SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A dozen Utah Republicans vying to replace him Mitt Romney U.S. Senate senators will face off Saturday for the party nomination in a race that is expected to reveal the type of political conservatism that most appeals to the state’s modern voters.
Romney has long been the face of the party’s more moderate wing, and observers are closely watching whether voters choose a successor whose policies align more with those of the outgoing senator or those of the other U.S. senator from Utah, the conservative. Mike Leewho supports the former president Donald Trump.
The winner of Saturday’s Republican convention, which tends to favor far-right candidates who appeal to the party’s most zealous members, could gain a lead in the race. Losing candidates will still be able to qualify for the June 25 primary runoff by gathering signatures, so Republican voters will ultimately decide the party’s choice to succeed Romney.
“Ultimately, the successful candidate in the primary election phase will be the one who demonstrates that he or she best identifies with Utah’s general Republican values, rather than the one who is able to defend the position most possible, although it helps to some extent to shift the delegates to a more right-wing position,” said Damon Cann, chair of the political science department at Utah State University.
The crowded race, which includes a congressman, a former state legislative leader and the attorney son of a former senator, will not only set the tone for Utah’s conservative post-Romney era, but will serve likely litmus test for Trump’s popularity. in the Beehive State.
Those closest to the embattled former president, namely the former Speaker of the House of Representatives Brad Wilson, should behave well at the convention. But political scientists, like James Curry of the University of Utah, expect a more moderate candidate like U.S. Representative John Curtis will prevail in the primary.
“This is a type of state where I think you actually have a slight advantage in being more anti-Trump, if not decisively and vocally, which you won’t find in most states where Republican voters are affected,” Curry said.
Even as Trump has made inroads in the state party, he has long unpopular among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon Church, who make up about half of the state’s 3.4 million residents.
Curtis, 63, has actively tried to distance himself from Trump, and even Romney, by promising to chart his own course in the Senate. However, his ability to push his fellow Republicans in Congress to fight against climate change — in the same way that Romney urged party members to separate from Trump — has led many to draw parallels between the two.
Even Wilson, 55, who endorsed Trump earlier this year, made little mention of the former president on the campaign trail. The move represents a departure from many far-right candidates in other states who have tried to exploit Trump’s political power to win their own elections.
Curry…
