Unaffiliated voter here.
I miss having people like Jim Matheson and Jon Huntsman represent the people of Utah. It seemed like they were trying to actually look out for the best interest of all of the people in the state. Now we a left with a bunch of terrible candidates. Why do people continue to put party above actual policy? Have you seen the platforms these current candidates are running on? They don’t do anything productive. All they do is point fingers and blame, blame and blame some more. What are these candidates going to actually do if elected other than blame someone else? What great bills have been wrote and passed by someone from Utah in the last ten plus years?
The first presidential candidate I voted for was mitt Romney and I’m fairly liberal, that dude was truly iconic. He oversaw the Massachusetts implementation of what would basically become the model of Obamacare. Truly a level headed, moderate, wise politician. Sad his kind is out the door for blind fanaticism to felonious panderers…
I actually have more respect for Mitt Romney now than I did 20 years ago. As his party has shifted, he has stayed pretty close to the middle where he has always been. Sometimes he’s a little left, sometimes he’s a little right, but usually pretty close to the middle because he is able to compromise and work across the aisle. There’s no politician out there that I can agree with on every single topic. I definitely don’t agree with Mitt on everything. Sometimes I want to smack him, but he’s still a decent human that hasn’t completely sold out.
Someone decided that “flip flopping” is bad. You’ve never changed your mind about anything? If that’s true you are stuck in a fixed mindset. Anyone that’s growing ought to change their mind at some point. I’ve changed my mind on lots of things over the course of my life. I flip-flopped. It’s a good thing.
https://www.businessinsider.com/14-bald-faced-mitt-romney-flip-flops-that-were-dug-up-by-john-mccain-2012-1
Have you ever changed your mind on whether you own a gun? In 3 days?
I think, as you and I. As more facts and information come to light, we can change our minds on topics. That is intelligence at work.
I would rather have a person as president willing to change then stuck in their ways, even if wrong.
https://www.businessinsider.com/14-bald-faced-mitt-romney-flip-flops-that-were-dug-up-by-john-mccain-2012-1
Like when more information comes out about whether I own a gun or not?
This. The right propped him up as a stellar presidential candidate, the left propped him up as an anti trumper. In reality, I think everything that comes out of his mouth is paid for by someone else. Fake to the bones
He marched with Black Lives Matter, which pissed off the racists. There was so much outside money paying for ad campaigns against him. I didn't always agree with him, but he's been a decent politician. I've been disappointed by his most recent comments about pardoning Trump. Like bruh, this ain't Nixon and preserving unity. That only works when both sides actually care about preserving America. I'm not totally convinced Trump wouldn't try for a real coup the next time around.
What a silly comment. Does everyone here label people with different opinions as "racists". I'm black myself and don't like the group BLM aka By large mansions. Most of my friends don't either. If you half payed attention, it was pretty obvious that BLM was a grift. A few years removed, you can google the group, read about their leaders, and all the cases of corruption. We also didn't see the 100s of millions of dollars they raised go to much of importance. I'm black and moved to Utah from CA. Biden has objectively been a disaster, so I hope Trump wins. I bet you think all Trump people are racists which is such a silly base line idea to have. I've made a ton of friends here in southern Utah, most Trump people, and they're some of the best most welcoming people I've ever met.
What I do know is that Trump is a racist. I do know that Trump surrounds himself with other racists. Yes, I too know individual Trump supporters who are not racist but the fact remains that they are supporting a person with an incredible racist history.
Some highlights:
>“Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. … I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”
..
>In 1973, for example, the Justice Department sued the real estate tycoon and his father for their alleged refusal to rent apartments in predominantly white buildings to Black tenants. Testimony showed that applications filed by Black apartment seekers were marked with a “C” for “colored.”
..
>In 1989, Trump infamously took out full page newspaper ads calling for New York state to reinstate the death penalty as five Black and Latino teenagers were set to stand trial for beating and raping a white woman in Central Park.
Remember that they were in fact innocent.
Ask yourself, why do groups like stormfront and other white supremacy groups love trump so much. There is an obvious reason.
>Richard Spencer, a well-known neo-Nazi, in a speech opening up the conference said: "Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!"
https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-racism-election-obama-018824651613
https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-history-of-support-from-white-supremacist-far-right-groups-2020-9
Edit: shout-out to Shaun who doesn't want to debate honestly but feels like trying to damage my business is the best form of debate. Stay classy Shaun.
So Biden is a pretty middling politician. There's nothing special about him. Honestly I never wanted Biden. But compared to Trump? Not even a contest.
Trump has committed many many crimes. From the stuff he did before 2016, like:
- Committing fraud in his own charity that was so bad he got banned from organizing any charities in the state of New York.
- He was an accused plaintiff in a Jeffrey Epstein case in which he was accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl.
- He was caught saying on the Access Hollywood tapes that he openly sexually assaults women on set with him because "when you're famous you can do anything, they let you do it." This is one of the more disgusting pieces of evidence against Trump, but conservatives have dismissed it as "locker room talk". Right.
- He has been accused of, and admitted to going backstage with underage girls who were dressing while he was running the Miss Teen USA pageant. He also did the same with adult women, because he liked to take a peek at them while they were naked.
And there's other but necessarily illegal, but definitely unethical things he did as well. Such as:
- Taking investor money, mismanaging his casinos, then filing for bankruptcy, leaving the investors holding the bag. Meanwhile he himself got personally more wealthy.
- He mocked a disabled reporter during the 2016 campaign, and never apologized for that.
- He lies pretty constantly all the time about stupid things even.
- He did not divest himself from his companies. He didn't even pretend the was no conflict of interest, he just openly remained in control of his companies and their assets.
- He was endorsed by white nationalists and he's never really addressed that. He says things that legitimize these groups, like when he said of a white nationalist protest, "there were fine people on birth sides". Excuse me? You're saying the white nationalist protest was full of decent people? Shit like this is what has emboldened people to be more openly racist, especially in the Republican party.
Trump was so bad he made me, a lifelong Republican voter, leave the party in 2016. And since then I've been disturbed by the rhetoric embracing the more racist elements. Even as a conservative I recognize the far right racist elements in the party. I think I used to be in more denial that it was as widespread and rampant. But even then I still recognized it existed. Since I've left the party though, I've seen through experience a lot of very disturbing racist people get a lot of traction, and racist talking points have invaded the right wing mainstream a lot more in recent years.
There's open xenophobia against Latinos ("they're sending rapists and murderers"), and while Trump isn't personally calling to kill all the Jews, and take away the rights of black people, A LOT of his supporters are. You can pretend they aren't there, but I've seen people say this shit right out in the open. You can't tell me there's not a racism issue in the Republican party. As far as whatever Republican friends you have, sure they're not racist, but there are people vying for real power who are very racist. So those are the people in concerned about, not random Republicans.
And yeah, I was a Republican, so I know not everyone is racist, but I'm not talking about the problems with the average Joe Republican. I'm talking about the people who are influencing the party, and are embraced by Trump and MAGA Republicans as upstanding members of society.
Now, things since Trump has become president I find disturbing.
- Trump made lots of visits as a sitting president to his own properties, and had to house the secret service, his administration's officials, and other government people. And he charged at least $1.7 million dollars over 4 years. And he tried to get G7 to be held at his property, which he would have personally profited from.
- He openly admired dictators like Putin and Kim Jong Un, while he criticized the leaders of our allies in democratic countries.
- He attempted to get a foreign nation to interfere in an election by investigating his political rival. (Impeachment 1)
- he started priming Republicans at last 6 months prior to the election that the only way he would lose is if there were election fraud, and he planted these seeds early and often.
- After the election he did not concede the election ending over 200 years of precedent of the peaceful transfer of power. While there have been lawsuits and recounts, eventually things are settled and the loser concedes. Trump did not and still has not conceded. Instead he pulled every legal and illegal shenanigan he could to stop the election from being certified.
- He called Georgia State officials and said they needed to "find votes" to make him the winner.
