The Clinton Campaign Is Making A Play For Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Hillary Clinton is making an unprecedented play for the deep-red state of Utah in the final weeks of the presidential race, according to sources involved with the effort.

The Clinton campaign — which first opened a bare-bones office in Salt Lake City over the summer — will add five paid staffers to its operation here by early next week, according to a source in the state party. The campaign is also flying surrogates into Utah, and dipping into its war chest to fund advertising and organizing efforts in the state.

The campaign declined to discuss how much money it would invest in Utah, and two sources with knowledge of the strategy said the total sum would be much smaller than its spending in Arizona, another traditionally conservative state that Clinton is hoping to turn blue.

Still, the campaign believes it has a real shot in this unlikeliest of battleground states, said Marlon Marshall, Clinton’s director of state campaigns.

“There is no doubt that Donald Trump’s offensive rhetoric has made Utah more competitive than ever before,” Marshall told BuzzFeed News, adding, “We are going to make investments to talk to voters and win the state of Utah.”

Clinton’s team attributes her opening here to Trump’s extreme unpopularity with Mormon voters, and with the rise of Evan McMullin, a conservative independent candidate who has split the state’s Republican voters. Several recent polls in Utah have shown Clinton, Trump, and McMullin running virtually even in a three-way race.


https://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-clinton-campaign-is-making-a-play-for-utah?utm_term=.oykBlNLvq#.jsY5wPogb