Return to the Guide to the Utah Legislature.
| First session in legislature: | 2026 |
| Most recent year of service for which data are available: | 2026 |
| Total sessions served in Utah House as of 2026: | 0 |
| Total sessions served in Utah Senate as of 2026: | 1 |
I present a variety of statistics about Sen. Emily Buss's service in the Utah legislature. I highlight differences from chamber averages using little green and red arrows. The number of arrows is statistically determined. More arrows indicate a larger difference compared to the chamber average, in relation to how much diversity there is among legislators on this metric. If all legislators introduce exactly 5 bills, then a legislator who introduces 10 is very different; if legislators vary wildly in how many bills they introduce (but the average is still 5), then a legislator who introduces 10 bills may be less different from average. The standard deviation measures this diversity.
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Three arrows mean that the legislator is significantly different from average (i.e. at least two standard deviations from the mean, placing the legislator in the top/bottom 2% or so)./ Two arrows mean that the legislator is somewhat different from average (i.e. at least one standard deviation from the mean, placing the legislator in the top/bottom 16% or so)./ One arrow indicates that the legislator is only slightly different from average (i.e. one-third standard deviation from the mean). A single arrow indicates a very small difference; don't make too much of it.| 2026 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Service summary. Service prior to 2007 (if any) is not shown here. My database goes back only to 2007. | ||
| Chamber | Senate | |
| District | S11 | |
| Party | other | |
| Leadership | None | |
| Years in chamber | 1 | |
| Years comparison | |
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| 2026 | ||
| Bills sponsored (learn more) Bills written and promoted by the legislator in his/her own chamber. | ||
| Introduced by Buss | 6 | |
| Chamber average | 12 | |
| Difference | -6.4 | |
| Comparison | |
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| 2026 | ||
| Bill passage rate (learn more). What percent of Sen. Buss's sponsored bills pass and are officially "enrolled"? (I ignore whether the governor signed or vetoted the bill.) | ||
| Bills introduced | 6 | |
| Bills passed | 0 | |
| Passage rate | 0.0% | |
| Chamber average | 56% | |
| Difference | -56.1 | |
| Comparison | |
|
| 2026 | ||
| Bills floor sponsored. A "floor sponsor" is like a secondary sponsor of a bill. After a bill passes the sponsor's chamber, its sponsor needs to find a "floor sponsor" in the other chamber to usher it through the other chamber. | ||
| Total floor sponsored | 3 | |
| Chamber average | 17 | |
| Difference | -14.3 | |
| Comparison | |
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| 2026 | ||
| Missed votes (learn more). Usually missed votes occur because of competing obligations within the legislature, not because the legislator has left the capitol. | ||
| Missed votes | 80 | |
| Total votes held | 1,080 | |
| Absentee rate | 7.4% | |
| Chamber average | 12% | |
| Difference | -4.8 | |
| Comparison | |
|
| 2026 | ||
| "Nay" votes (learn more). Most floor votes pass by overwhelming majorities, since unpopular bills get weeded out long before they reach the floor. As a result, "nay" votes are rare. | ||
| "Nay" votes | 89 | |
| Total votes held | 1,080 | |
| "Nay" rate | 8.2% | |
| Chamber average | 6.4% | |
| Difference | +1.8 | |
| Comparison | |
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| 2026 | ||
| Winning side rate (learn more). What percentage of the time (excluding near-unanimous votes) is the legislator on the winning side of a floor vote? | ||
| Winning side rate | 64% | |
| Chamber average | 70% | |
| Difference | -6.3 | |
| Comparison | |
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| 2026 | ||
| Ideology score (NOMINATE method) (learn more). Using W-NOMINATE algorithm developed by Congressional scholars, I calculate each legislator's relative ideology after each General Session. I describe the method here. Scores have no intrinsic meaning. They are only relative: A legislator with a higher score is to the right ideologically of a legislator with a lower scale. Scores may be compared only within a single chamber and a single year. In most years, a conservative Republican will have a score above 0; a score close to 100 is extreme. | ||
| Contact me for scores. They get misinterpreted often enough that I now provide them only to political scientists. | ||
| 2026 | ||
| Party support score (overall) (learn more). How consistently does Sen. Buss support his/her party? That is, what percentage of the time does the legislator vote with the majority of the other members of his/her party? Scores are usually easily above 90%. | ||
| Score (overall) | na | |
| Chamber average | 97% | |
| Difference | na | |
| Comparison | na | |
| 2026 | ||
| Party support score (party-line only) (learn more). This is the same as the "raw" party support score, but we look only at party-line votes when calculating this. A "party-line" vote occurs when the majority of Democrats votes against the majority of Republicans. Although party-line votes are rare, looking at the legislator's party support score in this setting can be revealing. | ||
| Score (party-line only) | na | |
| Chamber average | 91% | |
| Difference | na | |
| Comparison | na | |
Only 3 bills sponsored by Sen. Buss have come to a vote. Listed below are all votes held on bills that Sen. Buss sponsored. The votes are sorted by vote margin, with the most divisive votes listed first.
| Year | Sponsor | Bill | Ayes | Nays | Margin (as % of total votes) |
Type of vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Buss | SB0189S04 | 16 | 12 | 14% | Senate/ passed 2nd reading |
| 2026 | Buss | SB0247 | 6 | 22 | 57% | Senate/ failed |
| 2026 | Buss | SB0297S01 | 26 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2026 | Buss | SB0297S01 | 29 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ passed 2nd reading |
| 2026 | Buss | SB0189S04 | 25 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ passed 3rd reading |