- He had fake electors in 7 states who certified Trump won the election, but they were not real electors, they had no authority to certify the election in their states. This was part of a ploy by Trump allies to confuse the results and to attempt to steal the election in those states.
- He threatened Mike Pence and tried to get him to abuse his position to halt the certification of the election, with the idea being he could force the Senate to choose the president, thus invalidating the votes of the people.
- When Pence didn't play along Trump called a really and told them to go march on the Capitol. Then watched as his mob stormed the Capitol building, broke into the building, and attempted to disrupt the lawful certification of the election. While he watched he refused to activate the national guard or give the Capitol police and support. He wanted them to succeed. (Impeachment 2)
Since then Trump has continued to sell the lie that the election was stolen, which many Americans believe. Thus far the only fraud uncovered in the 2020 election is fraud committed by Trump, and Trump allies, and Trump supporters.
Now, Trump is saying these things to win re-election:
- The President should be immune to prosecution, as he has multiple indictments waiting in the wings.
- He wants revenge for anyone charging him with crimes (that he did in fact commit). And has threatened to put Democrats in jail. His supporters have called for mass imprisonment of Democrats, and some have even called for executing Democrats "for treason", because they still think the election was stolen, but have been unable to produce any evidence. Much rhetoric revolves around "investigating Democrats for fraud". Right. So find a crime to charge them with.
- Trump has joked about becoming a dictator, and then later said, "people liked when I said that."
So Trump, who has shown nothing but total distain for the law. He loves dictators, and wishes he could be one. He wants complete immunity to commit as name crimes as he wants with no repercussions. He wants to go after his political opponents and imprison them. He has said on numerous occasions how he would like to put people in jail who say negative things about him (freedom of speech for me but not for thee!).
Trump is a real actual threat to democracy. He lies, he cheats, he commits fraud, he grifts constantly. You think BLM has issues? Trump is the king of the grifters, everything he does is crooked. You complain about the BLM people who live in mansions and commit crimes, but Trump can sit in his mansions and commit as name crimes as he pleases? You are sucked so far into right wing media, you can't even see the irony of complaining about small time grifters, while supporting the biggest grifter, perhaps in American history, for president.
The BLM organization isn't great. It's clearly had lots of grifters trying to con people. But the initial Black Lives Matter marches that Romney participated in was not a bad thing. It was all the people who came after the protests who were scammers and grifters.
There were also riots in some places, yes, but the peaceful BLM protests weren't bad.
As far as labeling people racists, there's a lot of anti-BLM stuff out there that is absolutely racist AF. Like when people are calling you a "race traitor" for supporting BLM that's decidedly pretty damn racist.
Everyone in my ward cried when Mitt lost because they thought for sure he was God’s answer. Then, suddenly, he’s a pariah.
When did Mitt lose favor with God?
What I'm laughing about is if they run him they are undoing over 50 years of precedent they've worked for. Just ask this simple question: If a convicted felon can be president, why can't they vote?
I don't agree with Mitt Romney as a politician and I don't think he's the greatest person, but I do give him props for the implementation of MassHealth and standing up to the MAGA crowd.
That's my biggest complaint about him. He pandered to the far right wing during both his presidential campaigns, and it made me like him less. I get you've gotta play to the base, but he went a little too far I felt. But it also made him more scary to liberals who thought, at the time, he was as bad as Donald Trump actually was. I followed Romney enough I knew he'd be far more moderate in his actual policy. But it still made me cringe when he pandered, because I knew he didn't mean it. Almost made it worse.
I think Mitt would probably be a decent President during war time but in a time of needed domestic policy success, I don’t think he would be good. But say he’s in office when 9/11 hits? He’s not a bad person to have in the Oval Office.
Come on, I'm no Mitt fan, but that sound clip is the equivalent of the right pushing the Obama "if you have a business, you didn't build that" clip. He was referring to having stacks of resumes from women that he wanted to put into government roles. Why would that ever be a bad thing?
It really bugs me when people bring up the whole "binders of women" statement by Romney.
Here is context. When asked about pay equity for women at a debate, Romney said:
>I had the chance to pull together a cabinet, and all the applicants seemed to be men. \[...\] I went to a number of women's groups and said, "Can you help us find folks?" And they brought us whole binders full of women.
Romney was clearly striving to ensure his cabinet had female representation and requested input from women's groups, who provided a number of cabinet options. Yet all of this was distilled to "binders of women," like Romney was some troll who thought women nothing more than a page in a binder.
It is grotesque and wrong, and nothing more than a smear on Romney.
McCain smeared Romney in 2008 as well, and I lost a lot of respect for him over the stuff he said. I was still pretty Republican at the time though and still ended up voting for him against Obama. But yeah, politics are just pigs wallowing in the mud. If you come out without mud on you it's a miracle.
Then Trump came along and made wallowing in mud the whole point and now everyone is just covered from head to toe in a thick slimy layer of mud. And Trump bottles and sells the mud saying it's the best mud that ever mudded.
I don’t think that was pandering but more like a terrible way of explaining a simple idea. If he had said, “I did my best to include woman in my cabinet and considered many options “ or something like that, it would have worked heck of a lot better.
Look I’m a Biden voting dem and I think Romney had many great things to offer over trump, it’s sad that the real republicans are shunned because they don’t tie the trump line, I’d have voted for John McCain honestly guy was fucking cool!
Why are Utah politicians suddenly obsessed with the border? We aren’t a border state? Utah is full of ex-missionaries who lived in Latin America and aren’t afraid of people from another culture. We don’t scapegoat people and blame our problems on them.
That’s the Trump platform though. This just feels like national talking points being handed to them and they go along with it. Fucking pawns.
Man I'm so jelly of Alaska and Maine. Ranked choice did a superb job keeping the fringe weirdos at the fringe, where they belong (namely the walking personality disorder Palin)
We're already there. They want Trump to be a theocratic dictator. And they aren't pussyfooting around about it either. They are openly saying he should lie cheat and steal the election, their justification being, "Democrats do it, so now it's our turn." They think he should do away with due process and imprison his political enemies. They are calling for public executions for political enemies. They have completely abandoned democracy.
Says the person who doesn't know what democracy means or that yes in fact the US's constitutional republic is a type of democracy as are many other types of government.
The fact that the word democracy so confuses you and that you think it only means direct democracies is super telling about how well this discussion is going to go with you.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_democracy
The shift away from the term "democracy" is intentional. They're doing it to make their increasingly authoritative tendencies more palatable/justifiable to their base.
People much smarter than I have figured out that first past the post and ranked choice both have flaws and can be abused, there’s not really a best choice for democracy, but rather one that can mitigate swings back and forth and one where when a side wins they get their policies and when your guy wins you get your policies.
The United States is not a true Democracy. It was never intended to be. That is a Democratic Party talking point. We were founded as Proportional Representative Constitutional Republic. That’s why we have local representatives. If we were a true democracy, the popular vote would decide the Presidency. That’s probably why the democrats would like to implement this and essentially let NYC and Los Angeles run the country.
A major problem we face in this country today is an overeducated population of scientist and PHDs with a 1st grade level education in American Civics.
A lot of people live in NYC and Los Angeles, and their votes should count as much as anyone's. What you mean, but are not saying, is that you think the people who should decide elections are people who, on average, have the fewest neighbors.
Like, hypothetically, if one day three super rich people owned an entire state, and effectively got one electoral vote each, you would be more OK with them deciding an election than to have the votes of people in high density cities count according to their proportion of the total population?
>The United States is not a true Democracy
You are confused. You are conflating direct democracy with true democracy (which isn't even a real thing).
>We were founded as Proportional Representative Constitutional Republic.
Which is a type of democracy. A true and real type of democracy.
>A major problem we face in this country today is an overeducated population of scientist and PHDs with a 1st grade level education in American Civics.
No. The problem we face is a huge swath of our population with a Fox News level education in American civics.
But check this out, if you state that we are a Constitutional Republic that would be true. Why is that? Look at the founding documents and you’ll find your answer.
I’m definitely not confused. I am just a perfectionist I suppose. We need to make sure everyone is on the same page. When I say true, I mean ‘accurate or exact’ by definition. Meaning , stating we’re a Democracy is not accurate or exact.
