One Donor Gave $200,248. The Candidate Loaned $113,677.

Nine Things the Records Show

IN PLAIN WORDSMost of the money in Hollist's campaign came from two places: one Fruit Heights donor and Hollist herself. Utah has no cap on how much one person can give a legislative candidate, so this is allowed. Rushforth's campaign is small and runs on gifts from $1 to $1,000. Ostler's is his own money.

East Davis County and Morgan County

IN PLAIN WORDSThe shaded area is Senate District 7. Kaysville, Layton and Centerville are split between districts, so check your sample ballot.

How Hollist got here. Adams, Senate president since 2019, ran for re-election. Hollist, Braden Hess and Adams were on the June 23 Republican primary ballot. Election-night results: Hollist about 43%, Adams 35%, Hess 22% (Salt Lake Tribune, June 23, 2026). The Tribune reported Hollist had spent more than $181,000 and Adams $429,000. Coverage tied the result in part to Adams's vote, as a member of the Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA) board, on the Stratos data center in Box Elder County (KUTV; Utah News Dispatch).

Who Hollist is. An attorney who moved to Fruit Heights from Harrisville at age 10 and has lived in Fruit Heights and Kaysville for 38 years; Weber State political science graduate; University of Utah law degree. Weber State's general counsel for many years; now vice president and general counsel of Arnold Machinery Company (Standard-Examiner, June 13, 2026; her disclosure form). First run for office.

Who Rushforth is. A junior high social studies and theater teacher in the Davis School District (his disclosure form). The Ballot Brief found no campaign website as of Sept. 8, 2026.

Who Ostler is. Jeffrey Ostler of Layton is the Constitution Party nominee, retired and a past candidate for state auditor, treasurer and the Utah House (see his section). The Ballot Brief found no campaign website as of Sept. 8, 2026.

Words Used on This Page

IN PLAIN WORDSTap any card to see what the word means.

$200,248 From One Donor, $113,677 Loaned by Herself

IN PLAIN WORDSOf every $10 that came into Hollist's campaign, about $5.70 came from one donor and about $3.30 from Hollist herself. The rest came from about 100 other people.

From her four state reports (Year-End 2025, Convention, Primary and Sept. 30, 2026), read from the state's data export and the rendered reports Shauna supplied. The balances on all four reports add up to the cent: $349,830.47 in, $337,349.81 out, $12,480.66 on hand Sept. 25.

$113,677 Loaned, $11,752 Paid Back

IN PLAIN WORDSHollist put her own money in as loans, which the campaign can repay her later. Most of her small loans have been repaid. The $100,000 loan had not been repaid as of Sept. 25.

Own money isn't graded on this site; it's stated so nothing goes unsaid. All seven of her small loans match a payment of the same amount on the same day, and one is labeled "Candidate paid expense." That is how a candidate reports paying a campaign bill personally.

The difference, $101,925, is not shown as repaid on the reports through Sept. 25. She also gave $504.18 on May 26, 2026 without the loan mark. Matching each repayment to a loan is the Hive's arithmetic; the reports list them separately.

On May 29, 2026, the campaign amended its Convention report: five of her own entries (two loans and three bank-interest lines) were deleted and re-entered, and the amendment record shows the street address on each was changed. The amounts did not change. Six December entries on the Year-End report (three loans and the three payments they match) also carry the amendment mark; the export doesn't show when they were added.

$337,350 Out, $99,930 of It in One Payment

IN PLAIN WORDSMost of the money went to payments filed as advertising, plus signs, printing and signature gatherers. The state's public report shows only a category for each payment, such as "Advertising" or "Campaign Expense."

flowchart LR
  KB["Kayden Bell
8 gifts
$200,248"] --> HC(["HOLLIST
CAMPAIGN"])
  SH["Stephanie Hollist
loans $113,677"] --> HC
  OD["102 other donors
$35,049"] --> HC
  HC -->|"$99,930"| AR["Arena
advertising"]
  HC -->|"$49,023"| AP["Apollo"]
  HC -->|"$28,800"| EM["Empower Public Affair
signatures"]
  HC -->|"$28,047"| SP["Sun Print Solutions"]
  HC -->|"$19,250"| RR["Riviera Research"]
  HC -->|"$18,560"| AM["Alisa Mercer"]
  HC -->|"$11,752 repaid"| SH

$6,606 From 59 People and One PAC

IN PLAIN WORDSRushforth's campaign runs on small online gifts, many of them $10 to $50, plus three gifts of $500 or more. He has not put in money of his own.

