Utah primaries test Trump’s pull in a state that has half-heartedly embraced him

PROVO, Utah (AP) — Republican voters in Utah will decide on Tuesday whether the state’s most famous moderate conservative, retiring U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, will be succeeded by someone similarly willing to challenge GOP hard-liners or a farther-right candidate who pledges to fall in line with former President Donald Trump.

The primary duel between GOP factions will test whether Trump’s influence and appeal have grown among Republican voters in Utah, a rare Republican stronghold that half-heartedly embraced the former president in past elections.

A suburban mayor, Trent Staggs, who rode Trump’s endorsement to a GOP convention nomination for Romney’s seat, is hoping it will also propel him past U.S. Rep. John Curtis, the more moderate front-runner in Tuesday’s primary.

Curtis has pitched himself as the alternative to Staggs, the mayor Riverton, and two other contenders who have spent much of the race arguing over whose policy positions most closely align with Trump’s.

Curtis, the former mayor of Provo who started out as a county-level Democratic Party official, is the only Republican in the race who has not outright endorsed Trump’s reelection bid. He has been compared to Romney for pushing back against more extreme members of his party, particularly on climate change.

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