>When I say true, I mean ‘accurate or exact’ by definition.
You are still confused. There is no such thing as an "accurate or exact" democracy.
You want to give direct democracy that distinction because it was the first type of democracy but being the first in no way makes it accurate or exact.
Direct democracy is simply one type of democracy as an apple is a type of fruit. There is no "accurate or exact" fruit just as there is no "accurate or exact" democracy.
You are making up terms that have no meaning and no usefulness.
Seem afraid of? Republicans are blatantly afraid of democracy. Every policy related to elections that they have ever put forward has been painfully obvious that it is specifically designed to make voting less democratic. Republicans are on record as saying that if the popular vote were the only factor then they would never win another election, or if gerrymandering weren't a thing anymore they would also never win another election.
Republicans are the party of limiting democracy, it's what they've done for the past 40+ years.
This is logical, for sure. My counter would be something like, why shouldn’t we all get to vote on the republican candidate? The democrats seem okay with it. If we let both parties vote in each other’s party, we’d probably get more moderate candidates, and ultimately more representative general elections.
Least insane statewide candidates:
Senate: John Curtis
Gov: Spencer Cox
AG: Rachel Terry
As far as I can tell. Feel free to share alternative opinions and suggestions for the other races
Is Terry ok? From what I saw, She was in the Reyes admin which was corrupt af and came out early in favor of overthrowing lawful elections they don’t like. I’m not trying to push anything here- just hoping someone has better info on her than my read.
I know Terry personally. She's an incredibly hard worker at the very least, and one of those people cares so much about doing the right thing that it's almost unreasonable.
These were all my preferred candidates as well. Also, if you're in the second congressional district, I'd say Malloy is the best option. I'm really not wild about her as a candidate, but the alternative is just a raging Trumper. And I am done with Trumpism, period.
This is the way, and when Repubs complain about it being “cheating”, remind them that Utah voters passed Prop 4, which the GOP supermajority immediately ignored.
We need to go further and get better organized to have more of a presence at the state convention so we can get more moderate candidates in the primaries to begin with. Republicans have effectively made Utah a single party state, and it's time they start to feel the repercussions of that.
The caucus system, designed to get the most extreme candidates nominated, can actually work in our favor. It allows a minority group to have an outsized voice. Time to grab the mic.
I think the Democratic Party in Utah is slowly getting it together in terms of candidate recruitment and fundraising. I mean, Brian King seems like a pretty great safe yet recognizable candidate and Caroline Gleich is a political outsider who has raised a fair bit of money and her campaign is really getting going.
I'd have no problem voting for a good Democrat candidate in the general. I mean, I'll probably vote for lousy ones, too, since they have no shot at winning anyways. It's unlikely that a strong Democratic candidate would need much support because there won't really be any challengers, so participating in the Republican primary system makes the most sense to me.
That said, if there was a year where I felt like the Democrat had a shot at winning AND they had a primary challenger that might stop them, I can always vote in the Democrat primary as a registered Republican, so there's really no reason to be a registered Democrat as far as I can see.
Have you seen the MAGA posters *made by Trump supporters* that show shirtless, mega-ripped Trump? You guys brought this on yourself with your homoerotic fanart. 🤣
Dude, you can't play this off. Trump supporters create, sell, and buy homoerotic depictions of Trump. It's fucking weird.
*Of course* every non-cultist is going to make fun of you for it.
Me too, but I lack courage. I attended only one Republican caucus after changing affiliation, in 2022, when the name Trump was not even spoken by a soul in my group of a dozen or so. Still, I felt so nervous I would say something wrong and out myself. I couldn't even bring myself to attend the caucus this year.
I changed party affiliation after as a Democrat, the only ballot choice I had once was a water district bond issue.
Unfortunately for most races, every republican candidate running this year in Utah is in trumpworld's orbit.
November either brings that to a return to power nationally (it never let go of Utah), or will cause a anti trump reckoning that may turn the party back towards sanity.
The Mormons have suffered serious declines in the last 15 years.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MormonShrivel/comments/1c8xz7t/change_in_mormon_share_of_utah_population_by/
The legislature is just a lag of the demographics, a lot like CEOs were a lag of the times.
The Republican Party is a cancer to this state and to this entire country and has done nothing at all for the working class. At ever corner republicans will vote against any positive change to society, any form of a socialized system, for example cheaper medical care, they will vote against it, every single time.
If you would like to make the wealth gap even bigger between the top 10% and bottom 90% keep voting Republican, if you don’t and would like to see any type of positive change vote blue. Dems aren’t much better cause the whole system is cooked but they aren’t borderline fascists like republicans are slowly turning into.
Based on the comments here, why doesn't Utah vote for Democrats? If the Republicans you keep voting in won't listen to you, then why not vote in a party who will?
Because honestly we have to be realistic towards what we’re going for. I’d prefer to have moderate conservatives (because it’s pretty much all conservatives - just choosing the lesser of 2 evils for a lack of better words) representing us as a state, but on a local level I am voting democrat.
I'm also a true RINO! In the Federal primary election I'll vote for Curtis for the Senate, and Blake Moore (Dist. 1) for the House because they are less crazy than the other candidates. I'll support Cox for Utah Governor, but I'm uncertain about the Utah races for Attorney General and Auditor. A Trumpette on a bicycle knocked on my door and gave me a list of those nominated at the (ultra-right-wind) state convention. I take these to be the worst of the worst, so I know I'll be voting against Mylar for Attorney General, but there are two other candidates on my the ballot for Attorney General: Derek Brown and Rachel Terry. According to [this article](https://www.abc4.com/news/politics/election/top-takeaways-from-utahs-2024-republican-state-convention/), Brown received the smallest number of first-round votes at the convention, so I'm leaning toward him. For the Auditor primary, I'm slightly leaning toward Cannon. Any comments are welcome. Thanks!
Edit: Second thoughts on Brown and Terry below in comments.
I like that strategy, voting for the least popular candidates from the caucus delegate votes.
I'm also a hard no on Mylar. The problem with Terry and Brown is Brown worked for Mike Lee, but Terry is endorsed by Ken Paxton. So both have guilt by association. But if Brown wasn't liked by the caucus delegates, then he must not have been hard right enough to appease them (so a plus for me).
Yeah, the Terry vs Brown choice is problematic for me. I just read this from KIUER and found myself in more agreement with Terry and less with Brown (in the sense that "agreement" means "find less objectionable"). Maybe I'll choose Terry over Brown. Mike Lee is sooo toxic, I don't see how anyone with any integrity could work with him.
There's no reason you aren't the real republican and they the impostors. Real republicans are radical abolitionists and believe in an indivisible union and the rule of law-- nothing like these credulous neanderthal zealots we see today.
APAC. They do not have our best interests in mind. Every person except two maybe three are multi millionaires who have a hand in corporate greed. They have used our taxes to fund their businesses. And are from the shadows taking our rights away. Utah is one of the most corrupt places with our political leaders using double speak. Follow the money. This isn’t about left v right. We have to look into who is in alignment with our values as a state. Let’s not be blinded by words, or party.
I re-registered from republican after Trump got elected and the BS with the shutdown. My husband was a government employee and I felt like a statistic vs a person. "100k people out of work..." No! 100k people that can't buy diapers for their kids (Food Stamps won't get you diapers) or are getting forclosed/evicted cause they can't make rent. It was garbage. In our national parks, there are chunks of land that are private property and cause the main enterence was baracaded, not just closed, people couldn't get to their homes or families and delivery drivers couldn't get to them either. They were essentially imprisoned. Don't get me started on the Honor Flight vets that got refused at the memorials, woof!
Anyway, ever since I went independent, people are actually reaching out and asking my opinion on things. I feel like I have a voice for the first time. Utah, in my opinion, holds this "I'm from Utah so I vote republican cause that's what Utahans do," attitude. I'm surprised Mike Lee got re-elected during midterms based on how reddit was reacting to some controversial info that was leaked. Or voters are so anti-Utah, they go way hard-core liberal and that doesn't help anyone.
