A tale of two candidates: Political donations in the Utah House district 3 race, 2026

Follow the money: 

Who is taking out of state money?  

Who is funded by special interests?  

Who is support by you and me? By individual donors?

Let's explore real data. 

Coordinated smear campaign by the GOP candidate and his surrogates is taking place in Utah House District 3.  

The race has gotten very ugly as the republican candidate alleges dark money, out-of-state funding, yet refuses to debate.

NOTE:  This district was gerrymandered by the GOP supermajority after 2020 census in order to cement GOP control.  It became a Logan+plus+Richmond Utah district. 

Let's check these allegations in the Utah House Race between independent Patrick Belmont and Republican Jason Thompson against public data.

The Bottom line:

Independent Patrick Belmont, running as an independent, has received  $82,087; 

of this, 

• 43% are large (>$500 per donor) individual donors;+++++largest source of funding  
• 15% from (<$500) individual donors
• 39% from PACs and political groups,  and
• 2% from unions.
• 0% from businesses, corporate or trade and industry groups

• Individual donors provided 58% of Belmont funding
• Belmont is supported by donations from 177 individuals; 
• Belmont did not take money from business interests.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Jason Thompson, the Republican incumbent, has received $93,808; of this 

• 45% from PACS and political groups;******largest source of funding  
• 28% from large amount individual donors, 
• 13% from businesses, corporate or trade and industry groups
• 12% from trade and industry groups, and 
• 2% from (<$500) individual donors.   

• Individual donors provided 30% of Thompson funding
• Thompson raised money from 24 individuals. 
• Thompson took significant money from business interests.  

Out-of-state funders with ties to GOP politics provided support for Mr Thompson through direct and laundered avenues.  

Mr Thompson and his surrogates have criticized Mr Belmont for taking Out-of-state moneys. YET Mr Thompson's campaign takes Out-of-state moneys. 

How to read the plots:

These graphics are called TREEMAPS. 

An area represents the amounts of money from each of 6 categories of donations.  

    PACS and political parties

    Donors who gave more than $500

    Donors who gave less than $500

    Unions

    Business and corporate donations from trade and industry groups

The areas are color-coded and scaled to the sizes of donations: 

Each square or rectangle with a white outline indicates the relative size of the total money from that unique donor. 

Color fields represent the groups of donors. 

Data were downloaded from disclosures.utah.gov on October 20, 2026.