“People are becoming frustrated with what’s happening, and they see politics is the reason behind a lot of these problems, and they want to get engaged,” Utah GOP Chairman Carson Jorgensen said.
. There wasn’t much interest even though Mitt Romney was one of a dozen Republicans vying to take the place of Sen. Orrin Hatch, who announced his retirement from Congress earlier in the year.
The pandemic also delayed the release of census data, which impacted Utah’s once-a-decade redistricting process. The Legislature didn’t approve the new maps until November, which impacted the approval of new precinct boundaries. Now, state and county party leaders, who didn’t receive the final data until two weeks ago, are left scrambling ahead of Tuesday night’s meeting.
It is up to individual county parties to run the caucus meetings, with the state party acting in support. The Utah GOPto help party members find their caucus meetings within the last few weeks. “The program allows people to come to caucus for as little or as much time as they choose. We, of course, would love everyone to stay for the entire program, but sometimes schedules don’t allow for that,” Beltran said.Utah’s caucus meetings have lost some luster since thewent into effect four years ago. If candidates no longer must rely on delegates to win the nomination or advance to a primary, it would make sense that the incentive for taking part in the caucus would be diminished.