They announced in a news release issued Wednesday morning that a formal agreement for the merger will be presented at a joint organizing convention later this month, scheduled for April 26.

Party leaders say the move would be “unprecedented.”

“If consummated, it is believed to be the first ever merger of political parties in the state of Utah,” the release stated.

The announcement comes less than a month after a Republican state senator, Sen. Dan Thatcher, of West Valley City, unaffiliated with the GOP and instead joined the Utah Forward Party — a centrist party that has the slogan “Not left. Not right. Forward.”

Party leadership said “discussions about a possible merger have been taking place for many months and have been recently accelerated, building on the momentum of the news” that Thatcher was switching parties.

“Since 2017 the UUP has been a home to disenfranchised voters and candidates who bravely opted out of an obviously dysfunctional two-party system,” said Utah Forward Party Chair Adam Teuscher. “They’ve worked tirelessly to give voters a quality third option. They believe that electeds should put the interests of their constituents over those of party bosses. Forward stands for the same, but we do so as part of a 50-state movement.”

While Teuscher said the United Utah Party “blazed this path,” through the merger, “we hope to widen it.”

United Utah Party Chair Ladd Johnson also applauded the merger as a strategic move to further the centrist movement.

“The United Utah Party’s long-term vision has always been to start locally and build-up a grass-roots political movement in Utah before eventually joining together with similar movements from other states,” Johnson said. “The proposed merger with the Forward Party is an important and exciting step in furthering that vision.”

Johnson added that the United Utah Party’s membership will bring “the experience, excellent platform and approach, and dedicated leaders” to combine “with the talent, energy and national presence of the Forward Party.”

According to state voter registration statistics, the United Utah Party had about 2,210 active registered party members as of Monday, while the Utah Forward Party had 200. That’s compared to 933,827 members of the Republican Party, which dominates much of the state, and 241,633 Democrats.

Johnson told Utah News Dispatch in an interview Wednesday morning that even though the United Utah Party currently has more local members than the Utah Forward Party, the merger is proposed to join a growing national movement.

“When (the Forward Party) formed in Utah, we didn’t join them immediately, and we were sort of just checking in and seeing how things are going, but we’ve worked closely with them,” Johnson said, adding that the two parties co-hosted candidate events during the 2024 election. “As they continue to grow nationally, we just felt the timing is really good. Let’s do this. We feel like it’s an hour of need for our country, and so we’re excited to be part of a bigger movement.”

Johnson added that “we’ll still keep all of our Utah values and policies and hard work here, but now we can more easily speak to national matters as well.”

While the United Utah and Forward Party’s registration numbers are small compared to the GOP, Johnson also noted that because the Utah Republican Party holds closed primaries, there are potentially thousands of Utahns who believe in their more moderate platform but don’t register so they can still weigh in on Republican primaries.

“We’ve got tens of thousands of supporters who don’t register with us because they want to vote in the Republican primary, and we’re fine with that,” Johnson said.

He pointed to United Utah candidate Michelle Quist’s bid for attorney general last year. In that race, Quist got 7.16% of the vote, equal to 103,831 votes. Republican Derek Brown won with 57.8%, with 838,445 votes.

“So we’ve got a lot of support out there, but it’s never going to show up in registered party members until we get rid of the closed primaries,” Johnson said.

The decision to merge — or not — ultimately falls to party members, however. During the organizing convention on April 26, members will vote on whether to execute a memorandum of understanding.

According to the terms of the MOU, a combined interim executive committee would be appointed from existing party leadership to oversee the merger process in accordance with state law.

Johnson said United Utah party leadership have “taken the temperature” of party members’ appetite for the merger, and “everyone that I’ve talked to is very enthusiastic about it,” though he acknowledged it’s somewhat “bittersweet.”

“There’s been a lot of blood, sweat and tears put into this party to get it up and running and keep it running,” Johnson said. “So it’s kind of like a founder selling his business. It feels a little bittersweet, maybe to some people. But my expectation is that the members will support it, just based on the anecdotal conversations I’ve had.”

Johnson added that Utah’s third-party members and candidates are now “just really excited that we’ll have a bigger platform to attract more folks to be able to work with us.”

In their efforts to shake up a two-party system, Johnson said over the years Utahns have told him, “We really like what you’re doing, (but) it would be great to be part of a national movement.”

“So for those people who maybe haven’t joined us yet, this may be the item that brings them on board officially,” he said.

Party leadership encouraged Utahns to get involved ahead of the state organizing convention.

“While voting to approve the merger will be limited to those who were legacy party members prior to the date of this announcement, the public is invited to attend,” the parties said in the news release. “We welcome all Utahns broadly interested in election reform and the independent political space.”

More information about the state organizing convention is available on the Utah Forward Party’s website.

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.