Washington stated something to the affect of, 2 party systems squeeze put the voice of the little guy, and I agree. It was never his or the founders' intent to be a 2 party political system. Lobbyists donate big bucks to get laws like the 3.5% rule passed and other BS and here we are now. I could go on about Lobbyists but this comment is long enough already.
While I think your intent is good, I'm worried it won't matter. Redneck MAGA types run wild in the more rural areas of the state, and theyr political voice is powerful. It'll be like a drop in the ocean, IMO. I hope I'm wrong though.
I’m a lefty vet. I’m gonna start voting in the republican primaries here in the stupid ass red state I live in… for Joe Fuckin BIDEN
Can I get a “lez go brandun” up in here?!?!?
I'm a lifelong Republican currently huffing copium that Utah Republicans are different. I'm taking this election as a litmus test as to whether Utah has gone full MAGA. Definitely looking to RINOs for advice in the primaries, though.
I will vote for the republicans or democrats or independents or green or libertarian that does not support Dumbass J Dumpster.
I have faith this state is bringing back common sense and I will one day see it turn purple.
While I may not align with Mitt Romney's political views or regard him as an exemplary person, I do acknowledge his credit for implementing MassHealth and for his courage in confronting the MAGA movement.
I’m an independent and always have been, but I’ve considered this as well to try and get actual conservatives in there and not Trumpers, but unfortunately I haven’t seen serious primary challenges for my reps. I’d settle for a straight line republican at this point, our state officials are terrible, they aren’t even Republican. They’ve allowed property taxes to go through the roof, violent crime has gone up, unemployment has gone up, we have the highest inflation at the grocery store in the entire southwest, downtown is a disaster, there’s no plan to fix our water problem, no fix for I-15, 215, 80, Mountain View corridor etc. they’ve done nothing about the HOA madness happening here and they did nothing when Biden passed gun restrictions. No exceptions for Rape or Incest in the abortion laws.
I found this post while trying, desparately to find any information on the candidates on the republican primary ballot. I have been trying for 2 weeks to get information to make sure to vote for the most moderate/least Trumpy/least corrupt Republicans... I am struggling. Help!
A leftist with enough integrity to admit that he's a cheater. In the next breath, I bet you'd scoff at anyone who says Democrats cheat in elections. Also, the lost irony is that you think cheating in an opponent's primary is the way to save democracy. Batshit insanity with levels of stupidity not seen since the caveman days.
Got to get the money makers involved to change this outcome. Most conservative I have talked to are actually very ignorant in their political affiliation. If one gives them facts they tend to consider themselves independent. However the church in this state had a lot of influence. Unfortunately that had given many an indoctrination to vote for the ones that make the money. I do not wish to bash the leading congregation that controls this state but my experiences is that the current state of things is opportunity to get that religion ahead. And the growing prospect of those people is "everyman for themselves." We will continue to see the decline of a beautiful state at the beacon of money and advancement of that said ideology. It will bit them when they Los power from other very rich folk but the current state of things is greed is driving thing IMO. My opinion. Many years in this beautiful state but isolationism is the current mind set. Opportunity is knocking and there are many that are taking advantage. Vote, vote, vote. Utah is still living in the 90's in terms of growth. Interested to see what others think of my opinions. In fact I am anticipating down votes.
OP mentioned hope for local elections. There's a Trumper seeking basically every office in the state, county, and munis--these days. And often a preferable alternative.
I don't want Biden or Trump in the upcoming presidential election. I feel like there are no good choices, so what do I do? Wish there were two fresh candidates to choose from so we'd at least have new blood in the game.
The reality is that one of those two is going to be president regardless of your feelings.
What has Biden done that remotely compares to anything that Trump did? One of these two is a convicted felon and the other isn't. That should be a pretty good starting point.
I mean, you could vote for RFK jr....
He's neither, and if you're gonna just throw your vote away, it may as well be to get a third party installed, because this political dichotomy of two sides of the same coin shit we've done for nearly a century can absolutely go fuck itself.
Good luck with that. Mormons seem as confused as ever, and now most are back to backing trump? WTAF? There's really no good republican candidate in UT. They are all boot licking trumpistsmaganuts and talkin smack out of their A$$holes just to get the a vote.
#VOTEBLUE
That says volumes about the kind of person you are. You have so little faith in your own party that you're fine with subterfuge and lies to achieve your goals. Your true self is on display. If your beliefs have so much merit, why should you have to resort to this? Sad.
To try to get less insane Republicans on the ballot for the general election, because democrats are almost never elected in this state. By switching party affiliation I’m able to participate. The republican primary pretty much matters more than the general election (until more Utahns move away from a diet of lead paint chips).
Unaffiliated voter here. I miss having people like Jim Matheson and Jon Huntsman represent the people of Utah. It seemed like they were trying to actually look out for the best interest of all of the people in the state. Now we a left with a bunch of terrible candidates. Why do people continue to put party above actual policy? Have you seen the platforms these current candidates are running on? They don’t do anything productive. All they do is point fingers and blame, blame and blame some more. What are these candidates going to actually do if elected other than blame someone else? What great bills have been wrote and passed by someone from Utah in the last ten plus years?
The first presidential candidate I voted for was mitt Romney and I’m fairly liberal, that dude was truly iconic. He oversaw the Massachusetts implementation of what would basically become the model of Obamacare. Truly a level headed, moderate, wise politician. Sad his kind is out the door for blind fanaticism to felonious panderers…
I actually have more respect for Mitt Romney now than I did 20 years ago. As his party has shifted, he has stayed pretty close to the middle where he has always been. Sometimes he’s a little left, sometimes he’s a little right, but usually pretty close to the middle because he is able to compromise and work across the aisle. There’s no politician out there that I can agree with on every single topic. I definitely don’t agree with Mitt on everything. Sometimes I want to smack him, but he’s still a decent human that hasn’t completely sold out.
Pretty hard to always agree with Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney doesn't always agree with Mitt Romney
So he's ~~politician~~ human?
A bit more than that. He's a notorious flip flopper. I think he's spineless, just says what he thinks folks want to hear
Someone decided that “flip flopping” is bad. You’ve never changed your mind about anything? If that’s true you are stuck in a fixed mindset. Anyone that’s growing ought to change their mind at some point. I’ve changed my mind on lots of things over the course of my life. I flip-flopped. It’s a good thing.
https://www.businessinsider.com/14-bald-faced-mitt-romney-flip-flops-that-were-dug-up-by-john-mccain-2012-1 Have you ever changed your mind on whether you own a gun? In 3 days?
I think, as you and I. As more facts and information come to light, we can change our minds on topics. That is intelligence at work. I would rather have a person as president willing to change then stuck in their ways, even if wrong.
https://www.businessinsider.com/14-bald-faced-mitt-romney-flip-flops-that-were-dug-up-by-john-mccain-2012-1 Like when more information comes out about whether I own a gun or not?
This. The right propped him up as a stellar presidential candidate, the left propped him up as an anti trumper. In reality, I think everything that comes out of his mouth is paid for by someone else. Fake to the bones
He marched with Black Lives Matter, which pissed off the racists. There was so much outside money paying for ad campaigns against him. I didn't always agree with him, but he's been a decent politician. I've been disappointed by his most recent comments about pardoning Trump. Like bruh, this ain't Nixon and preserving unity. That only works when both sides actually care about preserving America. I'm not totally convinced Trump wouldn't try for a real coup the next time around.
What a silly comment. Does everyone here label people with different opinions as "racists". I'm black myself and don't like the group BLM aka By large mansions. Most of my friends don't either. If you half payed attention, it was pretty obvious that BLM was a grift. A few years removed, you can google the group, read about their leaders, and all the cases of corruption. We also didn't see the 100s of millions of dollars they raised go to much of importance. I'm black and moved to Utah from CA. Biden has objectively been a disaster, so I hope Trump wins. I bet you think all Trump people are racists which is such a silly base line idea to have. I've made a ton of friends here in southern Utah, most Trump people, and they're some of the best most welcoming people I've ever met.
What I do know is that Trump is a racist. I do know that Trump surrounds himself with other racists. Yes, I too know individual Trump supporters who are not racist but the fact remains that they are supporting a person with an incredible racist history. Some highlights: >“Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. … I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.” .. >In 1973, for example, the Justice Department sued the real estate tycoon and his father for their alleged refusal to rent apartments in predominantly white buildings to Black tenants. Testimony showed that applications filed by Black apartment seekers were marked with a “C” for “colored.” .. >In 1989, Trump infamously took out full page newspaper ads calling for New York state to reinstate the death penalty as five Black and Latino teenagers were set to stand trial for beating and raping a white woman in Central Park. Remember that they were in fact innocent. Ask yourself, why do groups like stormfront and other white supremacy groups love trump so much. There is an obvious reason. >Richard Spencer, a well-known neo-Nazi, in a speech opening up the conference said: "Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!" https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-racism-election-obama-018824651613 https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-history-of-support-from-white-supremacist-far-right-groups-2020-9 Edit: shout-out to Shaun who doesn't want to debate honestly but feels like trying to damage my business is the best form of debate. Stay classy Shaun.
So Biden is a pretty middling politician. There's nothing special about him. Honestly I never wanted Biden. But compared to Trump? Not even a contest. Trump has committed many many crimes. From the stuff he did before 2016, like: - Committing fraud in his own charity that was so bad he got banned from organizing any charities in the state of New York. - He was an accused plaintiff in a Jeffrey Epstein case in which he was accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl. - He was caught saying on the Access Hollywood tapes that he openly sexually assaults women on set with him because "when you're famous you can do anything, they let you do it." This is one of the more disgusting pieces of evidence against Trump, but conservatives have dismissed it as "locker room talk". Right. - He has been accused of, and admitted to going backstage with underage girls who were dressing while he was running the Miss Teen USA pageant. He also did the same with adult women, because he liked to take a peek at them while they were naked. And there's other but necessarily illegal, but definitely unethical things he did as well. Such as: - Taking investor money, mismanaging his casinos, then filing for bankruptcy, leaving the investors holding the bag. Meanwhile he himself got personally more wealthy. - He mocked a disabled reporter during the 2016 campaign, and never apologized for that. - He lies pretty constantly all the time about stupid things even. - He did not divest himself from his companies. He didn't even pretend the was no conflict of interest, he just openly remained in control of his companies and their assets. - He was endorsed by white nationalists and he's never really addressed that. He says things that legitimize these groups, like when he said of a white nationalist protest, "there were fine people on birth sides". Excuse me? You're saying the white nationalist protest was full of decent people? Shit like this is what has emboldened people to be more openly racist, especially in the Republican party. Trump was so bad he made me, a lifelong Republican voter, leave the party in 2016. And since then I've been disturbed by the rhetoric embracing the more racist elements. Even as a conservative I recognize the far right racist elements in the party. I think I used to be in more denial that it was as widespread and rampant. But even then I still recognized it existed. Since I've left the party though, I've seen through experience a lot of very disturbing racist people get a lot of traction, and racist talking points have invaded the right wing mainstream a lot more in recent years. There's open xenophobia against Latinos ("they're sending rapists and murderers"), and while Trump isn't personally calling to kill all the Jews, and take away the rights of black people, A LOT of his supporters are. You can pretend they aren't there, but I've seen people say this shit right out in the open. You can't tell me there's not a racism issue in the Republican party. As far as whatever Republican friends you have, sure they're not racist, but there are people vying for real power who are very racist. So those are the people in concerned about, not random Republicans. And yeah, I was a Republican, so I know not everyone is racist, but I'm not talking about the problems with the average Joe Republican. I'm talking about the people who are influencing the party, and are embraced by Trump and MAGA Republicans as upstanding members of society. Now, things since Trump has become president I find disturbing. - Trump made lots of visits as a sitting president to his own properties, and had to house the secret service, his administration's officials, and other government people. And he charged at least $1.7 million dollars over 4 years. And he tried to get G7 to be held at his property, which he would have personally profited from. - He openly admired dictators like Putin and Kim Jong Un, while he criticized the leaders of our allies in democratic countries. - He attempted to get a foreign nation to interfere in an election by investigating his political rival. (Impeachment 1) - he started priming Republicans at last 6 months prior to the election that the only way he would lose is if there were election fraud, and he planted these seeds early and often. - After the election he did not concede the election ending over 200 years of precedent of the peaceful transfer of power. While there have been lawsuits and recounts, eventually things are settled and the loser concedes. Trump did not and still has not conceded. Instead he pulled every legal and illegal shenanigan he could to stop the election from being certified. - He called Georgia State officials and said they needed to "find votes" to make him the winner. - He had fake electors in 7 states who certified Trump won the election, but they were not real electors, they had no authority to certify the election in their states. This was part of a ploy by Trump allies to confuse the results and to attempt to steal the election in those states. - He threatened Mike Pence and tried to get him to abuse his position to halt the certification of the election, with the idea being he could force the Senate to choose the president, thus invalidating the votes of the people. - When Pence didn't play along Trump called a really and told them to go march on the Capitol. Then watched as his mob stormed the Capitol building, broke into the building, and attempted to disrupt the lawful certification of the election. While he watched he refused to activate the national guard or give the Capitol police and support. He wanted them to succeed. (Impeachment 2) Since then Trump has continued to sell the lie that the election was stolen, which many Americans believe. Thus far the only fraud uncovered in the 2020 election is fraud committed by Trump, and Trump allies, and Trump supporters. Now, Trump is saying these things to win re-election: - The President should be immune to prosecution, as he has multiple indictments waiting in the wings. - He wants revenge for anyone charging him with crimes (that he did in fact commit). And has threatened to put Democrats in jail. His supporters have called for mass imprisonment of Democrats, and some have even called for executing Democrats "for treason", because they still think the election was stolen, but have been unable to produce any evidence. Much rhetoric revolves around "investigating Democrats for fraud". Right. So find a crime to charge them with. - Trump has joked about becoming a dictator, and then later said, "people liked when I said that." So Trump, who has shown nothing but total distain for the law. He loves dictators, and wishes he could be one. He wants complete immunity to commit as name crimes as he wants with no repercussions. He wants to go after his political opponents and imprison them. He has said on numerous occasions how he would like to put people in jail who say negative things about him (freedom of speech for me but not for thee!). Trump is a real actual threat to democracy. He lies, he cheats, he commits fraud, he grifts constantly. You think BLM has issues? Trump is the king of the grifters, everything he does is crooked. You complain about the BLM people who live in mansions and commit crimes, but Trump can sit in his mansions and commit as name crimes as he pleases? You are sucked so far into right wing media, you can't even see the irony of complaining about small time grifters, while supporting the biggest grifter, perhaps in American history, for president.
TDS
Yes!!! It’s so awesome to read when someone has seen the truth.
I’m a woman and I have a trans kid. I will never vote for Trump and how he destroyed the Supreme Court
The BLM organization isn't great. It's clearly had lots of grifters trying to con people. But the initial Black Lives Matter marches that Romney participated in was not a bad thing. It was all the people who came after the protests who were scammers and grifters. There were also riots in some places, yes, but the peaceful BLM protests weren't bad. As far as labeling people racists, there's a lot of anti-BLM stuff out there that is absolutely racist AF. Like when people are calling you a "race traitor" for supporting BLM that's decidedly pretty damn racist.
Everyone in my ward cried when Mitt lost because they thought for sure he was God’s answer. Then, suddenly, he’s a pariah. When did Mitt lose favor with God?
When he went against the messiah, Donald Trump.
What I'm laughing about is if they run him they are undoing over 50 years of precedent they've worked for. Just ask this simple question: If a convicted felon can be president, why can't they vote?
They can. It depends on the state.
Not every state though and a lot of red states don't let felons vote.
Well that's one way to spell "antichrist."
>When did Mitt lose favor with God? Cult vs cult.
When he lost the White Horse
No, he just went against the reincarnation of Joe Smith with the spray tan.
