On Nov. 4, Utah held their 2025 municipal general election. Herriman specifically had six candidates to choose from and four seats to fill: Lorin Palmer and Ty Brady battled for mayor, Matt Basham and Heather Garcia competed for City Council District 3, and Teddy M. Hodges and Terrah Anderson rested assured of their victory over City Council Districts 2 and 4 respectively as the only candidates.
In the race for Mayor, Palmer ended up completely decimating his opponent, securing roughly 75% of votes. It’s important to note that there was only a 34% vote turnout, with 186 thousand people out of 551 thousand turning in their ballots. This was to be expected, as Palmer just finished serving his first term in office, in which he established the Herriman Work from Home group to support local businesses and bring people together. They meet at local restaurants, giving citizens an opportunity to speak with the Mayor personally, and they even do service projects, including running the annual food and fund drive for the Compassion Community Center’s food pantry. He was also able to instate the first Utah Transit Authority bus route, and plans to continue construction projects to improve east to west mobility, expand bike lanes, and instate more public transportation. He also recognizes the dire state of the housing market and plans to allow accessory dwelling units and build more true starter homes in order to provide more affordable options to prospective residents. Additionally, he wants to seek out solutions to somewhat stagnant wages in a world of rapidly increasing costs.
As for the City Council seats, Basham defeated Garcia for District 3 by a margin of about 14%. Basham has an incredibly varied resume, having worked in insurance claim adjusting with some gigs as a basketball referee, and the current co-owner of the Churrology food truck. His top issues include prioritizing essential services like the police and fire departments and maintaining financial transparency through attracting more local businesses: providing more jobs and amenities in Herriman and helping to strengthen the tax base.
Hodges was uncontested in his bid for the District 2 seat. He has three Bachelors of Arts in Business Management, Criminal Justice, and General Studies. Known by many as “The Herriman Santa”, Hodges has also served as a part-time city councilman since 2022. Additionally, he has worked in solar energy for much of his professional career, from an operations manager with Solcius Solar in 2014 to the current owner and operator of RedSun LLC.
Anderson was similarly elected as the only candidate for District 4 after the previous District 4 councilman, Steven Shields, resigned early. She has a bachelor’s degree in international studies and a master’s of public administration with an emphasis in nonprofit management. She has worked on the budget team for the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget (GOPB) for eight years, with a 15 year break in the middle to care for her four children. She has also worked at food banks, literacy centers, and a school community center and helped to mentor refugees. All of our newly elected officials are incredibly excited to serve our community over the next few years, just as we are excited to watch their progress.
