“I never believed the earlier stories about Trump losing Utah … Now, I’m honestly not sure. This feels different,” the state’s lieutenant governor tells BuzzFeed News.
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The interview made Chaffetz the first Republican in Congress to officially retract his endorsement of Trump, and by next day he would be joined by dozens of his colleagues across the country. But in Utah, conservative Mormons were already mounting a wide-scale revolt against their party’s nominee — a repudiation so swift and severe that some GOP insiders believe the deep-red state could be thrown into contention in the final weeks of the race.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert called Trump’s comments in the leaked video “offensive” and “despicable,” and announced on Twitter Friday night that he would no longer vote for him.
Jon Huntsman, the state’s former governor, told the Salt Lake Tribune that Trump should cede his spot on the ticket to his running mate Mike Pence.
And Sen. Mike Lee — who has been one of the most persistent and outspoken critics of Trump on the right — posted a video recorded at his home in Utah calling on the candidate to drop out of the race.
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Of course, even before this latest backlash, Trump was struggling to consolidate support in Utah. While he led in state polls, he was averaging an anemic 37%, with libertarian Gary Johnson and independent Evan McMullin stripping away considerable swaths of disaffected conservatives. Several top Republicans had refused to endorsed him all year, and the ones that did were tentative at best. Now that Trump faces an exodus of GOP support in the state, some in Utah politics believe the bottom could fall out for the candidate.
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McMullin spent Saturday night meeting privately with top Republicans in Utah, according to two sources, and he could start rolling out high-profile endorsements in the state as early as next week. Johnson, whose campaign is headquartered in Salt Lake City, will no doubt try to capitalize on Trump’s tailspin, as will Clinton, who opened a campaign office in the state in August. It’s unclear whether any of these candidates will be able to make up enough ground in the next month to pull off a win — but Trump’s opponents in the state are eager to try.
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- Discussion
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Sources: Top Repubs in Utah talking about coalescing around McMullin, who could start rolling out endorsements soon. https://t.co/QtlDVsvNBP
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) October 9, 2016
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