A record turnout of delegates packed Rocky Mountain Middle School April 2 to choose the county’s Republican nominees for November.
Surrounded by candidate booths, delegates spent the evening casting votes and hearing from the Republicans running for local, state and national races. Tuesday’s convention followed a chaotic caucus night back on March 5, when some Wasatch County Republican voters reported inadequate communication and technology glitches hindered their participation.
Brantley Eason, who serves on the county Republican party’s executive committee, said the convention is a valuable time for candidates to get to know delegates.
“It’s not a race where candidates can spend a lot of money, get a lot of airtime and don’t actually have to have face-to-face interaction with the delegates,” he said.
Delegate Vivian Shirey said she’s enjoyed the process so far, including getting to know voters in her precinct.
“Any other state I lived in – Louisiana, Texas, California – you just went to vote on Nov. 4 and that was it,” she said. “But I loved getting to know my neighbors and how they thought, being able to share ideas, being able to go into the homes of the candidates and have them tell you what they would like to see happen in the county.”
She and her fellow delegates were tasked with choosing Republican nominees for county council and county assessor. Candidates needed 60% of the 234 delegates’ votes to receive the party nomination.
For the county council seat representing western Heber, incumbent Kendall Crittenden received the nomination with 70% of the votes, eliminating competitor Mary Williams from the race. He’s running for a sixth term on the council.
Three candidates vied for the county council at-large seat: Melvin McQuarrie, Colleen Bonner and Nick Lopez. McQuarrie was the first to be eliminated. In a second vote to determine the Republican candidate, organizers realized they forgot to count one ballot box.
Once all ballots were tallied, neither Bonner nor Lopez received the minimum 60% and will face off in a primary June 25.
In the race for county assessor, neither Bob Adams nor incumbent Todd Griffin secured 60%, sending them to the June primary as well.
Delegates also heard from candidates for various state and national races. Some of the major themes included immigration policy, taxes and upholding conservative values.
County GOP chair Jared Rigby said those issues are motivating Wasatch voters as the election cycle heats up.
“At the county level, it seems that most delegates were here representing that they care about the growth,” he said. “And at the federal level… there’s a lot of talk that we have a lot of work to do in Washington when it comes to the economy and immigration and individual rights.”
A primary June 25 will determine the final Republican candidates on the ballot for the Nov. 5 general election.
