A rift in the Utah GOP?

Days to Utah's 2025 municipal primary elections (8/12/2025) - 22
Days until Election Day (11/4/2025) - 106
Days until the 2026 midterm elections (11/3/2026) - 470
Days until the 2028 presidential election (11/7/2028) - 1,205

On this week's episode of "Special Session":

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When he was the chairman of the Utah GOP, Attorney General Derek Brown said Utah had three distinct political parties, and two of them were the Utah Republican Party.

There's a number inside the Morning Consult tracking poll I told you about last week that sums up the divide between Republican delegates and the wider universe of Republican voters.

Among Republican voters, Gov. Spencer Cox has a +56 net approval rating (74% approve/18% disapprove). Sen. John Curtis has a similar +55 net approval with Republican voters (68% approve/13% disapprove).

Both Cox and Curtis were defeated in the delegate vote at the 2024 GOP convention. Cox lost to Phil Lyman, while Curtis was bested by Trent Staggs. As we know, Cox and Curtis went on to easy wins in the primary election.

The opposition to Cox and Curtis from delegates at the GOP convention last year does not extend to the wider universe of Republican voters, which shows the disconnect between those two groups.

That divide is the reason GOP delegates are pushing so hard to repeal SB54, which allows candidates to bypass delegates through signature gathering. Had SB54 not existed, it's likely that Lyman and Staggs would have been the Republican nominees and gone on to win in November.

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