Daniel Thatcher

She's the current incumbent.

Uh, she was elected after Dan Thatcher, a Republican, switched parties and then left.

Delegates replaced her.

Uh, a Democrat dropped out of this seat in order to put the weight behind Emilee Buss and that third party candidate.

The only way that a Forward Party member could get in the Senate was by what happened.

Yeah.

So Dan Thatcher knew that, resigned his seat just so a Forward Party member could fill it-

And that's never happened-

We'll take a break.

Still ahead on Inside Utah Politics, Utah's only third-party senator faces a GOP challenge.

We sit down with one of the candidates in the race, putting Utah's newest party against its oldest.

Stay with us.

Utah has just one third party politician in the Senate.

Her name is Emily Buss of the Forward party.

She, she took over the seat after former Republican senator, Daniel Thatcher, changed parties and resigned.

Now, Senate District 11 is the focus of a big GOP push to take back a seat the party thinks it never should have lost.

In the Capitol building, it was very strange at first.

Um, I'm kind of exiled over where former Senator Dan Thatcher sitting next to the Democrats.

So I got to know them better because I sit next to them on the floor.

Um, it definitely took a lot longer for the Republicans to warm up to me, but once anybody talked to me, they realized I'm just a regular person who cares about the good of Utah.