Utah Republican Convention Results

Mia B. Love wins Republican nomination in UT04

UPDATE (9:40  pm): Voting finally starts, after delay caused by bickering in the voting for another district.

UPDATE (8:15  pm): Love and Wimmer advance to round 2.  Love 53%, Wimmer 30% on first ballot.

Kenneth Gray – 1 vote, 0.12 percentSteve Sandstrom – 81 votes, 9.74 percentCarl Wimmer – 256 votes, 30.77 percentMia Love – 442 votes, 53.12 percentJay Cobb – 52 votes, 6.25 percent

If neither gets 60% on second balot there will be a primary.

UPDATE (8:00 pm): Voting closed, waiting for results.

UPDATE: (7:10 pm): Speeches in UT-04 starting, then voting.

UPDATE (5:40 pm):  WAJ: Thanks to Bryan for covering this during the day.  I’m taking over now.  Waiting for the Utah-04 Vote involving Mia B. Love.  Not really sure when it will happen, they’re doing one race at a time and they’re now on UT-02 next.  Meantime, I’ve installed the live feed at the top.

UPDATE (3:50pm): Some information of note on today’s contest between Senator Orrin Hatch and former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist (h/t Associated Press):

Utah Republicans denied U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch a clear path to a seventh and final term Saturday, forcing the 78-year-old lawmaker into a June primary with 37-year-old former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist. Hatch fell short of the nomination by fewer than 50 votes from the nearly 4,000 delegates at the party convention.Despite the setback, Hatch holds a significant fundraising edge in what has become the stiffest challenge since his election to the Senate in 1976. The eventual Republican nominee will be the heavy favorite in November because of the GOP dominance in Utah.

Hatch has clearly outpaced his opponents in fundraising efforts. He outspent Liljenquist 30-1 leading up to the convention today, spending roughly $5 million. Even though Hatch is approaching record-setting spending numbers numbers for a Utah Senate race, he still has $3 million remaining in his war chest to put towards the June Primary.

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UPDATE (3:11PM): In the second round of voting for U.S. Senate, Sen. Hatch received 59.19% of delegate votes while Dan Liljenquist received 40.81%. Having been unable to secure 60%, Sen. Hatch and Dan Liljenquist will be in a June 26 primary to determine the GOP nominee.

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UPDATE (2:40pm): The results from the race for U.S. Senate are in. Hatch received 57.2% of the vote, Liljenquist followed with 28.8%. This means that the two will face off in a primary this June for the nomination. (*Correction: There will now be a second round of voting between Hatch and Liljenquist, will post results when they come in). All other candidates failed to secure the requisite amount of votes to advance to the second round.

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UPDATE (2:29pm): Each candidate for U.S. Senate has addressed the convention. Senator Hatch closed out his speech saying, “I’ve never let you down, and I never will.” Votes for the first round of U.S. Senate race are in and voting is now closed. There is a brief break while the votes are being verified.

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UPDATE (1:09pm): No results in yet for the U.S. Congressional or Senate races. There is a live stream of the convention that can be found here. The U.S. Senate candidates are giving their speeches now, and Orrin Hatch is slated to be the final speaker.

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Today we’ll be tracking the results of Mia Love and Sen. Orrin Hatch from the Utah Republican Party State Nominating Convention. The convention is scheduled to convene at 10am MST/12pm EST and I will be periodically updating this post as the results come in.

For those who are unfamiliar with her, Mia Love is the Mayor of Saratoga Springs, and is running for the Republican nomination for the newly created 4th Congressional district. Recent polls have shown Love leading her challengers by a sizable 13-point lead, but still well short of the 60% necessary to avoid a follow up primary in June.

Orrin Hatch is the veteran Republican Senator from Utah. Having already served 36 years in the Senate, Hatch is attempting to stave off the anti-incumbent mentality that was prevalent at the 2010 convention, which led to then Sen. Bob Bennett’s inability to secure the nomination for reelection. While Hatch is the odds-on favorite at today’s convention, the big question is will he be able to garner enough votes to secure the nomination outright? From the Washington Post:

To secure the Republican nomination, a candidate must win at least 60 percent of the vote from the 4,000 delegates chosen by their neighbors last month. By all accounts, Hatch is on the cusp of that threshold while the other candidates are trailing him by significant margins.Anything short of that 60 percent and Hatch is forced into a primary. He is expected to have a distinct advantage if the race goes to that next round as well, largely because of his considerable financial strength.

Check back here for updates as the results come in.

Tags: Mia B. Love, Orrin Hatch, Utah-04 2012

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