Tuesday evening, local Republicans trickled into Ecker Hill Middle School and chatted in groups until party leaders gently shooed them into the auditorium where the caucus would begin. It was a far cry from the long line out the door, cars circling in vain for parking spots and a night of confus ion statewide in March 2024 as the state party in essence turned an event for neighbors to organize themselves into a presidential primary election. This is not to revisit a painful evening, but to observe a vast difference. Tuesday night’s event was a return to the traditional caucus focused on neighbors sitting down with neighbors and choosing precinct representatives and delegates to the county and state conventions where candidates for elected office are chosen to represent the party. The party itself prefers this to the alternate route for candidates who gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, as the governor did in 2024 for reelection. GOP leaders favor candidates who work their way through many conversations and personal vetting to candidates they believe get a lot less scrutiny for all the dollars they spend on slick campaigns.   A couple of candidates for the state Legislature, Kris Campbell and Jeffrey Pierce, circulated with fliers outlining their values, but they did not give speeches. That will come in a couple of weeks during the county convention at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31, at Ecker. Delegates chosen Tuesday night will settle on state and congressional candidates where there are contests. The GOP is fielding no candidates this year for the Summit County Council, which local Republicans were heavily involved in forming and setting the boundaries for the five districts that beginning this year replace what had been five at-large seats. Yes, there were a few jokes at the caucus about that fact, gentle ones. More seriously, several attendees commented how the county party’s leadership had changed for the better, or at least calmer, from their vantage. One told a story about feeling pressure to buy into the narrative of the time about widespread election fraud, ironically while the party was having difficulties executing a presidential primary clear of the government’s election apparatus. “Regarding County Council candidates for this cycle, our focus remains rebuilding our foundation and precinct-level leadership,” said Summit County Chair Ari Ioannides, who was elected to the post along with other leaders in 2025 and vowed to bring more unity to the county GOP with a “big tent” engagement strategy. None of the 2024 tensions were evident Tuesday night at Ecker, one of three caucus sites in Summit County. The others were at North Summit and South Summit high schools in Coalville and Kamas. Conservativism in greater Park City, one of Utah’s few blue bastions, tends to look more moderate than other parts of the state, and the messaging this evening focused on pro-family, pro-business and, of course, smaller government. In the auditorium, Park City regional leaders Jay Deuser and Marjorie Ellis took around 75 attendees through an overview of how the caucus works and the platform of the Republican Party in Utah before everyone moved to the cafeteria and tables set up for each of 22 precincts served at this caucus site. The caucus system predates when the Declaration of Independence was signed 250 years ago, according to the Caucus Handbook issued by the Utah Republican Party. It goes back to the early 1700s, when Founding Father Samuel Adams’ dad, Deacon, led political meetings at Boston Harbor where boat caulkers worked. The first caucus by name, the Boston Caucus, followed in 1719. Utah has had a caucus-convention system since statehood in 1896. It has undergone changes over the decades to the current form, which came down to a white-noisy buzz in the Ecker Hill cafeteria as the 22 precinct tables talked through and roll called their citizen representatives and delegates for the county and state conventions. Amid that background, precinct captain Rich Cook talked at one table with four neighbors about their task at hand. A couple with travel plans couldn’t make the commitment. Another resident was moving in September to Wasatch County. That left Tim Gallagher, who has volunteered before over the years as a delegate, and Cook to divvy up positions with assent from the others. Cook said he came to his first caucus two years ago to see what it was all about, and left as precinct captain and delegate to the county and state conventions. The state convention “was a crazy day,” he recalled, lasting 15 to 16 hours. “I actually thought it was a worthwhile process. … I like that the caucus and the delegates are the ones that are electing our officials, as well.” He asked Gallagher if Gallagher preferred any of the positions. “No, not particularly,” Gallagher said and smiled. “I should probably not be the chair. OK, so I nominate you for the chair.” “OK, all in favor?” Everyone assented. And on it went with Gallagher accepting a unanimous vote among the handful of neighbors for vice chair and delegate to the state convention, and Cook accepting the delegacy for the county convention. Gallagher was a lonely Republican in the San Francisco Bay area, where he grew up, as well, moving to Park City 11 years ago. He is married to Dr. Eileen Gallagher, a Democrat who in 2018 ran for state senator and now is a member of the Park City Board of Education. He’s a Republican mainly out of fiscal conservatism, he said. “And less government, which we’re not actually doing now. The Republican Party, we’ve added a trillion dollars to the national debt in the last year. I mean, it took Obama eight years and he didn’t manage to do it in eight years, and we’ve done it in less than a year.” He sounded less interested in the successful effort to break the Summit County Council seats into geographic districts, thanks to a late vote by Republican lawmakers in the 2025 legislative session. “With development here in Summit County, it really does not matter what the County Council does or what the City Council does or the Planning Commission does because anybody with money can buy three (state) senators and get whatever they want,” he said. Cook, who moved here 10 years ago from Michigan, is a lifelong Republican, too. The party largely shares his conservative values. “You know, strong military, family values, things of that nature,” he said. “There’s some social causes that I’d say I’m a little more moderate than maybe some of the conservatives.” Neighbors bantered, elected each other, some taking roles by default, some precinct tables going through rounds of votes.   It was like this across the other sites, too, Ioannides and Vice Chair Tory Welch said, saying they were encouraged and looked forward to building county party momentum through the process.   Ioannides reported that 242 people registered for the three caucuses, 189 were credentialed, and that early results Wednesday showed 181 offices filled by 112 individuals, with more ballots yet to be entered. “This year represented a significant shift for us,” Ioannides said. “Under the leadership of Tory and his team, we prioritized organization and transparency.” He said the party also upgraded the internet and cell technology from previous years, which included adding backup in case the in-house service failed at the sites. The system operated smoothly Tuesday, but of course the real test will come in two years if the state party again holds a presidential primary election at the caucuses. Meantime, Welch wanted to give a special shout-out to the volunteers. “Our little army of volunteers were invaluable and our team worked hard to make the 2026 caucus a great event,” he said. “I am grateful for each one of them.” This, too, represented a turnaround from two years ago, when the county party refused to grant a Park Record reporter access to the county convention, unhappy with reporting on hiccups that participants noted in the voting at that caucus. The tent the new leadership wished to open was large enough to give a member of the press a green bracelet for guests and wave him right in. And it is growing such that members of Park City High School’s Club America who will turn 18 in time for the elections found themselves elected to precinct and delegate roles themselves. 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