Sanpete Republicans back Trump,

Demos support Sanders

 

By Suzanne Dean 

Publisher

3-5-2020

 

The president got 4,585 out of 4,921 votes cast, which translated to 93.5 percent. Former Massachusetts governor William Weld, who is challenging Trump and is sharply critical of his presidency, got 180 votes or 3.7 percent.

In the Democratic contest, Sanders, who in the past has described himself as a “democratic socialist” and who is at the left end of the Democratic Party, got 180, just shy of 34 percent of the 532 votes cast.

Joe Biden was next, with 86 votes or 16.2 percent, followed closely by Michael Bloomberg with 84 votes or 15.8 percent. Elizabeth Warren got 78 votes or 14.6 percent.

On Wednesday morning, Bloomberg, who ran third nationwide, bowed out of the race.

The Republican vote in Utah as a whole reflected some possible reticence about Trump. Statewide, the president got 88 percent of the vote, while Weld came out with 6 percent.

On the Democratic side, Sanders ran well ahead of other contenders with close to 36 percent. Biden and Bloomberg were practically tied at 17 percent each, while Warren got 15 percent.

Referring to the Sanpete results, Steve Clark, the county Republican chairman, said, “It’s safe to say that this is still Trump country.”

He said he wasn’t surprised to see Sanders win in Utah. “A tremendous majority of Democrats in Utah are in Salt Lake County, and the Democrats in Salt Lake County are liberal compared to the Democrat Party nationwide.”

He said he was surprised at the strength Joe Biden mustered at the national level. Super Tuesday “was Sanders’ race to lose, and I think it lost it,” Clark said. “I think California is the only thing keeping him in the race.”

“I wasn’t surprised that Bernie won Sanpete and Utah overall as he also won a large majority in 2016,” said Serenity Kimball, Sanpete County Democratic chairwoman.

“I think he speaks to the concerns of our rural, working-class population.

“I’m especially thrilled with the high voter turnout. There are around 600 registered Democrats in the county and we had move than 500 voters. I hope we can get an even higher turnout in November.

Kimball said regardless of who ends up as the Democratic nominee, “I hope everyone in Sanpete County and Utah will honestly evaluate Trump and the damage he is doing to democracy and the rule of law in our country and will chose to vote him out. “

In the nation as a whole, Trump won in all of the 13 Super Tuesday states and, according to a tabulation by Yahoo, now has 827 delegates out of 1,276 he needs to be nominated for a second term. William Weld has won one delegate nationwide.

Among the Democrats, Biden won nine states—Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Massachusetts and one of the big prizes of the evening, Texas. Yahoo has him with 516 delegates out of 2,375 needed for the nomination.

Sanders won two Rocky Mountain states, Utah and Colorado; his home state of Vermont; and the top prize of all, California.         According to Yahoo, he has 455 delegates.

Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Koloucher and Tulsi Gabbard all have delegates. But with all of them except Warren and Gabbard dropping out, the race is shaping into a two-man contest between Sanders and Biden.

The Super Tuesday tallies suggested Sanpete may not be as right-leaning as neighboring counties.

In Sevier County, Weld got just 1.6 percent of the vote. And Bloomberg was the highest Democratic vote-getter by one vote. He got 83, while both Biden and Sanders got 82.

In Juab County, Weld got 2 percent. And Bloomberg won in the Democratic primary with 29 percent, followed by Biden with 24 percent and then Sanders at 23 percent.

That’s in contrast with Sanpete, where Weld got close to 4 percent and Sanders was the clear winner among the Democrats with nearly 36 percent.

Sanpete County Clerk Sandy Neill reported that about 61 percent of the 8,095 registered Republicans in the county participated in the primary, while turnout among 688 registered Democrats was close to 78 percent.

Many unaffiliated voters apparently didn’t vote. Turnout among the 11,867 total voters in the county was 46 percent.