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Derek Kitchen

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Derek Kitchen
Image of Derek Kitchen

Candidate, U.S. House Utah District 1

Prior offices
Utah State Senate District 2
Predecessor: Jim Dabakis

Elections and appointments
Next election

November 3, 2026

Contact

Derek Kitchen (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Utah's 1st Congressional District. He declared candidacy for the 2026 election.[source]

Kitchen (Democratic Party) was a member of the Utah State Senate, representing District 2. He assumed office on January 1, 2019. He left office on January 1, 2023.

Committee assignments

2021-2022

Kitchen was assigned to the following committees:

2019-2020

Kitchen was assigned to the following committees:


The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.


Elections

2026

See also: Utah's 1st Congressional District election, 2026

Note: At this time, Ballotpedia is combining all declared candidates for this election into one list under a general election heading. As primary election dates are published, this information will be updated to separate general election candidates from primary candidates as appropriate.

General election

The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.

General election for U.S. House Utah District 1

The following candidates are running in the general election for U.S. House Utah District 1 on November 3, 2026.


Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Endorsements

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2022

See also: Utah State Senate elections, 2022

General election

General election for Utah State Senate District 9

Jennifer Plumb defeated Vance Hansen in the general election for Utah State Senate District 9 on November 8, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Jennifer Plumb
Jennifer Plumb (D)
 
99.4
 
32,817
Vance Hansen (Independent) (Write-in)
 
0.6
 
213

Total votes: 33,030
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Utah State Senate District 9

Jennifer Plumb defeated incumbent Derek Kitchen in the Democratic primary for Utah State Senate District 9 on June 28, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Jennifer Plumb
Jennifer Plumb
 
50.4
 
4,383
Image of Derek Kitchen
Derek Kitchen Candidate Connection
 
49.6
 
4,322

Total votes: 8,705
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic convention

Democratic convention for Utah State Senate District 9

Jennifer Plumb and incumbent Derek Kitchen advanced from the Democratic convention for Utah State Senate District 9 on April 9, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Jennifer Plumb
Jennifer Plumb (D)
 
59.8
 
70
Image of Derek Kitchen
Derek Kitchen (D) Candidate Connection
 
40.2
 
47

Total votes: 117
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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2018

See also: Utah State Senate elections, 2018

General election

General election for Utah State Senate District 2

Derek Kitchen defeated Chase Winder in the general election for Utah State Senate District 2 on November 6, 2018.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Derek Kitchen
Derek Kitchen (D)
 
76.7
 
32,930
Chase Winder (R)
 
23.3
 
10,030
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.0
 
1

Total votes: 42,961
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Utah State Senate District 2

Derek Kitchen defeated Jennifer Plumb in the Democratic primary for Utah State Senate District 2 on June 26, 2018.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Derek Kitchen
Derek Kitchen
 
52.6
 
5,493
Image of Jennifer Plumb
Jennifer Plumb
 
47.4
 
4,943

Total votes: 10,436
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Derek Kitchen has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. If you are Derek Kitchen, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

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2022

Candidate Connection

Derek Kitchen completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kitchen's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Senator Derek Lloyd Kitchen has represented Salt Lake City in the Utah Senate since 2018, is the only queer person elected to Utah’s state government, and is the only millennial in the Utah Senate. Senator Kitchen serves on Judiciary & Criminal Justice, Education, and Workforce Services subcommittees.

In 2018, Kitchen announced his bid for Utah State Senate. On November 6, 2018, Kitchen won the 2018 election for Utah Senate District 2 and was elected to serve in the 2019-20 Utah Senate Minority Leadership as Senate Caucus Manager.

Before being elected to his role in the Senate, Senator Kitchen was a member of the Salt Lake City Council representing District 4 where he concurrently served as the Chair of the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Authority.

  • Representation matters. Senator Kitchen is the only millennial in the Senate and the only member of the LGBTQ+ community in the entire Utah legislature.
  • Holding power accountable. Utah has a republican supermajority in both the State House & State Senate. Senator Kitchen is a leader that defends the people that live in Utah’s largest city. Fight for balance/transparency. Fight for the people who live and work in Salt Lake City
  • Senator Kitchen knows what it's like to work in a restaurant. He knows what it's like to have student debt. He knows what it's like to try rent in slc. He doesn't give up on people, and when he sees an injustice he stands up and says something even if it won’t make him popular.
Housing is the number one issue that Senator Kitchen has worked on. He is also focused on environmental issues relating to air-quality and water conservation, including saving the Great Salt Lake. And finally, Senator Kitchen believes in transparency and accountability in government. He is a leader in the democratic minority party and is not afraid to stand up to corruption and challenge the status quo.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.


Campaign finance summary


Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.


Derek Kitchen campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2022Utah State Senate District 9Lost primary$207,699 $-162,678
2018Utah State Senate District 2Won general$69,969 N/A**
Grand total$277,668 $-162,678
Sources: OpenSecretsFederal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in Utah

A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Utah scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.




2022

In 2022, the Utah State Legislature was in session from January 18 to March 4.

Legislators are scored on their stances on conservative fiscal policy.
Legislators are scored based on the organization's mission of "promoting the principles of limited government, constitution, representative government, participatory republic, free market economy, family, and separation of powers."
Legislators are scored based on their votes in relation to the organization's "mission to defend individual liberty, private property and free enterprise."
Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to arts and the humanities.
Legislators are scored based on their votes on bills related to education.
Legislators are scored based on their votes on tax related legislation.


2021


2020


2019





See also


External links

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by
Jim Dabakis (D)
Utah State Senate District 2
2019-2023
Succeeded by
-


Senators
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
Republican Party (6)



Current members of the Utah State Senate
Leadership
Majority Leader:Kirk Cullimore
Minority Leader:Luz Escamilla
Senators
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 12
District 13
District 14
District 15
District 16
District 17
District 18
Dan McCay (R)
District 19
District 20
District 21
District 22
District 23
District 24
District 25
District 26
District 27
District 28
District 29
Don Ipson (R)
Republican Party (22)
Democratic Party (6)
Forward Party (1)