Campaign 2016 - Utah, A Microcosm Of Election 2016
From the primaries to the final debate...
Utah is traditionally a very conservative and Republican state.. Its Republican Party and their primary voters gave their primary votes to Senator Ted Cruz a Tea Party stalwart. Their party was clearly not enamored of Donald J. Trump.
Trump, aside from having outlandish wealth, bore no resemblance to Utah's native son Mitt Romney who led the failed Republican national ticket in the 2012 election.
To Utah Republicans, Trump was brash, a womanizer, void of political experience, and in the Republican field solely for his own gratification. Cruz was an acceptable alternative likely to offer true but conservative changes to a failed, foot dragging, Washington crowd...though they had given their Senator Orrin Hatch a 7th term in 2012.
Cruz had been helped by Romney's early denunciation of Trump, denunciations that continued throughout the nominating process leading to Trump's nomination.
Faced with a choice between liberal Hillary Clinton and undesirable Donald Trump, Utah voters looked elsewhere. They didn't feel comfortable with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson or Green Party candidate Jill Stein and eventually gave as much support to native son Evan McMullen, an upstart, former CIA operative on the ballot in just 23 states, as they gave either Hillary or Donald.
In all of their searching for an acceptable candidate, Utahns have mirrored the national frustrations that have left Hillary and Trump jostling for votes and alternative candidates draining votes that could be crucial as the third final national TV debate looms.
The eventual victor in Election 2016 is not likely to make a majority of Utah voters happy, and that could turn out to be an accurate reflection of the national popular vote, if the victor wins with less than 50% of the votes that are cast by all Americans who can and do vote.
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© 2016 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.