How Utah’s premier conservative think tank plans to navigate the GOP’s populist moment

One of the most influential conservative policy shops in Utah, Sutherland Institute, announced on Wednesday that state Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, will take the helm as president and CEO starting in August.

The change comes as the nation’s top conservative institutions grapple with an insurgent populism transforming Republican politics. Sutherland’s choice of Weiler makes it clear where the think tank stands on the debate.

Weiler has often been a moderating presence in the Utah Legislature. On issues like criminal justice reform, election security and LGBTQ identity, Weiler pushed for a middle way — to the dismay of partisans on both sides.

This made him a good fit for Sutherland, which prides itself on taking a deliberative approach to tricky topics.

Weiler’s appointment by Sutherland’s board is meant to continue the group’s recommitment to values of faith, family and freedom; Utah’s respectful rhetoric amid increasing polarization; and data-driven advocacy.

In an interview with the Deseret News, Weiler said he has always appreciated that Sutherland’s positions are backed up by original research, grounded in traditional limited-government, liberty-minded principles.

“Ronald Reagan Republicans would feel very at home with Sutherland,” Weiler told the Deseret News. “The Sutherland Institute is that steady force that is not going to get off track as the pendulum swings maybe a little bit more towards populism and then swings back.”

Weiler aims to maintain Sutherland’s brand while broadening its reach across the Intermountain West. Key to this will be securing donors to grow its budget of $2 million and expand its team of a dozen full-time staff.

Growth has been limited since 2016, when Sutherland counted on $3 million in donations for 15 staffers.

Weiler’s entry marks the next chapter for an organization that rose from obscurity over the past two decades.

Sutherland became an influential player on Utah’s Capitol Hill in the 2000s under Paul Mero, a convener of national voices in the 2010s under Boyd Matheson and a multimedia producer more recently under Rick Larsen.

Larsen stepped down at the end of 2025 due to personal health challenges.

Why Weiler?

Sutherland revised its mission statement in 2024 to add a focus on shaping public opinion through podcasts, panel discussions and press engagement, in addition to lobbying lawmakers and attracting academics.

To further this mission, Sutherland conducted a nationwide search for its next leader. Weiler emerged from the multimonth process as the best candidate to take the spot, executive director Derek Monson said.

“Todd has been a balancing influence in some pretty controversial public policy debates,” Monson told the Deseret News. “He is clearly aligned with Sutherland’s principles and values, but at the same time aligned with our approach of being thoughtful, principled and evidence-based.”

Sutherland has a vision of bringing America’s founding principles to the people, making complicated policy discussions digestible, while helping officials see through the turbulence of the political moment.

This stands in contrast to the aggressive attitude of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, according to Monson, and puts Sutherland in a similar camp as the less-political American Enterprise Institute.

At the end of last year, the Heritage Foundation came under fire when its president, Kevin Roberts, published a video defending right-wing personality Tucker Carlson’s interview of white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes.

Roberts had developed a close relationship with Carlson over the previous two years, shifting Heritage’s tone on economic, family and election policy to better reflect President Donald Trump’s America First movement.

But the inability for Heritage’s president to draw a clear line around Carlson’s views prompted several high-profile departures and sparked disagreement over the role of gate keeping against harmful political trends.

Sutherland’s direction

While Sutherland’s outspoken former president supports Sutherland’s ability to stay out of “that space of populism,” he worries the organization has failed to speak up on important issues in recent years.

It has increasingly focused its outreach on LGBTQ inclusion, according to Mero, who hopes Weiler will be a “better judge of public policy” with his intimate knowledge of the Beehive State’s legislative “arena.”

Sutherland initially opposed Utah’s religious rights-anti-discrimination compromise. It has since championed the law.

Sutherland’s most recent reports have centered on defending Utah’s vote-by-mail system, addressing the disorientation of many American men and urging child-protection regulations of artificial intelligence models.

Before taking over Sutherland, Weiler will leave his law firm, where he did business and family litigation. But he has no plans to leave his position in the Legislature representing North Salt Lake and Bountiful.

“When I’m at the Capitol and voting, I’m representing my 125,000 constituents. I won’t be up there representing the Sutherland Institute,” Weiler said. “Sutherland Institute is pro-faith, family, and freedom. And I am pro-faith, family, and freedom. So I don’t expect a lot of conflict.”

There is precedent for this kind of overlap between public service and a major nonprofit in the state.

Weiler said he is basing his decision on the precedent set by former state Sen. Howard Stephenson, who served for nearly 30 years, during which time he was also the president of the Utah Taxpayers Association.

In Utah’s citizen legislature, members declare potential conflicts of interest and “move on,” Weiler said.

But he and Monson both acknowledged his role as a senator gives him an inside look into how policy is decided, a built-in network to find fundraisers in Utah and plenty of useful connections in surrounding states.

Weiler entered the Legislature in 2012. He has sponsored bills regulating app downloads for minors, enabling lawsuits against pornography companies and changing adoption proceedings for biological fathers.

Weiler serves as the chair of the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee.