down the Party from within will face consequences.”

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