Davidson appointed Kai Schwemmer, a 23-year-old Brigham Young University student and political director of College Republicans of America, to be his deputy election clerk for the 2026 election cycle.

The open letter cited public statements Schwemmer has made about women leaders and individual rights to vote and questioned whether he can effectively represent and serve all voters in a significant leadership position.

In a November 2025 X.com post, Schwemmer said “women generally don’t have what it takes to endure the pressures of public office,” and during a live YouTube stream last year, he reportedly said he was in favor of “a family voting thing,” a concept in which each household casts a single vote instead of each adult voting individually.

“While every citizen is entitled to personal political beliefs, election leadership positions require a demonstrated commitment to fairness, equal treatment, and public confidence across the entire electorate,” the open letter said. “Election offices must be led by individuals whose conduct, experience, and public record reinforce trust in the institution they serve.”

Among the signees of the letter were Provo Mayor Marsha Judkins, Orem Mayor Karen McCandless, Utah County Commissioner Amelia Powers Gardner, and a bipartisan group of current and former city council members, Utah House of Representatives members, and school board presidents and members from across Utah.

Powers Gardner told the Daily Herald she signed the letter in response to a number of constituents who spoke out against Davidson’s decision in a county commission meeting last week and to stand up for women in leadership positions.

“As the first and only ever woman elected to be the county clerk, and the first and only ever woman elected to be a county commissioner, I have become more and more aware that young women in our county, in order to be put in leadership positions, they need to see women in leadership positions and feel support in those positions,” Powers Gardner told the Daily Herald.

“We need to set an example for them and say this is not acceptable. And then apparently we need to set an example for the 23-year-old college boys too, because they may not realize that the community that they live in and enjoy is quietly being led by dozens and dozens of highly competent women who just put their heads down and do the work.”

Davidson, who is in a reelection campaign for county clerk, did not respond to a request for comment as of Tuesday afternoon. He did, however, publish a video on the Utah County Elections webpage where he defended the hire.

Davidson said his chief deputy director left for another job last month, and he chose to fill the position with a short-term employee because he did not know if he’d be in office in six months. He said he chose a young person who could address the issues the office has seen with first-time voters.

“When someone sends a ballot in, they put their signature on the ballot, and we have to compare it to what we have on record for them,” Davidson said in the video. “And the first-time voters, the 18- to 21-year-olds, we basically are rejecting them at a very high rate, because the only signature we have for them is their driver license signature when they were 16, and it just doesn’t match what they have now, so those ballots are being rejected at about a 13% rate.”

He said he chose to bring in Schwemmer because he has a strong following on social media and didn’t “investigate completely” who he was.

“There’s been some concern,” Davidson said, “about some things that he said on social media, and they’re legitimate, somewhat legitimate.

“There is nothing nefarious. There is no political bias. I won’t allow that in my office.”

Powers Gardner questioned the motives of the hire, and said if he was hired for voter outreach, he should have hired him as a voter outreach coordinator.

“Voting outreach coordinator is an existing position that even if he doesn’t actively have anyone in that position, the job description has already been written. The salary grade study has already been done,” Powers Gardner said. “It’s a position that the county has hired before, so for him to resurrect that position, it could have taken very short time.”

She said Schwemmer has the right to free speech, but called it “disheartening” that Davidson would appoint him to a position of authority over counting votes for an upcoming Republican primary where three women are on the ballot.

“As a candidate, how do you feel knowing that the person that’s out there doing ‘Get out to vote,’ or the person that’s there working in the ballot center isn’t sure if women have the fortitude to serve in those positions?”