Return to the Guide to the Utah Legislature.
| First session in legislature: | 2021 |
| Most recent year of service for which data are available: | 2025 |
| Total sessions served in Utah House as of 2025: | 5 |
| Total sessions served in Utah Senate as of 2025: | 0 |
I present a variety of statistics about Rep. Michael J. Petersen'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.
/
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.| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service summary. Service prior to 2007 (if any) is not shown here. My database goes back only to 2007. | ||||||
| Chamber | House | House | House | House | House | |
| District | H3 | H3 | H2 | H2 | H2 | |
| Party | R | R | R | R | R | |
| Leadership | None | None | None | None | None | |
| Years in chamber | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Years comparison | | | | | == | |
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Bills sponsored (learn more) Bills written and promoted by the legislator in his/her own chamber. | ||||||
| Introduced by Petersen | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | |
| Chamber average | 6.6 | 7.1 | 8.1 | 8.5 | 8.0 | |
| Difference | -3.6 | -2.1 | -3.1 | -5.5 | -4.0 | |
| Comparison | | | | | |
|
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Bill passage rate (learn more). What percent of Rep. Petersen's sponsored bills pass and are officially "enrolled"? (I ignore whether the governor signed or vetoted the bill.) | ||||||
| Bills introduced | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | |
| Bills passed | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | |
| Passage rate | 33% | 60% | 60% | 100% | 25% | |
| Chamber average | 60% | 58% | 56% | 56% | 59% | |
| Difference | -26.8 | +1.8 | +3.7 | +44 | -33.7 | |
| Comparison | | == | == | | |
|
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 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 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |
| Chamber average | 3.1 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 3.3 | 4.6 | |
| Difference | -2.1 | -3.0 | -1.5 | -2.3 | -2.6 | |
| Comparison | | | | | |
|
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 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 | 5 | 12 | 39 | 38 | 25 | |
| Total votes held | 666 | 711 | 803 | 845 | 850 | |
| Absentee rate | 0.8% | 1.7% | 4.9% | 4.5% | 2.9% | |
| Chamber average | 6.1% | 5.7% | 6.4% | 6.8% | 7.1% | |
| Difference | -5.3 | -4.0 | -1.5 | -2.3 | -4.2 | |
| Comparison | | | == | | |
|
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 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 | 108 | 82 | 75 | 64 | 69 | |
| Total votes held | 666 | 711 | 803 | 845 | 850 | |
| "Nay" rate | 16% | 12% | 9.3% | 7.6% | 8.1% | |
| Chamber average | 7.7% | 6.5% | 7.1% | 5.7% | 6.2% | |
| Difference | +8.3 | +5.5 | +2.2 | +1.9 | +1.9 | |
| Comparison | | | | | |
|
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 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 | 68% | 61% | 68% | 63% | 60% | |
| Chamber average | 66% | 67% | 69% | 68% | 69% | |
| Difference | +2.2 | -5.9 | -1.7 | -4.1 | -8.2 | |
| Comparison | == | | == | == | |
|
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 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. | ||||||
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Party support score (overall) (learn more). How consistently does Rep. Petersen 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) | 87% | 92% | 93% | 94% | 93% | |
| Chamber average | 94% | 95% | 96% | 96% | 96% | |
| Difference | -6.4 | -3.8 | -2.5 | -1.8 | -3.3 | |
| Comparison | | | | | |
|
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 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) | 97% | 93% | 94% | 94% | 94% | |
| Chamber average | 85% | 84% | 88% | 87% | 88% | |
| Difference | +12 | +9.0 | +6.3 | +6.9 | +6.8 | |
| Comparison | | | | | |
|
Only 14 bills sponsored by Rep. Petersen have come to a vote. Listed below are all votes held on bills that Rep. Petersen 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Petersen | HB0085 | 34 | 41 | 9.3% | House/ failed |
| 2022 | Petersen | HB0085 | 32 | 42 | 14% | House/ substitute adoption failed from # 0 to # 1 |
| 2024 | Petersen | HB0269S01 | 49 | 16 | 51% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2023 | Petersen | HB0347 | 54 | 16 | 54% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2023 | Petersen | HB0347 | 21 | 6 | 56% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
| 2024 | Petersen | HB0460S03 | 21 | 5 | 62% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
| 2024 | Petersen | HB0269S01 | 20 | 4 | 67% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
| 2025 | Petersen | HCR015S01 | 61 | 12 | 67% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2024 | Petersen | HB0460S03 | 60 | 7 | 79% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2022 | Petersen | HB0357 | 27 | 2 | 86% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
