Erin Mendenhall

Upon taking office as Salt Lake City’s 36th mayor, Mendenhall became the city’s third and youngest woman in the role (after Deedee Corradini and Jackie Biskupski).

Prior to assuming office, Mendenhall represented the city’s 5th district on the Salt Lake City Council.

Mendenhall was born in Arizona and moved to Sandy, Utah, when she was seven.

Her father, Don, died from Hodgkin lymphoma when she was 14.

She graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelor of Arts degree in gender studies and a certificate in Non Profit Leadership and Management.

Erin Mendenhall (born June 8, 1980) is an American politician and activist who has been serving as the mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah since 2020.

She first entered politics as an air-quality activist with Utah Moms for Clean Air, but in 2010 moved on to co-found the non-profit Breathe Utah because "she quickly realized she could more effectively fight for changes as someone sitting at the decision-making table rather than protesting outside the door."

Mendenhall was elected to the Salt Lake City Council in November 2013 to represent District 5, which includes the Ballpark, Liberty Wells, Central 9th, and East Liberty Park neighborhoods.

She took office in January 2014 and improving air quality became her signature issue.

In May 2014, Mendenhall was appointed to the Utah Air Quality Board, which is the "primary air quality policy maker for the State of Utah."

In 2015, Mendenhall and the City Council voted unanimously to cut campaign-finance limits, reducing the maximum contribution to a mayoral election from $7,500 to $3,500, and the maximum contribution to a City Council candidate from $1,600 to $750.

In July 2017, Mendenhall led on the passage of an ordinance to crack down on "businesses that are hotbeds of crime."

The ordinance was designed to close a loophole that led to stop motels and hotels on State Street allowing sex work and drug dealing without legal consequence.

"We are drawing a line in the sand," Mendenhall said.

In 2017, Mendenhall was re-elected to the City Council with 84% of the vote.

In November 2017, Mendenhall led the Salt Lake City Council to unanimously approve an ordnance limiting the capacity of homeless shelters to 200.

In March 2018, the Utah Legislature passed a bill that cut Salt Lake City out of the process of developing an inland port in the city’s Northwest Quadrant.

The legislation also took 100% of the tax revenue generated from the Inland Port while denying the city’s mayor a seat on the Inland Port Authority and forcing the city to pay for police and fire department coverage of the area.

In July 2018, Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski withdrew from negotiations with the state government over the port project.

With the state moving the Port project forward without the city’s input, Mendenhall re-opened negotiations in her capacity as chair of the City Council.

Based on those negotiations, on July 18, 2018, the Legislature passed additional legislation that required 10% of tax revenue generated by the inland port to be invested in affordable housing in Salt Lake City.

The bill also required the Port to pay the city for its share of taxes needed to cover the cost of city services including police and fire.

In an editorial, the Salt Lake Tribune called the bill "a great improvement over what sits on the books."

In 2019, she earned a Master of Science degree in science and technology from the University of Utah.

After college, Mendenhall conducted air-quality testing and internal auditing at Sterigenics, which sterilizes medical equipment.

Mendenhall was the last of nine candidates to declare her candidacy for mayor, doing so on March 24, 2019, citing her "hands-on" experience.

Mendenhall officially launched her campaign on April 14, 2019 outside an air-quality monitoring station at the Salt Lake Center for Science Education, a STEM focused charter school in the historically underrepresented Rose Park neighborhood.

“My time on the City Council shows how I get results,” Mendenhall said.

“As chair of the council, I made a seat for our city at the table when there wasn’t one, when the state was ready to move ahead with the inland port without Salt Lake City.”

A poll conducted in June by Dan Jones & Associates for the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce showed Mendenhall in third place with 12% support.

A Salt Lake Tribune-Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted in late July by the Cicero Group also found Mendenhall in third place with 14% support.

Mendenhall leaned on her experience on the city council and positioned herself as the candidate best able to get the most from the city government.

"After 12 years of mayors with experience on Capitol Hill instead of City Hall, Salt Lake City deserves a mayor with the right experience for a change," Mendenhall wrote in an August 7, 2019 op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune.

The nonpartisan primary election was held on August 13, 2019.

Mendenhall finished in first place with 24.27%, topping State Senators Luz Escamilla and Jim Dabakis to advance to the general election.

Mendenhall released a series of policy proposals, including plans focusing on affordable housing, building a high-tech ecosystem in the city, and planting 1,000 new trees a year on the city's West side.

In the 2019 Salt Lake City mayoral election, Mendenhall defeated State Senator Luz Escamilla 58.17% to 41.83% to become the 36th mayor of Salt Lake City.

Mendenhall became the city's third female mayor (after Deedee Corradini and Jackie Biskupski).

In her inaugural address, Mendenhall announced that city departments would begin factoring impacts on air quality into every decision, prompting the director of the Utah Clean Air Partnership to call the move "phenomenal leadership."

In 2021, the utility that provides electricity to the city, Rocky Mountain Power, announced it would not be able to deliver renewable electricity until "closer to 2050"— 20 years later than pledged.