Davis County Commission — Case File

Experience or a New Direction? Where Susan Lee and Bret Millburn Actually Stand

Davis County's Commission Seat B race is not the contest voters expected when the 2026 election cycle began. Susan Lee narrowly defeated two-term incumbent Lorene Kamalu in the Republican primary, winning 50.89% to 49.11%—a margin of 786 votes. She now faces Bret Millburn, a former three-term Davis County commissioner running as an unaffiliated candidate.

Millburn served on the commission from 2007 through 2018, but he did not previously hold the seat now being contested. He represented Seat A and was succeeded by Bob Stevenson. Kamalu was separately elected to Seat B in 2018 and began serving in January 2019. Millburn is therefore seeking a return to the commission through a different seat—not attempting to reclaim his former one.

There is no Democratic candidate in the race. Davis County voters will choose between Lee, the Republican nominee, and Millburn, the unaffiliated former commissioner. Here is what each says he or she would do with the office.

Susan Lee: Two Versions of the Same Message

Lee's campaign presents itself two different ways depending on where you look, and both versions are genuinely hers.

Her official campaign site leads with broad conservative messaging: "Fighting for Taxpayers. Strengthening Our Communities. Protecting Conservative Principles." Her stated beliefs are that a tax increase "should be rare and fully justified," that government should "live within its means," and that "counties should listen to residents, not just special interests." Her five listed priorities — taxpayer protection, smart growth, public safety, transparency and education partnerships — state broad conservative principles rather than detailed policy proposals.

Her interviews tell a more concrete story. She's said she wants to consolidate Davis County's two dispatch centers, in Bountiful and Layton, into one — citing cost savings and a concern about a building proposal sited on a fault line. She's called Public Infrastructure Districts a "hidden tax" and said she wants budget cuts to start with a review of county personnel. She's also said she'd like to see prayer reinstated at Davis County Commission meetings — a position that doesn't appear anywhere on her official platform page.

Her own campaign bio adds a layer that neither the website's issues page nor her interviews fully capture: she's spent two decades embedded in Republican Party structures specifically — six years as a GOP precinct chair, three years as president of the county's Lincoln Club, eight years as a county delegate, six as a state delegate, and a year on the Utah Republican Party's State Central Committee. She also served on the Kaysville City Council and helped organize the Kaysville Power Commission, where she says she helped modernize the city's electrical grid and rebuild its financial reserves.

The Family Connection

Susan Lee is the mother of outgoing House District 16 Rep. Trevor Lee, who lost the 2026 Republican primary to Davis County Commissioner Bob Stevenson. Both Susan and Trevor Lee were endorsed by the Utah Republican Veterans' Caucus during the same primary campaign.

That relationship is part of Susan Lee's political background, but Trevor Lee's legislative record is not her record. Her published platform does not adopt his positions on immigration, flags or other state issues, and nothing reviewed for this article establishes that she would govern according to his agenda. Trevor Lee will not appear on the November ballot.

Bret Millburn: Seeking a Return to the Commission

Millburn's pitch starts from a different place entirely. His campaign explicitly rejects party framing: "This election isn't about political parties," his site states. "It's about who is best prepared to govern." He's running unaffiliated, and his messaging leans hard on the fact that he's done this job before—for twelve years across three terms.

His stated priorities are fiscal responsibility, a countywide economic development plan built in partnership with Davis County's fifteen cities, public safety framed largely around addiction and population growth, a specific list of transportation projects — the I-15 rebuild, double-tracking FrontRunner, the Davis–Salt Lake Community Connector — and better communication between the county and its cities.

His clearest, most specific critique concerns the 14.9% increase in Davis County's general-fund property-tax revenue approved in December 2025 for the 2026 budget. According to the county, the increase amounts to approximately $64 annually for a home valued at $500,000. In an interview, he contrasted it with how tax questions were handled during his own tenure: "When I was in office, we actually had a plan... we very clearly spelled out the steps we had taken to avert the tax increase for as long as we could." He attributes the increase substantially to the county spending COVID-era federal money on ongoing costs rather than one-time expenses. He's not alone in raising that critique — Susan Lee has pointed to the same increase as a problem, though she's framed her response differently, around Public Infrastructure Districts and personnel spending rather than the COVID-funding structure Millburn points to.

He's also been candid about why he's running now, describing a general frustration with partisan politics: he's "fed up with the parties... fed up with the extremes," while describing himself as conservative, not extreme.

Where They Actually Overlap — and Where They Don't

Both candidates lead with fiscal responsibility, and both have questioned whether temporary COVID-era funding was used to support continuing county expenses. Both also criticize the property-tax increase approved in December 2025. Their differences are clearer in the responses they propose.

Lee emphasizes personnel and departmental reviews, dispatch consolidation and opposition to Public Infrastructure Districts. Millburn emphasizes long-range budgeting, coordination with the county's fifteen cities and his previous experience managing county finances.

Millburn's platform touches specific, named infrastructure projects — the kind of granular, already-in-motion regional planning that comes from having sat on the commission before. Lee's platform, both official and interview-sourced, stays closer to general principles: living within means, listening to residents, transparency.

Neither candidate has said much publicly about the other's specific record. Lee has expressed confidence that "the Republican on the ballot is going to end up winning" regardless of Millburn's run, while welcoming the contest as good for "the process." Millburn has also supported Kendalyn Harris, the Republican nominee for Seat A who is unopposed in the general election — a detail that complicates any portrayal of his campaign as simply anti-Republican.

A Note on the Numbers

Susan Lee's campaign finance is fully on the public record: $29,253.29 raised and $26,921.22 spent across four filed disclosure reports, more than half of it self-funded. Millburn's isn't yet — Davis County's Clerk's Office confirmed that his first 2026 disclosure is not yet due. That's not a gap in disclosure; it's just where the filing calendar currently sits. We'll have his numbers, and a real financial comparison, once that report is filed.

Sources: Susan Lee campaign site (votesusanlee.com); Bret Millburn campaign site (bretmillburn.com); Standard-Examiner interviews with both candidates; Davis County campaign financial disclosure reports; Davis County Commission meeting records; Davis County Clerk's Office; Utah Republican Veterans' Caucus press release, May 29, 2026.

We report the filings. You decide.