SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. Daniel Thatcher, who has been a Republican since he joined the Senate in 2011, is leaving the party.
The West Valley City Republican, frequently a thorn in the side of GOP leaders, said Friday he is done with the party and is joining the Utah Forward Party, making him the first third-party lawmaker in the Legislature in decades.
“The fact of the matter is, only the two major parties are going to win,” Thatcher said in an interview, “and I think the only way to break the deadlock is to have a force that is neither.”
There was not one single tipping point, Thatcher told The Salt Lake Tribune, but the culmination of several decisions by Senate leadership.
Last August, Thatcher was one of two Republicans who voted against amending the Utah Constitution to let legislators repeal citizen-passed ballot initiatives, saying it would “give us the biggest black eye we could have as a Legislature.”
