Nearly 4,000 Republican delegates swarmed the Salt Palace in downtown Salt Lake City on Saturday morning to pick GOP nominees in races from Utah governor to state school board.
Many of the morning sessions were delayed by more than an hour because of delays with the credentialing process or problems with the electronic voting system.
Delegates were buzzing shortly after the doors opened to the convention hall because of a last-minute endorsement from former President Donald Trump for U.S. Senate candidate Trent Staggs.
“Trent Staggs is 100% MAGA, and is running to fill The Mitt Romney, a Total Loser, Seat as the next Senator from the Great State of Utah!,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Trent Staggs is 100% MAGA, and is running to fill The Mitt Romney, a Total Loser, Seat as the next Senator from the Great State of Utah! A Highly Successful Entrepreneur, who has served brilliantly as Mayor of Riverton for the past six years, Trent knows how to Create Jobs, Stop…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) April 27, 2024
Trump giving his stamp of approval to Staggs was not unexpected. Staggs has spent much of the lead-up to Saturday’s convention courting the endorsement of several figures in Trump’s orbit.
Bubbling just below the surface among many delegates is anger over 2014′s SB54, which allows candidates to advance to the primary election by gathering signatures no matter what happens at the convention.
During the morning elections for legislative and school board seats, state Sen. Curt Bramble was confronted by a delegate who demanded to know why he co-sponsored SB54.
“I didn’t co-sponsor SB54, I was the architect,” Bramble said.
Bramble, who is retiring from the Legislature this year after 24 years, said he was frustrated about the “revisionist history” that has sprung up among delegates about SB54. He explained when lawmakers created the signature path in 2014, a proposed ballot initiative was threatening to eliminate the caucus/convention system for nominating candidates altogether.
“That initiative was polling with better than 70% approval among registered Republicans and even higher among unaffiliated voters and Democrats,” Bramble said. “It was clear to me and the Legislature that initiative would pass and do away with the convention system entirely. We wanted to preserve the caucus system, and this was the only way to do that.”
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