Utah GOP

The Utah Republican Party is dropping its legal challenge to a state election law that divided its membership and drowned the party in debt.

Utah Republicans elected Rob Anderson chairman of the state party last month, ousting two-term incumbent James Evans.

Anderson, 51, is a commercial airline pilot and former chair of the Davis County GOP. He takes over at a time when the party is in serious debt and facing deep divisions within its membership.

The Utah Republican Party is preparing to elect new executive leadership next month, including party chair — and the fallout over a three-year-old election law may be a deciding factor for members.

Sen. Orrin Hatch says he believes the presidential election will be close, but is urging Utah Republicans to deliver the state for Donald Trump.

A group of Mormon democrats has released a report detailing how they believe Republican policies are hurting families.  

Utah State Senator Mark Madsen is no longer a member of the Republican Party. Madsen announced during a press conference Monday, he has joined the Libertarian Party and endorsed Libertarian Presidential Nominee Gary Johnson.

Former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt says he believes no Republican Presidential candidate will make it to the Republican National Convention with a majority of delegates.

The GOP presidential debate scheduled for Monday in Utah was canceled after Donald Trump announced that he would not participate. As Utah Republicans head into caucuses on Tuesday, the GOP frontrunner is not expected to do as well here as he has elsewhere in the country.

In a speech at the University of Utah, former Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney called for the party to rally to defeat Donald Trump.

The Utah Republican Party’s lawsuit over possible changes to the caucus convention system could soon be resolved as a federal judge is poised to modify the law known as SB54.

Utah Republican lawmakers met Tuesday behind closed doors to discuss the latest proposal to expand Medicaid.

Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans is accusing Republican State Senator Todd Weiler of encouraging some donors to stop giving money to the party. Weiler denies those allegations, but the incident is a very public representation of a divide that’s growing among members of the Utah GOP over how the party chooses its candidates.

Members of the Utah Republican Party’s state central committee have made the decision to move forward and comply with election changes made by SB54.

A legislative committee has voted in favor of two pieces of legislation that would impact the implementation of the so-called Count My Vote compromise made last year.

The Utah Republican Party released a poll over the weekend that shows a majority of voters favor a legal challenge to SB54. That’s the bill approved by the legislature and signed into law last year that will modify the state’s system for nominating political candidates. 

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes has recused himself from being involved with the state’s defense of SB54.

SB54 makes changes to Utah election law and allows candidates to bypass the caucus/convention system and appear on a primary ballot by gathering signatures from registered voters. The Utah Republican Party is suing the state over those changes because they say that it’s unconstitutional for a state to dictate to a party how they choose candidates.

Leaders of the Utah State Republican Party are filing a lawsuit challenging the legality of  SB 54. The legislation passed this year changes the state’s caucus/convention system for nominating political candidates.

In a statement sent to KUER, Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans says the lawsuit should be seen as a friendly attempt to clarify the Constitutional boundaries between the state and political parties. He argues that the state should not be able to tell individual political parties how to elect their candidates.

Republican Mia Love hopes she can win the seat after being narrowly defeated by incumbent Jim Matheson in 2012.  With Matheson announcing his retirement last year, Democrat Doug Owens has stepped into this year’s race with the hopes he can overcome a very popular GOP candidate. 

When Mia Love talks about her narrow defeat in 2012, the one fact she remembers specifically is the number of votes she lost by.

“768. Who’s counting?” says Love.

Only 768 votes.  But Love looks back on the race where she came up short as a learning experience.

Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans is encouraging several legislative candidates to not participate in debates organized by groups that include Alliance for a Better Utah.

Republicans dominate politics in eastern Utah’s conservative Uintah County. So, a vote recount and long wait for a winner in the county commission primary was unusual and tense. Mike McKee will keep his seat for a fourth term because there is no Democratic challenger. KUER’s Judy Fahys reports.

Incumbent County Commissioner Mike McKee sat in on the final tally of nearly 4,300 votes.

“This was a nail-biter: I won by three votes,” he said Wednesday.