Utah Republicans didn’t see the light; they saw the numbers. In Tuesday’s special session, lawmakers repealed HB267—branded by critics as a “union‑busting” law—to keep a potentially electorally damaging referendum off the 2026 ballot.

HB267 stripped public‑sector unions of collective‑bargaining power on wages and benefits. The GOP muscled it through the 2025 session over loud labor opposition. A coalition of labor groups, dubbed Protect Utah Workers, launched a referendum, gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures in a few weeks, putting the law on ice until voters could weigh in. Tuesday’s repeal takes that vote off the table—and the issue off the 2026 ballot.

Using voter data from the firm L2, Utah Political Watch matched more than 200,000 petition signers to the statewide voter file. Another roughly 50,000 signers couldn’t be matched because their information isn’t public.

Among the matched signers, 40% were registered as Republicans, nearly 30% were unaffiliated, and 24% were Democrats.

That cross-partisan opposition helps explain why Legislative Republicans worried about backlash in 2026 if the referendum stayed on the ballot.

To qualify, organizers needed signatures from 8% of registered voters in at least 15 of 29 Senate districts. Protect Utah Workers blew past that, hitting the mark in 23 districts.

Our breakdown of signatures by House district shows the biggest hauls in safe Democratic seats:

  • HD24 - Rep. Grant Miller
  • HD23 - Rep. Hoang Nguyen
  • HD22 - Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost
  • HD33 - Rep. Doug Owens
  • HD41 - Rep. John Arthur
  • HD32 - Rep. Saraha Hayes

But the numbers also point to real exposure for a pair of vulnerable Republicans if the question stayed on the ballot.

GOP Reps. Jill Koford and Clint Okerlund won their 2024 elections by single digits, and both districts ranked in the top 20 for signatures.

Koford won by 309 votes—under 2%, the tightest House race in 2024. Okerlund won by 2,254 votes, just over 9 points.

Okerlund’s HD42 cracked the top 10 for Republican signers (4th), Democratic signers (9th) and unaffiliated signers (6th).

Koford’s HD10 ranked 9th for unaffiliated signers and 13th for Democrats, but just 44th for Republicans.

If voters were in the mood to punish Republicans next year over HB267, Democrats like Rep. Rosalba Dominguez could stand to gain. The freshman lawmaker won in 2024 by just 668 votes (3.92%), and HD35 landed in the top 15 House districts for signatures.

On the other hand, other Republicans who had close calls in the 2024 election represent House seats that were near the bottom for signatures.

  • Rep. Matt MacPherson won by under 1,000 votes, but HD26 ranked 51st for signatures.
  • Rep. Jason Thompson won by just over 8%, and HD3 ranked 61st.

In the Senate, five GOP seats landed in the top 10 for raw number of Republican signers.

  • SD21 - Sen. Brady Brammer - 2nd
  • SD23 - Sen. Keith Grover - 3rd
  • SD19 - Sen. Kirk Cullimore - 4th
  • SD18 - Sen. Dan McCay - 7th
  • SD7 - Sen. Stuart Adams - 9th.

As the Senate sponsor of HB267, Cullimore could be even more vulnerable. His district also ranked 5th for unaffiliated signers and 6th for Democrats.

All five are up for re-election in 2026.