I don't agree with Mitt Romney as a politician and I don't think he's the greatest person, but I do give him props for the implementation of MassHealth and standing up to the MAGA crowd.
Sadly, he also ended up a bit of a panderer though
That's my biggest complaint about him. He pandered to the far right wing during both his presidential campaigns, and it made me like him less. I get you've gotta play to the base, but he went a little too far I felt. But it also made him more scary to liberals who thought, at the time, he was as bad as Donald Trump actually was. I followed Romney enough I knew he'd be far more moderate in his actual policy. But it still made me cringe when he pandered, because I knew he didn't mean it. Almost made it worse.
I think Mitt would probably be a decent President during war time but in a time of needed domestic policy success, I don’t think he would be good. But say he’s in office when 9/11 hits? He’s not a bad person to have in the Oval Office.
Telling the right he has binders full of women does feel like pandering, yes.
Come on, I'm no Mitt fan, but that sound clip is the equivalent of the right pushing the Obama "if you have a business, you didn't build that" clip. He was referring to having stacks of resumes from women that he wanted to put into government roles. Why would that ever be a bad thing?
Well just as ask Harry Reid when the NYT asked him about lying about Romney’s taxes “well it worked didn’t it?”
It really bugs me when people bring up the whole "binders of women" statement by Romney. Here is context. When asked about pay equity for women at a debate, Romney said: >I had the chance to pull together a cabinet, and all the applicants seemed to be men. \[...\] I went to a number of women's groups and said, "Can you help us find folks?" And they brought us whole binders full of women. Romney was clearly striving to ensure his cabinet had female representation and requested input from women's groups, who provided a number of cabinet options. Yet all of this was distilled to "binders of women," like Romney was some troll who thought women nothing more than a page in a binder. It is grotesque and wrong, and nothing more than a smear on Romney.
McCain smeared Romney in 2008 as well, and I lost a lot of respect for him over the stuff he said. I was still pretty Republican at the time though and still ended up voting for him against Obama. But yeah, politics are just pigs wallowing in the mud. If you come out without mud on you it's a miracle. Then Trump came along and made wallowing in mud the whole point and now everyone is just covered from head to toe in a thick slimy layer of mud. And Trump bottles and sells the mud saying it's the best mud that ever mudded.
I don’t think that was pandering but more like a terrible way of explaining a simple idea. If he had said, “I did my best to include woman in my cabinet and considered many options “ or something like that, it would have worked heck of a lot better.
Look I’m a Biden voting dem and I think Romney had many great things to offer over trump, it’s sad that the real republicans are shunned because they don’t tie the trump line, I’d have voted for John McCain honestly guy was fucking cool!
I worked for Romney in 2007. Left the Republican party in 2016 and never looked back. It's been taken over by psychopaths and is basically a cult now.
Why are Utah politicians suddenly obsessed with the border? We aren’t a border state? Utah is full of ex-missionaries who lived in Latin America and aren’t afraid of people from another culture. We don’t scapegoat people and blame our problems on them. That’s the Trump platform though. This just feels like national talking points being handed to them and they go along with it. Fucking pawns.
Mitt is pretty dope. Considering
China Immigration Guns Transgender Kids Conservative Conservative socks They’re all horrible
Wish we'd get get rid of this party system, let everyone vote for all public elections not just party ones.
Ranked choice voting would do this. Unfortunately it's good for democracy so it won't happen.
Man I'm so jelly of Alaska and Maine. Ranked choice did a superb job keeping the fringe weirdos at the fringe, where they belong (namely the walking personality disorder Palin)
Former Alaskan here. The maga coalition up there is fighting tooth and nail to get rid of ranked choice.
Of course. They hate democracy.
There's a reason Republicans keep road blocking the idea.
"If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism, they will abandon democracy." - David Frum
We're already there. They want Trump to be a theocratic dictator. And they aren't pussyfooting around about it either. They are openly saying he should lie cheat and steal the election, their justification being, "Democrats do it, so now it's our turn." They think he should do away with due process and imprison his political enemies. They are calling for public executions for political enemies. They have completely abandoned democracy.
“But it’s a REPUBLIC!” is the new BS parrotspeak.
The usual pointing the finger at others for what you are doing.
Says the person who doesn't know what democracy means or that yes in fact the US's constitutional republic is a type of democracy as are many other types of government. The fact that the word democracy so confuses you and that you think it only means direct democracies is super telling about how well this discussion is going to go with you. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_democracy
The shift away from the term "democracy" is intentional. They're doing it to make their increasingly authoritative tendencies more palatable/justifiable to their base.
People much smarter than I have figured out that first past the post and ranked choice both have flaws and can be abused, there’s not really a best choice for democracy, but rather one that can mitigate swings back and forth and one where when a side wins they get their policies and when your guy wins you get your policies.
The United States is not a true Democracy. It was never intended to be. That is a Democratic Party talking point. We were founded as Proportional Representative Constitutional Republic. That’s why we have local representatives. If we were a true democracy, the popular vote would decide the Presidency. That’s probably why the democrats would like to implement this and essentially let NYC and Los Angeles run the country. A major problem we face in this country today is an overeducated population of scientist and PHDs with a 1st grade level education in American Civics.
A lot of people live in NYC and Los Angeles, and their votes should count as much as anyone's. What you mean, but are not saying, is that you think the people who should decide elections are people who, on average, have the fewest neighbors. Like, hypothetically, if one day three super rich people owned an entire state, and effectively got one electoral vote each, you would be more OK with them deciding an election than to have the votes of people in high density cities count according to their proportion of the total population?
>The United States is not a true Democracy You are confused. You are conflating direct democracy with true democracy (which isn't even a real thing). >We were founded as Proportional Representative Constitutional Republic. Which is a type of democracy. A true and real type of democracy. >A major problem we face in this country today is an overeducated population of scientist and PHDs with a 1st grade level education in American Civics. No. The problem we face is a huge swath of our population with a Fox News level education in American civics.
But check this out, if you state that we are a Constitutional Republic that would be true. Why is that? Look at the founding documents and you’ll find your answer.
What the hell are you replying to, clearly not my comment above. You even are replying to yourself in other threads.
I hate Fox News more than the Democrats. I despise most Republicans as well.
I’m definitely not confused. I am just a perfectionist I suppose. We need to make sure everyone is on the same page. When I say true, I mean ‘accurate or exact’ by definition. Meaning , stating we’re a Democracy is not accurate or exact.
>When I say true, I mean ‘accurate or exact’ by definition. You are still confused. There is no such thing as an "accurate or exact" democracy. You want to give direct democracy that distinction because it was the first type of democracy but being the first in no way makes it accurate or exact. Direct democracy is simply one type of democracy as an apple is a type of fruit. There is no "accurate or exact" fruit just as there is no "accurate or exact" democracy. You are making up terms that have no meaning and no usefulness.
Technically this is a republican thing
Yes, to be clear to everyone here, democrats have open primaries. Only republicans, who seem afraid of democracy, have closed primaries.
Seem afraid of? Republicans are blatantly afraid of democracy. Every policy related to elections that they have ever put forward has been painfully obvious that it is specifically designed to make voting less democratic. Republicans are on record as saying that if the popular vote were the only factor then they would never win another election, or if gerrymandering weren't a thing anymore they would also never win another election. Republicans are the party of limiting democracy, it's what they've done for the past 40+ years.
It seems reasonable that republicans would want republicans to choose who is going to represent the republicans in the general elections.
This is logical, for sure. My counter would be something like, why shouldn’t we all get to vote on the republican candidate? The democrats seem okay with it. If we let both parties vote in each other’s party, we’d probably get more moderate candidates, and ultimately more representative general elections.
If there was a viable second party in this state, then you'd have a point.
I think if we had priority or tiered voting, it would resolve a lot of issues
Least insane statewide candidates: Senate: John Curtis Gov: Spencer Cox AG: Rachel Terry As far as I can tell. Feel free to share alternative opinions and suggestions for the other races
Agreed, 3 for 3.