$235 In, $1,395 Out, All of It His Own

IN PLAIN WORDSOstler has taken no money from anyone else. Every entry on his reports is money from himself or a payment back to himself, so the reports don't show who was paid for his advertising.

Who he is. A Layton audio engineer who has lived in Utah since the early 1980s. He ran for state auditor in 2020 as the Constitution Party nominee, for state treasurer in 1992, the Utah Senate in 1998 and the Utah House in 2014, and was a Utah Republican delegate to the 1996 national convention (BYU Daily Universe, Oct. 30, 2020; iVoterGuide). His form lists him as retired.

What Each Candidate Listed

IN PLAIN WORDSEvery legislative candidate files a conflict-of-interest form listing jobs, businesses, income over $5,000, stocks, board seats and a spouse. Items 6 and 8 are optional, and a spouse's employer is required only if the candidate thinks it may be a conflict.

All three forms were read from the text Shauna pasted from the state site on Oct. 2, 2026.

What Hollist Says, Next to the Records That Apply

IN PLAIN WORDSHollist has never held office, so there are no votes to compare. These are her stated priorities next to the records on this page.

How this was read: quotes come from the news articles named, read through a text reader, and from her campaign site (votestephaniehollist.com). They should be checked against the originals before they're quoted elsewhere. Rushforth and Ostler have no campaign sites the Hive could find.

Where This Race Meets the Rest of the Docket

IN PLAIN WORDSSome names in this race also appear in other races the Hive has covered. A shared name or vendor is a connection, not an accusation.

flowchart TB
  H(["HOLLIST
SD-7"]) -->|"$99,930"| AR["Arena"]
  LOU["Anthony Loubet
HD-27"] -->|"$10,300"| AR
  H -->|"$7,500"| IF["In the Field"]
  LOU -->|"$37,051"| IF
  MAC["Matt MacPherson
HD-26"] -->|"$25,869"| IF
  H -->|"$28,047"| SP["Sun Print Solutions"]
  LOU -->|"$20,031"| SP
  CW["Clive Walker
Layton"] -->|"$1,000"| R(["RUSHFORTH
SD-7"])
  CW -->|"$1,000"| GR["Anna Graff
HD-12"]
  CW -->|"$3,250"| CR["Peter Crosby
UT-2"]
  DL["David Lesser
Ogden"] -->|"$200"| H
  DL -->|"$200"| AT["Abigail Treasure
HD-16"]
  AT -->|"$90"| R

Graded Topic by Topic

IN PLAIN WORDSEach topic gets a grade, A (best) to F (worst), on five questions: Does it check power? Can the public see it? Is it clear who pays? What does it do to air, water and land? Do the people affected get a real say? N/A means the question doesn't fit. A dash means the record isn't documented enough to grade.

How to read these: grades judge only what is already in the record as of Oct. 2, 2026. They judge the record, not the person. A C means the record meets what Utah law requires, the status quo. A B or A means the candidate went beyond it, and the record shows it. Power on campaign money uses a fixed scale, the same for every candidate and party: A when 90% or more of the counted money comes from individual people, B at 67–89%, C at 34–66%, D at 10–33%, F under 10%. Party help and the candidate's own money are shown but not counted; own money is always stated. D means something is vague or bundled, or a public check is weakened; F means something required is missing, or a check is removed with nothing in its place. Candidates can amend a report at any time; when the record changes, the grade is updated and dated. Corrections are welcome at webercountyhive@gmail.com.

Overall is the average of the graded questions (A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1, F = 0; N/A and dashes are left out). A plus or minus shows where the average falls between letters, and an average exactly halfway counts toward the higher letter with a minus.

Questions From the Records, and Who Can Answer Them

IN PLAIN WORDSThese offices keep the records on this page. They answer questions from anyone.

Limits of the Record