Legislative hopeful Alisa Van Langeveld has been interested in politics and building her community since she was a teenager.
At 17, she attended her neighborhood caucus and was elected as a Republican delegate.
Van Langeveld got involved in city government in North Salt Lake, joining the parks board, which she later led, and then gained a spot on the planning commission.
By 2017, when she first ran for the nonpartisan City Council — coming up 88 votes short — she had become disillusioned with the Republican Party and broke with it completely when Donald Trump became the party’s presidential nominee, converting to a self-described “never-Trumper.”
“Over time, I just really got feeling like the party was less and less representative to me,” Van Langeveld said in a recent interview, “and who I wanted to be and the world I wanted for my children.”
She dabbled with the Democrats but said she also “didn’t feel at home there” and was decidedly independent by 2021, when she ran again for City Council and this time won.
Because she didn’t fit in either party, Van Langeveld said she hadn’t really considered running for a state office. She then was approached by a political consultant who gave her some intriguing data: Two years ago, Evan McMullin, running as an independent against U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, captured 57% of the vote in Senate District 8 — where Van Langeveld is now challenging Sen. Todd Weiler — his strongest performance in any GOP-held district in the state.
It was eye-opening and showed her that perhaps there was a way for her to run a successful campaign without sacrificing her independent streak.
“Most voters in this district and across the state are in the political middle,” she said. “I think those on the political extremes are the ones who are running the show, so when they’re operating in their legislative roles and campaign roles and political roles, they’re trying to pull people farther and farther from each other … and I don’t feel like that reflects the average voter.”
So Van Langeveld filed to challenge Weiler, gathered the 1,000 signatures she needed to get on the fall ballot and is busy making her case to as many voters as she can.
“When I talk about this strategy,” Van Langeveld said, “I see people get excited for the first time in years that we might have a path to do something different, so we’re not just being handed the candidates without much choice on our general election ballot.”
And Van Langeveld is hardly alone this election cycle — indeed, far from it.
In most years, an average of about two Utah candidates (excluding presidential hopefuls) run as independents.
In the past 20 years, a total of 18 independents have run for state and federal offices — from school board up to U.S. senator and governor. Two years ago, McMullin was the only independent on the ballot. In 2020, there was an independent candidate for state school board and, in 2018, one running for the state House.
This year, however, 13 independents have filed to run, including contenders vying for governor and attorney general and on down to school board.
Most said they are running out of a deep sense of frustration and disillusionment with the two-party system that they maintain produces policies that fail to represent their constituents.
Several said their ultimate goal is — if a few like-minded independents can prevail at the ballot box — to break the stranglehold the GOP supermajority has in the Legislature and infuse a sense of moderate problem-solving that would better reflect mainstream Utahns.
“I’ve never seen such a huge change in politics since 2016,” said Jessica Wignall, who is challenging Republican Rep. Ken Ivory and Democrat Kate Staples in House District 39.
“It was just like this very 180-degree change in the dynamic of politics where there was no gray area. You’re a Democrat or a Republican, but there’s no gray area,” Wignall said. “Maybe at the time that was what people wanted and that fit, but I think there’s been so much divisiveness in the last eight years, people are fed up. Something needs to change. This isn’t working.”
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