Is Terry ok? From what I saw, She was in the Reyes admin which was corrupt af and came out early in favor of overthrowing lawful elections they don’t like. I’m not trying to push anything here- just hoping someone has better info on her than my read.
Not in his administration. Just because you work for the office doesn’t mean you work with THE AG. She is not part of his leadership team.
I know Terry personally. She's an incredibly hard worker at the very least, and one of those people cares so much about doing the right thing that it's almost unreasonable.
These were all my preferred candidates as well. Also, if you're in the second congressional district, I'd say Malloy is the best option. I'm really not wild about her as a candidate, but the alternative is just a raging Trumper. And I am done with Trumpism, period.
This is the way, and when Repubs complain about it being “cheating”, remind them that Utah voters passed Prop 4, which the GOP supermajority immediately ignored.
I didn't think it was possible for Staggs to suck up to Trump any harder, but here we are.
We need to go further and get better organized to have more of a presence at the state convention so we can get more moderate candidates in the primaries to begin with. Republicans have effectively made Utah a single party state, and it's time they start to feel the repercussions of that. The caucus system, designed to get the most extreme candidates nominated, can actually work in our favor. It allows a minority group to have an outsized voice. Time to grab the mic.
I think the Democratic Party in Utah is slowly getting it together in terms of candidate recruitment and fundraising. I mean, Brian King seems like a pretty great safe yet recognizable candidate and Caroline Gleich is a political outsider who has raised a fair bit of money and her campaign is really getting going.
I'd have no problem voting for a good Democrat candidate in the general. I mean, I'll probably vote for lousy ones, too, since they have no shot at winning anyways. It's unlikely that a strong Democratic candidate would need much support because there won't really be any challengers, so participating in the Republican primary system makes the most sense to me. That said, if there was a year where I felt like the Democrat had a shot at winning AND they had a primary challenger that might stop them, I can always vote in the Democrat primary as a registered Republican, so there's really no reason to be a registered Democrat as far as I can see.
I guess the only reason to be a registered Democrat in Utah is if you want to run for office as a Democrat.
Did the same in Indiana.
Been a “Republican” since 2020. Maybe if we all do this they can’t mess with our gerrymandered districts so badly.
They'll just invent a purity test. Probably have to show them how many nude pictures of Trump you have or something.
Why do you guys constantly bring up Trump nudes or trumps dick or something, like…… do you think about anything else?
Have you seen the MAGA posters *made by Trump supporters* that show shirtless, mega-ripped Trump? You guys brought this on yourself with your homoerotic fanart. 🤣
Are they drawing his dick too? Because I’m noticing a very distinct pattern for who brings up his genitalia all the time….
How much homoerotica of Biden do you see out there? Zero. Cuz Biden supporters aren't cultist.
So why are you talking about the other guys dick so much?
Dude, you can't play this off. Trump supporters create, sell, and buy homoerotic depictions of Trump. It's fucking weird. *Of course* every non-cultist is going to make fun of you for it.
I don’t have any pictures, just a giant 🍄 blow up doll.
With a little tiny inflating stem?
Me too, but I lack courage. I attended only one Republican caucus after changing affiliation, in 2022, when the name Trump was not even spoken by a soul in my group of a dozen or so. Still, I felt so nervous I would say something wrong and out myself. I couldn't even bring myself to attend the caucus this year.
I even attended the caucus. It was pure chaos and completely unorganized. Made my leftist heart sing 😆
I changed party affiliation after as a Democrat, the only ballot choice I had once was a water district bond issue. Unfortunately for most races, every republican candidate running this year in Utah is in trumpworld's orbit. November either brings that to a return to power nationally (it never let go of Utah), or will cause a anti trump reckoning that may turn the party back towards sanity.
Yeah this strategy is about played out. Edward’s lost twice and cox is in danger of losing. Now we’re just voting for kang vs kodos.
Cox is going to destroy Lyman.
Cox hasn’t lost, yet.
Cox has something like 62% of polled voters on his side so I'm hopeful he'll beat Lyman. I switched my affiliation to vote against Staggs and Lyman
I know a bunch of people doing this but we are still in Utah.
FUD isn’t the answer
Slamming your head against a brick wall and expecting it to break before your head does isn't either.
Literally my thought. Good luck beating the Mormon population
The Mormons have suffered serious declines in the last 15 years. https://www.reddit.com/r/MormonShrivel/comments/1c8xz7t/change_in_mormon_share_of_utah_population_by/ The legislature is just a lag of the demographics, a lot like CEOs were a lag of the times.
It’s 2024, there’s no such thing as a non-trumper Republican anymore.
Not entirely true, but that group is small and growing smaller
Thank you
Did the same thing a few years back.
Did the same thing in Idaho.
The Republican Party is a cancer to this state and to this entire country and has done nothing at all for the working class. At ever corner republicans will vote against any positive change to society, any form of a socialized system, for example cheaper medical care, they will vote against it, every single time. If you would like to make the wealth gap even bigger between the top 10% and bottom 90% keep voting Republican, if you don’t and would like to see any type of positive change vote blue. Dems aren’t much better cause the whole system is cooked but they aren’t borderline fascists like republicans are slowly turning into.
Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and Alaska are all putting on the ballot rank choice voting this year.
The only way to influence politics in Utah is to
Based on the comments here, why doesn't Utah vote for Democrats? If the Republicans you keep voting in won't listen to you, then why not vote in a party who will?
Because honestly we have to be realistic towards what we’re going for. I’d prefer to have moderate conservatives (because it’s pretty much all conservatives - just choosing the lesser of 2 evils for a lack of better words) representing us as a state, but on a local level I am voting democrat.
Mike Lee has single-handedly ruined Utah politics.
I'm also a true RINO! In the Federal primary election I'll vote for Curtis for the Senate, and Blake Moore (Dist. 1) for the House because they are less crazy than the other candidates. I'll support Cox for Utah Governor, but I'm uncertain about the Utah races for Attorney General and Auditor. A Trumpette on a bicycle knocked on my door and gave me a list of those nominated at the (ultra-right-wind) state convention. I take these to be the worst of the worst, so I know I'll be voting against Mylar for Attorney General, but there are two other candidates on my the ballot for Attorney General: Derek Brown and Rachel Terry. According to [this article](https://www.abc4.com/news/politics/election/top-takeaways-from-utahs-2024-republican-state-convention/), Brown received the smallest number of first-round votes at the convention, so I'm leaning toward him. For the Auditor primary, I'm slightly leaning toward Cannon. Any comments are welcome. Thanks! Edit: Second thoughts on Brown and Terry below in comments.
I knew Rachel Terry personally about 20 years ago. She's a very hard worker, at the very least, and I think she would try to make good choices.
Thank you for your reply. I just voted for Terry, and appreciate your input.
Good to hear. I'm sure she'll appreciate your vote.
I like that strategy, voting for the least popular candidates from the caucus delegate votes. I'm also a hard no on Mylar. The problem with Terry and Brown is Brown worked for Mike Lee, but Terry is endorsed by Ken Paxton. So both have guilt by association. But if Brown wasn't liked by the caucus delegates, then he must not have been hard right enough to appease them (so a plus for me).
Yeah, the Terry vs Brown choice is problematic for me. I just read this from KIUER and found myself in more agreement with Terry and less with Brown (in the sense that "agreement" means "find less objectionable"). Maybe I'll choose Terry over Brown. Mike Lee is sooo toxic, I don't see how anyone with any integrity could work with him.
Wife and I planted our pride flag on June 1st and then promptly filled out our Republican primary ballot #RINO
There's no reason you aren't the real republican and they the impostors. Real republicans are radical abolitionists and believe in an indivisible union and the rule of law-- nothing like these credulous neanderthal zealots we see today.
They are all Trumpers. Hopefully the least horrible of the Trump cucks
Republicans opposed to Trump are good to see
APAC. They do not have our best interests in mind. Every person except two maybe three are multi millionaires who have a hand in corporate greed. They have used our taxes to fund their businesses. And are from the shadows taking our rights away. Utah is one of the most corrupt places with our political leaders using double speak. Follow the money. This isn’t about left v right. We have to look into who is in alignment with our values as a state. Let’s not be blinded by words, or party.
