SALT LAKE CITY — A few days after acknowledging he has a problem in Utah, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says gaining the trust and support of the state's voters is a top priority.

In an op-ed for the Deseret News posted online Monday, Trump outlined how he intends to "make America great again." Much of the column reflects ideas and proposals — including building a wall on the nation's southern border — that he has pitched throughout the campaign.

"As the people of the Beehive State know, the result of this election could have catastrophic consequences for our businesses, religious institutions, military and families, or it could unleash remarkable growth, safety and prosperity for generations to come," Trump wrote.

Trump touches on typical Republican themes — many of them important to Utahns — including the rights of the unborn, state control of public lands, law and order, and tax reduction, while painting Democrat Hillary Clinton as a tax-and-spend liberal who is soft on terror.

Boyd Matheson, president of the Sutherland Institute, called the Trump column a "hodgepodge" of stump speeches.

"It really is a poorly staffed cut-and-paste effort on his part," he said, adding Trump missed an opportunity to seal the deal in Utah.

Trump also tries to define himself as the real defender of religious rights.

"Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have tried to undermine our religious liberties on the altar of political correctness," the billionaire businessman wrote. "They have challenged the rights of businesses and religious institutions to speak openly about their faith. Undermining religious liberty has been a trend in the Democratic Party for decades."

Though Trump has a 12-point lead over Clinton in the latest Utah poll, some political pundits say the deeply red state could turn blue this election.

Last Thursday, Trump acknowledged he has "a tremendous problem in Utah" during a campaign speech to a group of evangelical pastors in Florida, telling them, "Utah is a different place."

Trump's column comes a week after Clinton wrote a piece for the Deseret News, liberally sprinkled with references to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the state's predominant religion.

Chris Karpowitz, co-director of BYU's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, said Trump and Clinton are both reaching out and trying to find an audience in Utah.

"And that's something that's unusual for our state. In a typical presidential election, Utah gets ignored," he said.

Both candidates are presenting sides of themselves most people haven't seen in discussions surrounding the campaign, Karpowitz said. Whether it works, he said, depends on judgements voters have already made about them.

Trump's op-ed is primarily an appeal to Utah's partisan allegiances, while Clinton's is an appeal primarily to core community and religious values, Karpowitz said.

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Unlike Clinton, Trump didn't make a direct appeal to Mormons but geared his words toward the entire state. He notes that Republican Gov. Gary Herbert and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, endorse him.

"These were two very different articles," said Jason Perry, head of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics. He described Trump's column as a "rally" speech he might give anywhere, while Clinton's was a "carefully produced brochure."

Clinton quoted Sister Rosemary M. Wixom, who oversaw the LDS Church's Primary program, and referred to LDS leaders "from Joseph Smith and Brigham Young to Gordon Hinckley and Thomas Monson."

Clinton also cited a comparison of Trump's proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States to "when Missouri Gov. Lilburn Boggs singled out Mormons in his infamous extermination order of 1838." She called protecting religious rights a "sacred" responsibility.

Her pitch to Utah voters noted Americans don't always agree, but "when it comes to religion, we strive to be accepting of everyone around us,” because "it so often takes a village — or a ward — working together to build the change we hope to see."

Matheson thought Clinton sounded the right notes, but called her op-ed "deceptive" because he said she was really talking about freedom of worship and thought, not religious liberty.

Trump said he opposes government interference with Americans’ rights to freedom of religion and speech. He said he would appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices who respect the right of all Americans to practice their religion not just in the privacy of their homes, but in the public square and in their professions and businesses.

Karpowitz said the most interesting conflict between the Clinton and Trump editorials is over religious freedom.

"Who really is going to defend religious liberty?" he said.

In his column, Trump ties Clinton to Obama, writing that she represents a third term of the current president.

"Utahns know that after eight years adrift under President Obama, we need to make America great again by supporting our law enforcement, ending illegal immigration, defeating ISIS, bringing back jobs and restoring conservative values," he said.

Perry said some of Trump's column was "generic," except that he clearly tried to say that every vote for him is a vote against Clinton, and that four to eight years of her administration would make the country worse.

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