SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Ron DeSantis will take his presidential campaign to Utah on Friday, prioritizing a state where challenger Donald Trump has struggled in the past and could be a beacon of strength for Florida’s stalled gubernatorial bid.
DeSantis will appear at the state Capitol with a dozen supporting state lawmakers, meet with Republican Gov. Spencer Cox and attend a fundraiser.
His trip to the West comes as he has been working to restart a campaign facing financial pressures and a stagnant field position behind Trump. The former president has remained the favorite despite his mounting legal troubles, including an expected indictment in a Justice Department investigation into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“The more people see Governor DeSantis and hear about his forward-looking plan for our nation’s comeback, the more inspired they will be to vote for him as president,” campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo said in a statement .
For DeSantis, the ability to show strength against Trump in a heavily Republican state like Utah could boost his effort. In a place where conservative and religious culture has sometimes given Trump a cold reception, there are signs that there is an opening for the Florida governor.
Among those set to meet with him on Friday is state Senate President Stuart Adams, who was one of the few Republicans to support Trump in early 2016 but now supports DeSantis.
“Both are great candidates. But I think Governor DeSantis deserves a chance. I wouldn’t say anything bad about President Trump,” Adams said in an interview this week.
Trump’s history and style have long been at odds with Utah’s dominant religious culture.
More than half of the state’s residents belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the faith’s emphasis on decorum permeates its politics. Trump, a former reality TV star known for his brash personality and insulting comments about women and people of color, came in third in the state’s 2016 Republican presidential caucuses, behind Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich.
Utah was also home to the resistance campaign of Evan McMullin, a former anti-Trump Republican who launched an independent bid for the presidency in 2016.
However, Trump won the state in both the 2016 and 2020 general elections.
Utah politicians have historically prided themselves on their penchant for compromise on polarizing issues ranging from immigration to discrimination against LGBTQ residents. But the Legislature, with its Republican supermajority, has drifted to the right in recent years, in line with many red states.
He has passed laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender children and ordering school boards to convene “sensitive materials” committees to assess whether certain books should be removed from school libraries, issues that have become a key feature of DeSantis’ campaign message.
Adams, who said he was impressed with the way DeSantis has led his state during the pandemic, believes it will be a close race between Trump and DeSantis in Utah.
“I think as people get to know Governor DeSantis, he would have great support in Utah,” he said. “Utah has great family values. Governor DeSantis has great family values.”
Asked if she thought Trump didn’t have great family values, Adams said, “No, I think he has a great family.” He continued and said, “I think he loves his family.”
Republican state Sen. Todd Weiler, who helped organize Friday’s event with DeSantis, said he didn’t think the former president would win the state’s Republican primary.
“I think it’s his character when it comes to his affairs and his divorces and also when it comes to some of his rhetoric and some of his crude comments on Twitter and other things,” Weiler said. He cited the Jan. 6 attack and multiple indictments as reasons why Trump would not win the support of independents, along with his record of having already lost a presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump has even lost one of his biggest supporters in Utah: Don Peay, who helped lead Trump’s 2016 Utah effort, went hunting with Trump’s sons and once said that those who don’t supported Trump they had to “apologize”.
Peay told the Deseret News in an interview earlier this year that he no longer supports Trump and doesn’t feel he can win “because he’s living in the past.” He did not respond to messages seeking comment from The Associated Press.
Utah will be among more than a dozen states holding primaries on Super Tuesday, which falls on March 5 next year. Super Tuesday, a critical testing ground for campaigns, is the most important day on the primary calendar because it offers the largest number of delegates, which candidates must win state by state.
Unlike in 2016, when voters had to wait in long lines and attend meetings to participate in Utah’s caucuses, the state now holds a primary election. That’s expected to attract a broader base of voters, though it’s unclear what that means for the GOP camp. The winner is expected to be awarded Utah’s 40 delegates.
Cox, the newly minted head of the National Governors Association, will meet with DeSantis on Friday afternoon. He has said on numerous occasions that he would like to see a governor in the Oval Office. He and DeSantis co-headlined the state GOP convention in April.
His spokeswoman, Jennifer Napier Pearce, did not respond to a question about whether Cox is endorsing DeSantis or meeting with other candidates, but said in a statement: “As president of the National Governors Association, Governor Cox s “has spoken out about supporting candidates who are Republican Governors, including Governor DeSantis, because governors are executives who get things done. He looks forward to welcoming Governor DeSantis to Utah,”
Cox has not supported Trump in the past.
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Price reported from New York.