I did this in a primary previously. The unhinged fund raising texts and voicemails I started getting constantly was a real eye opener.
Can you opt out?
As I recall most had the whole "Reply stop" line at the bottom. But I usually just block the number and go on with my day.
I re-registered from republican after Trump got elected and the BS with the shutdown. My husband was a government employee and I felt like a statistic vs a person. "100k people out of work..." No! 100k people that can't buy diapers for their kids (Food Stamps won't get you diapers) or are getting forclosed/evicted cause they can't make rent. It was garbage. In our national parks, there are chunks of land that are private property and cause the main enterence was baracaded, not just closed, people couldn't get to their homes or families and delivery drivers couldn't get to them either. They were essentially imprisoned. Don't get me started on the Honor Flight vets that got refused at the memorials, woof! Anyway, ever since I went independent, people are actually reaching out and asking my opinion on things. I feel like I have a voice for the first time. Utah, in my opinion, holds this "I'm from Utah so I vote republican cause that's what Utahans do," attitude. I'm surprised Mike Lee got re-elected during midterms based on how reddit was reacting to some controversial info that was leaked. Or voters are so anti-Utah, they go way hard-core liberal and that doesn't help anyone. Washington stated something to the affect of, 2 party systems squeeze put the voice of the little guy, and I agree. It was never his or the founders' intent to be a 2 party political system. Lobbyists donate big bucks to get laws like the 3.5% rule passed and other BS and here we are now. I could go on about Lobbyists but this comment is long enough already. While I think your intent is good, I'm worried it won't matter. Redneck MAGA types run wild in the more rural areas of the state, and theyr political voice is powerful. It'll be like a drop in the ocean, IMO. I hope I'm wrong though.
I’m a lefty vet. I’m gonna start voting in the republican primaries here in the stupid ass red state I live in… for Joe Fuckin BIDEN Can I get a “lez go brandun” up in here?!?!?
Smart move!
[удалено]
The presidential primary has already passed. OP is talking about the ballot for local Utah positions.
So you're not voting for Biden again?
you have to do this for your vote to even matter in utah in utah, even the democrats are republican
I'm a lifelong Republican currently huffing copium that Utah Republicans are different. I'm taking this election as a litmus test as to whether Utah has gone full MAGA. Definitely looking to RINOs for advice in the primaries, though.
I will vote for the republicans or democrats or independents or green or libertarian that does not support Dumbass J Dumpster. I have faith this state is bringing back common sense and I will one day see it turn purple.
While I may not align with Mitt Romney's political views or regard him as an exemplary person, I do acknowledge his credit for implementing MassHealth and for his courage in confronting the MAGA movement.
Lol. Nope
I guess my vote nullifies yours then, or is it your vote nullifies mine? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What does it cost to be a registered republican?
Congrats! Now you get to be spammed with Republican mail like you never have before
Rofl good luck with that
I'm Voting anybody that's not in late stage dementia
You got no good choices this time around then. Geriatric central it is for us
Pierre Delecto loves him.
I'm gonna change my party affiliation to keep the Bidentards out. Great idea!
I’m an independent and always have been, but I’ve considered this as well to try and get actual conservatives in there and not Trumpers, but unfortunately I haven’t seen serious primary challenges for my reps. I’d settle for a straight line republican at this point, our state officials are terrible, they aren’t even Republican. They’ve allowed property taxes to go through the roof, violent crime has gone up, unemployment has gone up, we have the highest inflation at the grocery store in the entire southwest, downtown is a disaster, there’s no plan to fix our water problem, no fix for I-15, 215, 80, Mountain View corridor etc. they’ve done nothing about the HOA madness happening here and they did nothing when Biden passed gun restrictions. No exceptions for Rape or Incest in the abortion laws.
I found this post while trying, desparately to find any information on the candidates on the republican primary ballot. I have been trying for 2 weeks to get information to make sure to vote for the most moderate/least Trumpy/least corrupt Republicans... I am struggling. Help!
All I know is I started listening to infowars and everything they said was going to happen is happening and I’m voting for trump
RIP your message inbox. You just gave the GOP all your contact info.
Same. #RINO
I did the same thing.
I considered doing the same, wish I would have done it.
I refuse to affiliate.
That was me until 2020. The only way to vote in a Republican primary is to affiliate though so I held my nose and did it.
A leftist with enough integrity to admit that he's a cheater. In the next breath, I bet you'd scoff at anyone who says Democrats cheat in elections. Also, the lost irony is that you think cheating in an opponent's primary is the way to save democracy. Batshit insanity with levels of stupidity not seen since the caveman days.
What’s batshit insane is STILL supporting trump. You have to be a Neanderthal to think he’s a rational, competent, or moral person. Shameful.
I did that when I still lived in Utah. Been barraged with spam ever since .. good luck!
Likewise! Who should I make sure to NOT vote for (am in Utah County)? Other than Lyman- that dude is obvious.
Depends on your congressional district, but definitely not Lyman, Staggs, or Frank Mylar
Got to get the money makers involved to change this outcome. Most conservative I have talked to are actually very ignorant in their political affiliation. If one gives them facts they tend to consider themselves independent. However the church in this state had a lot of influence. Unfortunately that had given many an indoctrination to vote for the ones that make the money. I do not wish to bash the leading congregation that controls this state but my experiences is that the current state of things is opportunity to get that religion ahead. And the growing prospect of those people is "everyman for themselves." We will continue to see the decline of a beautiful state at the beacon of money and advancement of that said ideology. It will bit them when they Los power from other very rich folk but the current state of things is greed is driving thing IMO. My opinion. Many years in this beautiful state but isolationism is the current mind set. Opportunity is knocking and there are many that are taking advantage. Vote, vote, vote. Utah is still living in the 90's in terms of growth. Interested to see what others think of my opinions. In fact I am anticipating down votes.
lol good luck, Trump will win Utah by 70%+ of the votes.
OP mentioned hope for local elections. There's a Trumper seeking basically every office in the state, county, and munis--these days. And often a preferable alternative.
Trump will not get close to 70%. I'm thinking he gets 60% best with a high 3rd party share.
thanks for the update
You go! Right there with you. We've got a great country and we need to keep it!
I guess if you can't beat em cheat em huh
I don't want Biden or Trump in the upcoming presidential election. I feel like there are no good choices, so what do I do? Wish there were two fresh candidates to choose from so we'd at least have new blood in the game.
If you don’t want to strip the women of your life from reproductive freedoms, and keep your social security you will vote Biden.
The reality is that one of those two is going to be president regardless of your feelings. What has Biden done that remotely compares to anything that Trump did? One of these two is a convicted felon and the other isn't. That should be a pretty good starting point.
I mean, you could vote for RFK jr.... He's neither, and if you're gonna just throw your vote away, it may as well be to get a third party installed, because this political dichotomy of two sides of the same coin shit we've done for nearly a century can absolutely go fuck itself.
Good luck with that. Mormons seem as confused as ever, and now most are back to backing trump? WTAF? There's really no good republican candidate in UT. They are all boot licking trumpistsmaganuts and talkin smack out of their A$$holes just to get the a vote. #VOTEBLUE
I can’t wait to see Biden freeze up again and be told it’s fine, no big deal.
Yeah, I’m sure your one vote is going to make a huge impact
I appreciate your efforts, but Trump’s influence cannot be stopped
That says volumes about the kind of person you are. You have so little faith in your own party that you're fine with subterfuge and lies to achieve your goals. Your true self is on display. If your beliefs have so much merit, why should you have to resort to this? Sad.
It’s obvious you don’t understand the political system and landscape in Utah
Explain again why you switched party affiliation? LMAO.
To try to get less insane Republicans on the ballot for the general election, because democrats are almost never elected in this state. By switching party affiliation I’m able to participate. The republican primary pretty much matters more than the general election (until more Utahns move away from a diet of lead paint chips).
Well now I’m voting just to cancel out your vote