The Latest: Utah GOP picks national delegates

The Latest: Utah GOP picks national delegates

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Campaign volunteers shows their support during the Utah Republican Party 2016 nominating convention Saturday, April 23, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Thousands of Utah Republicans and Democrats will gather Saturday at party conventions in Salt Lake City to vote for ... more >

By - Associated Press - Saturday, April 23, 2016
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The Latest on Republican and Democratic state conventions: (all times local):
6:05 p.m.

Utah GOP has elected its national delegates who could potentially decide the party’s presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention in Ohio this summer.

About 4,000 Utah Republicans gathered at their state convention in Salt Lake City on Saturday to pick 37 delegates and confirm two people running to serve as the party’s National Committeeman and National Committeewoman.

Those 39 people and party chairman James Evans will represent Utah’s 40 delegates at the national convention.
They will be required to vote for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz during the first round of voting but free to switch their votes if no candidate wins on the first round.
Utah is also sending 40 alternate delegates to the convention.

More than 400 Republicans ran to be one of Utah’s GOP delegates or alternates.
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5:20 p.m.
Utah’s Republican Party wants state officials to “nullify” any federal law, judicial ruling or regulation that’s beyond the U.S. government’s constitutional authority.

Party delegates cast a voice vote to approve a federal-pushback resolution at the state GOP convention in Salt Lake City on Saturday.

The resolution is merely a statement and doesn’t compel party members or officials to do anything.

It does not offer specifics about when and how officials would invalidate federal orders.
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4:25 p.m.
The Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate won’t be decided until the summer primary after neither candidate secured 60 percent of the vote at Saturday’s convention.

Marriage therapist Jonathan Swinton won 55 percent of the vote compared to 45 percent for Misty Snow, a transgender woman who works as a grocery store cashier.

The winner will face incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Lee. He ran unopposed in the GOP convention.

Swinton told delegates he knows how to solve problems based on hi professional experience. He called himself the only candidate capable of beating Lee in the general election.

Snow garnered huge applause when she said she would advocate for raising minimum wage to $15 an hour and fight for women’s rights.

A third candidate, Jade Tuan Quoc Vo, was eliminated in the first round of voting.
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3:50 p.m.
U.S. Sen. Mike Lee and U.S. Reps. Mia Love and Chris Stewart are all officially the Republican Party’s nominees as the three pursue re-election to Congress.

Lee, Love and Stewart did not face any GOP challengers at the state party’s convention in Salt Lake City on Saturday.

Lee is running for a second term in the U.S. Senate. A handful of Republicans, including Mitt Romney’s son Josh Romney, considered challenging Lee for the GOP nomination but opted against it.

Love is facing her first re-election battle in Utah’s 4th District and will face Democrat Doug Owens in November.

Stewart is running for a third term in Utah’s 2nd District.

Two other Republicans - Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and state Auditor John Dougall - are not facing any party challenger as they pursue re-election.
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3:45 p.m.
Congressman Jason Chaffetz has strong backing from core members of Utah’s Republican Party but still faces a primary challenger this summer.
Chaffetz cleaned up at the state GOP convention in Salt Lake City on Saturday, collecting 64 percent of the vote from about 4,000 party delegates.

His challenger, Brigham Young University professor Chia-Chi Teng, won 36 percent.

Though Chaffetz won the convention, he and Teng will square off in a June primary election.

Teng took advantage of Utah’s new election law that allows candidates to gather voter signatures and compete in the primary as a backup method to the convention.

They’re running in Utah’s heavily Republican 3rd District, which covers Salt Lake City’s southeastern suburbs toward the state’s borders with Arizona and Colorado.

The GOP nominee will face Democrat Stephen Tryon in November.

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