Special Session with Bryan Schott

Bryan Schott sits down with G. Elliott Morris—former lead data editor at 538, now running the election-data newsletter Strength in Numbers and the forecasting site 50 Plus One—to dig into a trend reshaping red-state politics: Democrats stepping aside so an independent can take on the GOP one-on-one.

They start with Morris's recent analysis of Montana's three-way Senate race, where independent Seth Bodnar is outpolling D...

On this week's episode:

• The SAVE Act is dead (for now). Mike Lee's voter-ID bill couldn't get 50 votes, let alone the 60 needed to break a filibuster
• Kevin O'Leary's mea culpa. The investor tells MS Now his team botched the rollout of Utah's controversial Box Elder County data center, an issue that helped sink Senate President Stuart Adams' reelection campaign.
• Mendenhall on the Democratic Socialist debate. Salt Lake City's ma...

On this episode:

• Sen. Mike Lee's SAVE America Act is stalled in the Senate, so he's recruiting dead people to try and resurrect the bill. He invoked Charlie Kirk on social media this week, just a few weeks after doing the same thing with Lindsey Graham.
• Federal Judge Robert Shelby rules Utah's gambling ban isn't preempted by federal commodities law, dealing the prediction-market Kalshi a major loss, with an appeal likely.
• Utah...

BYU sociology professor Dr. Jacob Rugh joins Bryan Schott to dig into the numbers behind Utah's political shift.

Rugh says Utah has swung further left since 2004 than almost any other state. He explains why MAGA has never fully taken over Utah's Republican Party the way it has nationally and what that means heading into the 2026 midterms.

The conversation covers the collapse of Phil Lyman's campaign, Stuart Adams' primary loss over...

On this episode:

• Sen. Mike Lee picks yet another fight with his own party over the SAVE Act
• Stuart Adams lost his election, but the checks kept coming.
• Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson with a subtweet for the ages
• Burgess Owens says incumbents losing elections is putting Utah on the path toward socialism

CD1 primary costs $6.1 million: Ben McAdams wins the Democratic nomination in a district that didn't exist a year ago, raising and spending more on his own than the other seven candidates combined. Outside groups poured in another $2.7 million—all of it backing McAdams.

Phil Lyman's mystery donor, again: A new super PAC that spent $300,000 attacking Rep. Celeste Maloy had a single donor—a company that also gave $550,000...

In this week's episode, host Bryan Schott discusses:

Bears Ears & Grand Staircase Escalante shrunk again President Trump signed an executive order this week drastically reducing both monuments—continuing the back-and-forth that's played out since Clinton (1996) and Obama (2016) created them...

A scathing state audit found the Utah Fits All Scholarship voucher program spent taxpayer money on Pelotons, gaming PCs, mirrorless cameras, trampolines and a $6,200 mountain bike, while auditors could only confidently trace about 19% of transactions.

Rep. John Arthur (D-Salt Lake City), a public school teacher, joins the show to break down the findings, explain why he believes the program itself is unconstitutional, and make the c...

In this episode of Special Session, Bryan Schott breaks down Senator Mike Lee's habit of posting bad-faith attacks every time the white nationalist group Patriot Front marches — and explains why the senator's rhetoric is designed for followers he holds in open contempt.

Plus: Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson pushes back against DOJ threats of criminal prosecution over Utah's refusal to hand over unredacted voter rolls, th...

Host Bryan Schott breaks down some huge news in Utah politics: his own First Amendment lawsuit against the Utah Legislature just got revived by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Plus, Kevin O'Leary walks back his CCP-funding claims against Alliance for a Better Utah; the fight to replace outgoing Senate President Stuart Adams heats up between Kirk Cullimore and Evan Vickers; Governor Spencer Cox's statewide fireworks ban ami...

Stuart Adams just became the first sitting Utah Senate President to lose a primary since 2002, and the shockwaves are still reverberating across Capitol Hill. The man who ran the Utah Senate like a personal kingdom got sent home by the very voters he forgot to listen to, and Ben McAdams, the newly minted Democratic nominee in Utah's 1st Congressional District, has s...

With Utah's June 23 primary just days away, Bryan Schott breaks down the biggest storylines:

• ICE detention warehouse update: New NYT reporting says DHS is looking to offload the SLC warehouse it overpaid for.
• Trump endorses Moore, Malloy, Kennedy: Predictable picks spark a meltdown among Phil Lyman supporters who'd convinced themselves Trump would back Lyman.
• CD3: Malloy vs. Lyman: Why this race is closer than it looks: 60% of...

With just two weeks to go until Utah's June 23 primary elections, Bryan Schott breaks down the $2.8 million in outside spending flooding Utah's congressional races, flags which incumbents are actually in danger, and explains the alarming background of Utah County's newly appointed deputy elections director.

Utah 1st Congressional District Democratic candidate Ben McAdams joins Utah Political Watch for a wide-ranging interview ahead of the June 23 primary election.

McAdams, a former state senator, Salt Lake County Mayor, and one-term congressman, makes his case for why his track record on delivering results sets him apart from his three primary opponents.

We discuss his take on finishing second at the state Democratic convention, the ...

Ballots hit Utah mailboxes this week, and Senate President Stuart Adams immediately sent a letter demanding Kevin O'Leary shrink the controversial Stratos data center project by 75%, the same project Adams approved as MIDA chairman. We break down why that's a panic move, not a policy move, and what it says about his primary election chances.

Nate Blouin dropped his internal poll in the CD1 Democratic primary. We dig into the top-li...

Michael Farrell, a Salt Lake City tax attorney and progressive Democrat running in Utah's newly redrawn 1st Congressional District, joins the show to make his case for why he's the right candidate in a crowded Democratic primary.

Farrell discusses his personal motivation for running — his mother's terminal illness and $150,000 hospital bill in 2009 — and why he's focused on detailed policy proposals rather than progress...

Utah State Senator Nate Blouin sits down with Utah Political Watch to make his case for the Democratic nomination in Utah's 1st Congressional District. In a wide-ranging conversation, Blouin explains his "top vs. bottom" theory of the race, his pledge to drop out if a campaign-commissioned poll shows him trailing fellow progressives Liban Mohammed or Michael Farrell, and why he thinks he's the only candidate built to beat Ben McAda...

Bryan breaks down Wednesday night's first and only televised debate in Utah's new First Congressional District Democratic primary. Four candidates, one stage, and one frontrunner who just needed to walk out standing. He did.

The four Democrats running for Utah's 1st Congressional District take the stage Wednesday night for the only televised debate of the primary, and Bryan has thoughts, mostly skeptical ones, about the format.

He breaks down the dynamics and strategy: why Nate Blouin, Liban Mohamed and Michael Farrell all need to attack Ben McAdams while simultaneously fighting each other for the progressive lane. Bryan also explains why Blouin's plan...