SALT LAKE CITY — New Utah Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Merchant is already counting down the days until Election Day 2020, his first key opportunity to continue chipping away at the state's Republican majority.
"We'd really like to be in a position where we're ready for 2020 well in advance, so that's the goal," Merchant told the Deseret News in a recent interview at the state Democratic Party headquarters in Salt Lake City's Marmalade neighborhood.
He reminded a reporter several days had already passed since the 500-day mark that fell on the same day as his election by party delegates over Daisy Thomas, a progressive activist who held the post for a single two-year term.
But Merchant, a lawyer turned businessman whose previous political experience is primarily working for former seven-term Utah Democratic Congressman Jim Matheson, expressed confidence he can rebuild the party quickly.
Just like Derek Brown, his Utah Republican Party counterpart elected in April, Merchant faces a pile of unpaid bills and a lack of paid staff able to help recruit and elect candidates in the coming congressional and legislative elections.
Brown, however, was able to tell the Utah GOP's governing State Central Committee that his party has raised enough to pay off its debts and start hiring staff. That announcement also came on June 21, 500 days before the Nov. 3, 2020, election.
"We've had a busy six weeks as a leadership team, but we couldn't be happier with how things have turned out," Brown said recently. "There's a lot of optimism in the party. There's a new energy and a new excitement that's fun to see."
Merchant said he isn't worried about the effect of the Republican Party's head start on getting its finances in order because his focus is on doing the same for Democrats.
"Look, it's an uphill battle," he said. "But it's certainly not one that I am intimidated by and I don't think that anyone else who works here at the party is intimidated by it, either. We're excited, we're invigorated. We're all ready to move forward."
The turnaround for Democrats could take considerably longer than six weeks.
"I'm very confident that we will, in the next six or so months, we will be able to turn this ship around and be in good shape financially," Merchant said, as what he called the "wariness" some supporters have had about the party starts to subside.
Meanwhile, Republicans including Kathleen Anderson, the wife of former Utah GOP Chairman Rob Anderson, are already stepping up to run against the state's only Democrat in Congress, Rep. Ben McAdams, in 2020.
McAdams' defeat of two-term GOP Rep. Mia Love by less than 700 votes in the 4th Congressional District was a key victory for Utah Democrats in the 2018 election, along with picking up seats in the Utah House and Senate.
Taking back McAdams' seat is a top priority for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which funds campaigns around the country. It's also at the top of Brown's 2020 to-do list, along with reversing Democratic legislative gains.
"I don't believe their victories last year were necessarily a result of their organization. I think they may have been a result of us as a party being focused on things other than winning elections," Brown said.
That's not going to happen on his watch, he said.
While Democrats have been dealing with internal battles over everything from sexual harassment allegations against a past party official to friction over Thomas' leadership, Republicans have also suffered self-inflicted wounds.
The GOP infighting has been going on since the 2014 Legislature approved a deal with backers of the Count My Vote initiative that would have replaced the traditional caucus and convention system for nominating candidates with a direct primary.
Still known as SB54, the deal that sparked what was referred to as a civil war allows candidates to bypass the caucus and convention system and instead collect voter signatures for a place on the primary election ballot.
The Utah Republican Party took the state to court in an unsuccessful effort to overturn the law, but lost in U.S. District Court in Utah and at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, then tried and failed to get the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case.
Donations dried up to the GOP, leaving the party owing some $135,000, Brown said. After raising $110,000 and negotiating to reduce the size of the debt, he said the party still has at least $20,000 in the bank even with all the bills paid.
The state Democratic Party is about $70,000 in debt, said Merchant, who personally donated $1,000. He said he's already hearing from past contributors who are now interested in supporting the party again.
Democrats remain divided over how progressive the party should be, a debate being played out in the 2020 presidential race among two dozen candidates ranging from moderates to socialists who are vying to challenge President Donald Trump.
Merchant, who compares taking the top spot at the Democratic Party to turning around a troubled business, likes to describe himself politically as midway between a moderate and a progressive.
He said while he worked for Matheson, a moderate, there are "a lot of issues" where he personally takes a more progressive approach, such as being open to a single-payer health care system and to stronger environmental protections.
"For the most part, I think the progressives and moderates work very well together. We know that we're in a state that is fairly conservative," Merchant said. "I think that we also see those values slowly starting to shift."
Those changes are happening in not just Salt Lake City, "but also in other metropolitan areas throughout the state, in Ogden, in Provo," he said. "Of course they're going to be more moderate before they're really progressive."
Trump, who won his lowest margin of victory nationwide in 2016 in Utah, will be the first name on the ballot next year. That's seen by Merchant as something Democrats can capitalize on in 2020.
"Donald Trump certainly does not represent the values of the people of the state of Utah," he said, "And anybody who tells you otherwise, you can send them over to me. I'm happy to talk to them because I think that's a joke."
Utah values are also Democratic values, he said, citing family, patriotism and fiscal responsibility as examples.
"There are people that'll say to you, 'Oh, yeah, right,' but personally, I think most of us as Democrats are tired of the Republicans co-opting issues that have traditionally been and should always be Democratic issues," Merchant said.
Brown said the state Republican Party's focus now needs to be on Utah candidates rather than the presidential race, "and then we're going to cross that bridge when we get there."
His goal, the GOP leader said, is "to make our party as boring as possible and win elections. It should be the candidates make the news and it should be positive news."