No, Trump didn't lose ground in Utah
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Early reports that President-elect Trump lost ground in Utah compared with 2020 proved to be hasty. Photo: Allison Robbert-Pool/Getty Images
As vote tallies were being finalized last week, President-elect Trump appeared to have won Utah by a bigger margin than he did in 2020 — despite early reports that the state was one of just two where he lost ground.
Why it matters: Trump gained votes in a state that has long been viewed as lukewarm toward him.
The big picture: Utah has a reputation for Republican moderation despite being a reliably red state.
- Democrats specifically held out hope that Utah's religious culture of obedience would weigh on voters' reaction to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot and Trump's felony convictions, driving down Republican support.
Reality check: Trump won with 59.4% of the vote, outperforming his 58.1% victory in 2020.
Catch up quick: Early 2024 election returns led to claims that Utah and Washington were the only two states where Trump lost vote share from 2020 — but that proved to be a hasty call.
- Trump pulled ahead of his 2020 margins in both states as more votes were counted.
Zoom in: Trump's biggest countywide gains were in San Juan (+5.7%), Tooele and Summit (both up about 2.4%).
The intrigue: Trump also made gains in all but one of Utah's five most populous counties — Davis County, where his vote share fell about half a point.
- In Utah County, for example, Trump received more than 10,600 more votes this year than he did in 2020, gaining about a half a point of the vote share.
Stunning stat: Trump received less than 70% of votes in just 10 of Utah's 29 counties — and his vote share still grew in all but two of them (Davis and Cache).
Between the lines: As in 2020, Trump generally underperformed other Republicans on the ballot.
- And across most of the ballot, he underperformed by a greater degree this year than in 2020, which could suggest a growing gap in Republican enthusiasm for Trump versus local candidates.
By the numbers: Compared with Trump's 59.4%, Utah Republicans running for the U.S. House won 62.8% of the total vote across all four districts. Four years ago, that gap was smaller, with Republican candidates winning 61%.
- Similarly, GOP candidates for the Utah House won 69.8% of the total vote this year, up more than 3 percentage points from 2020.
Caveat: Gov. Spencer Cox and Attorney General-elect Derek Brown both underperformed Trump, winning 53% and 58%, respectively.
- But those races were affected by candidates outside the two major parties, with Phil Lyman's write-in gubernatorial campaign absorbing votes on Cox's right, and a partisan free-for-all in the AG race.
Flashback: Utah first became known as a tepid Trump state in 2016, when many Republicans voted for Evan McMullin.
- That drove down Trump's vote share relative to other red states that year.