Legislative Recap & Election Season Kicks Off

As the dust settles on the 2026 legislative session, host Jason Perry leads a discussion about which issues won and which were voted down. Plus, Utah voters attend their neighborhood caucus meetings as election season really heats up.

THE DEEPER DIVE:

• ✍️ Governor Spencer Cox is now in the process of reviewing all the bills passed during the legislative session. Will there be any vetoes? Our expert panel discusses how the executive branch engages with the lawmaking process.
• ️ Both Republicans and Democrats held neighborhood caucus meetings this week to elect precinct chairs and delegates to county and state party conventions.These meetings appear to have had renewed energy for the members of at least one political party. We evaluate what people on the ground experienced.
• ️ With the candidate filing period closed for Utah's four congressional seats, campaigning is now in full swing on both sides of the political aisle. Every incumbent is facig an intra-party challenger, and the field is especially large in the Democratic race for the state's newly drawn 1st congressional district.
• Efforts to pass the SAVE America Act on the federal level have Utah politics in the national spotlight. The effort is backed by Sen. Mike Lee, yet Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson has publicly pushed back on the rhetoric being used by meembers of her own party. We examine why Pres. Donald Trump is pushing for the law so strongly and how it could impact the Beehive State.
• This last week, the federal government purchased a warehouse in Salt Lake City for a potential ICE detention facility. Mayors Erin Mendenhall and Jenny Wilson have both spoken against the pruchase. While Gov. Cox is supportive of establishing an ICE facility of some kind in Utah, he says no one in his administration had any advance knowledge of this purchase.

️ FEATURING:
• Ben Winslow – Reporter, Fox 13 News
• Amelia Powers Gardner – (R) Utah County Commission
• Wesley Smith – Partner, Northbound Strategy

Funding for The Hinckley Report is made possible in part by the Cleone Peterson Eccles Endowment Fund and by the financial contributions of PBS Utah members. If you would like to support the work we do, please visit https://pbsutah.org/supporthinckley