Sean D. Reyes is an American lawyer and politician, currently serving as the 21st Attorney General of Utah. He was appointed by Governor Gary Herbert following the resignation of John Swallow. He is a member of the Republican Party and has served as a county, state and national delegate for the Republican Party and a member of the State Central Committee, the governing body of the Utah Republican Party.
Reyes spent 14 years working at Utah's largest law firm, Parsons Behle & Latimer, where he became the first person of color to become a partner. He practiced in commercial litigation and employment law. He later became general counsel for eTAGz, a Springville, Utah-based media and technology company that aimed to develop products for embedding digital files on packaging. He was also a partner and co-founder of the venture capital firm Accelerate Ventures. Reyes served as a state small claims court judge and as president of the Minority Bar Association.
Politics
Reyes ran for Attorney General of Utah in 2012 against John Swallow. He lost the primary election by a margin of 68 to 32 percent. After Swallow resigned amid scandal in December 2013, Reyes was chosen to replace him. Reyes was selected as one of three candidates by the Utah Republican Party State Central Committee on December 14, 2013. Governor Gary Herbert appointed Reyes as the next Attorney General of Utah on Dec 23, 2013. Because of Utah's election laws, Reyes had to run in the 2014 Utah elections to be elected to finish out the remainder of Swallow's term. He won with 63.06 percent of the vote over his Democratic challenger, Charles A. Stormont, and Libertarian candidate Andrew McCullough. As attorney general, Reyes frequently joined other Republican state attorneys general who sued the Obama administration on various issues, ranging from federal lands use to transgender rights. Immediately after taking office, Reyes appealed Judge Robert J. Shelby's ruling that struck down Amendment 3, the state's same-sex marriage ban. The estimated $2 million price tag in appealing Shelby's ruling was criticized by The Advocate, Daily Kos, and ThinkProgress. In response, Reyes stated, "We're willing to spend whatever it takes to protect the laws and the will of the people" and that "everyone benefits from appealing the case." In 2016, it was reported that members of the Latter Day Church of Christ, a Mormon fundamentalist denomination, had donated to Reyes' campaign for attorney general individually and through Washakie Renewable Energy, a business partially owned by members of the LDCC. Reyes' representatives indicated in response to these reports that the contributions had been placed in escrow. Global China Business Meeting in 2019. In late-January 2017, Reyes was named as a top candidate for the chairmanship of the Federal Trade Commission by officials in the Trump administration. Reyes has served as a surrogate for both Donald Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns for President. He is the Utah Co-Chair for the 2020 re-election campaign as well as an advisory board member of both and . In 2020, Reyes announced he was running for a third term as Utah State Attorney General, and was being challenged for the Republican nomination by David Leavitt.
