Return to the Guide to the Utah Legislature.
| First session in legislature: | 2024 |
| Most recent year of service for which data are available: | 2025 |
| Total sessions served in Utah House as of 2025: | 2 |
| Total sessions served in Utah Senate as of 2025: | 0 |
I present a variety of statistics about Rep. Matt MacPherson'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.| 2024 | 2025 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service summary. Service prior to 2007 (if any) is not shown here. My database goes back only to 2007. | |||
| Chamber | House | House | |
| District | H26 | H26 | |
| Party | R | R | |
| Leadership | None | None | |
| Years in chamber | 1 | 2 | |
| Years comparison | | |
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| 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Bills sponsored (learn more) Bills written and promoted by the legislator in his/her own chamber. | |||
| Introduced by MacPherson | 6 | 12 | |
| Chamber average | 8.5 | 8.0 | |
| Difference | -2.5 | +4.0 | |
| Comparison | | |
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| 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Bill passage rate (learn more). What percent of Rep. MacPherson's sponsored bills pass and are officially "enrolled"? (I ignore whether the governor signed or vetoted the bill.) | |||
| Bills introduced | 6 | 12 | |
| Bills passed | 3 | 4 | |
| Passage rate | 50% | 33% | |
| Chamber average | 56% | 59% | |
| Difference | -6.3 | -25.7 | |
| Comparison | == | |
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| 2024 | 2025 | ||
| 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 | 2 | 3 | |
| Chamber average | 3.3 | 4.6 | |
| Difference | -1.3 | -1.6 | |
| Comparison | | |
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| 2024 | 2025 | ||
| 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 | 59 | 110 | |
| Total votes held | 845 | 850 | |
| Absentee rate | 7.0% | 13% | |
| Chamber average | 6.8% | 7.1% | |
| Difference | +0.2 | +5.9 | |
| Comparison | == | |
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| 2024 | 2025 | ||
| "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 | 32 | 46 | |
| Total votes held | 845 | 850 | |
| "Nay" rate | 3.8% | 5.4% | |
| Chamber average | 5.7% | 6.2% | |
| Difference | -1.9 | -0.8 | |
| Comparison | | == | |
| 2024 | 2025 | ||
| 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 | 76% | 64% | |
| Chamber average | 68% | 69% | |
| Difference | +8.1 | -4.6 | |
| Comparison | | |
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| 2024 | 2025 | ||
| 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. | |||
| 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Party support score (overall) (learn more). How consistently does Rep. MacPherson 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) | 97% | 96% | |
| Chamber average | 96% | 96% | |
| Difference | +0.5 | +0.3 | |
| Comparison | == | == | |
| 2024 | 2025 | ||
| 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) | 89% | 92% | |
| Chamber average | 87% | 88% | |
| Difference | +1.6 | +4.0 | |
| Comparison | == | |
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Only 15 bills sponsored by Rep. MacPherson have come to a vote. Listed below are all votes held on bills that Rep. MacPherson 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | MacPherson | HB0432S04 | 40 | 34 | 8.1% | House/ substituted |
| 2025 | MacPherson | HB0392S03 | 12 | 17 | 17% | Senate/ failed |
| 2024 | MacPherson | HB0326S06 | 42 | 26 | 24% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2025 | MacPherson | HB0432S04 | 22 | 47 | 36% | House/ failed |
| 2025 | MacPherson | HB0477 | 17 | 7 | 42% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
| 2025 | MacPherson | HB0477 | 49 | 19 | 44% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2025 | MacPherson | HB0195S01 | 16 | 6 | 45% | Senate/ passed 2nd reading |
| 2025 | MacPherson | HB0508S01 | 20 | 6 | 54% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
| 2025 | MacPherson | HB0195S01 | 20 | 6 | 54% | Senate/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2025 | MacPherson | HB0195S01 | 21 | 6 | 56% | Senate/ passed 3rd reading |
