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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Republicans were all in for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential bid, giving him a big win in last month's caucus election in a vote tied strongly to the effort to stop the GOP's now presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
All of the state's 40 delegates to July's Republican National Convention in Cleveland went to Cruz in the March 23 preference vote after Mitt Romney said voting for Cruz was best way to keep the nomination from Trump.
Romney, the GOP's 2012 nominee, had already delivered a speech condemning Trump as a fraud and a liar at the University of Utah that received national attention.
Other GOP leaders in the state joined in Romney's call, including National Governors Association leader Gov. Gary Herbert, who endorsed Cruz despite having said repeatedly he'd like to see a fellow governor in the White House.
Most members of the state's all-GOP congressional delegation initially backed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio before he lost his home state and dropped out the race, but Sen. Mike Lee became the first senator to support Cruz, his close political ally.
Only a handful of elected Utah officials endorsed Trump, including House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper. A "Stop Trump" slate of national delegate candidates managed to win two spots, with rest going to Cruz loyalists.
A GOP presidential debate set for the Salt Palace Convention Center the day before the caucus was canceled after Trump and later Ohio Gov. John Kasich announced they wouldn't participate.
All of the major candidates ended up holding campaign rallies in Utah in the days before the caucus vote except for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, now her party's likely nominee.
Trump has never been popular with Utah voters, something Utah pollster Dan Jones says is due to both his style as a boisterous billionaire businessman and reality TV star, as well as his positions on immigrants from Mexico and Muslims.
Their dislike of Trump ran so deep that polls showed if he became the GOP nominee, Utah would vote for a Democrat for president in November for the first time since 1964.
Poll: Utah would vote for a Democrat for president over Trump
If Donald Trump becomes the Republican Party's nominee, Utahns would vote for a Democrat for president in November for the first time in more than 50 years, according to a new Deseret News/KSL poll.But Don Peay, head of Utahns for Trump, said that's going to change.
"Utah voters, the Republican Party, will get behind Trump. You'll see that for sure," Peay said. He said most Utahns haven't appreciated Trump's ability to connect with the blue-collar voters who didn't respond to Romney.
Peay said he believes no matter what the polls have shown in the past, Utahns will choose Trump over Clinton, especially once they get to know him and his family better.
"It's really simple. His opponent is Hillary Clinton. People don't like Hillary Clinton's policies," Peay said. "The Clintons don't represent Utah family values at all."
He also predicted Trump will be able to win the White House in November, despite polling showing he'd lose to Clinton or her opponent for the Democratic nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
"Is it going to be a landslide, a blow-out race, no way," Peay said. But those who have said Trump won't be victorious "don’t have a clue about what real America's about. They were wrong. All the experts aren't experts."
