Many Republicans appear eager to ride the Donald Trump train to victories in 2022 and 2024. But the demand of loyalty to the former president has sharply divided the party up and down the line. 

At the federal level, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) got bumped from her House leadership position for taking a firm and unequivocal stand against Trump’s actions that fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection at the nation’s Capitol.

And Utah made national headlines when Sen. Mitt Romney — once a favorite son and party darling in the beehive state — got booed at the May 1 Republican Convention. His misdeed? He voted with Senate Democrats to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. 

While the party faithful failed to pass a resolution to censure Mitt Romney during the state convention, Weber County delegates approved a similar measure during their May 8 gathering.

According to The Hill, Trump responded with a statement reveling in Romney’s censure: “After being loudly booed at the Utah Republican Party Convention, Utah’s Weber County censured RINO Mitt Romney in the strongest of terms. Washington County Republicans also censured Romney in April. He is BAD NEWS for our Country!” 

Rep. Candice Pierucci, who represents the Herriman area in the Utah Legislature, was present to hear the boos showered on Romney.

“I was appalled by the behavior of delegates there,” Pierucci said. “I understand people are frustrated with the senator, but I just don’t think that’s the way you show someone you disagree with them.”

Carson Jorgensen, a sheep rancher from Sanpete County, was elected state party chair that day. By email, he declined to offer an opinion on the pro-Trump booing, censuring and ousting going on within the GOP.

“As party chair, it is not within the scope of my office to comment on things like that,” Jorgensen said. “My job is merely to assure that the party runs smoothly.”

When asked if he thought things were running smoothly, Jorgensen replied: “Yes! We are doing great. There are many big things to come! Very excited about the future.”

Asset or liability?

“What divide?” State Sen. Todd Weiler (R-Woods Cross) deadpanned during a recent phone interview. But then he got serious.  “I think the real question is ‘is Donald Trump our future or is he our past as a party?’”

In her speech Tuesday night on the U.S. House floor, Cheney described the danger she believes Trump poses to the country.

“Today we face a threat America has never seen before: a former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him,” Cheney said. “He risks inciting further violence.”

Weiler said Trump could also harm the GOP.

“Those who blame him for the Jan. 6 insurrection would certainly say he’s dangerous to the party and to the country,” Weiler said. “Clearly he’s dangerous to the party in the fact that he not only invokes strong opposition from Democrats, but also from a lot of independents and even some devout Republicans.”

But at the same time, Trump has carried the party to several victories.

“He’s also advantageous to the party because he inspired a lot of people to  come out and vote who normally didn’t vote at all or didn’t vote Republican. So he’s a little bit of a mixed bag there,” Weiler said.

Righting the ship?

Weber County Commissioner Scott Jenkins — a former state senator from Plain City — disagrees that Trump caused the Republican fracture.

“All Donald Trump did was take us back to our grassroots of conservatism and the Constitution. Those are the things we all fell in behind,” Jenkins said. “Trump, because of his personality, didn’t get re-elected. I was disappointed by that, but this isn’t about Donald Trump.”

To Jenkins, the division comes from too many moderates in the party.

“When the party gets too far away from its values, then people react to it a little bit … People that are strong conservatives like to pull to the right, and it keeps the party on that right edge.” Jenkins said, adding that “sometimes we get over there a little too far.”

Pierucci views Trump as a “symptom of a bigger challenge we’re having as a country.” 

“A lot of people felt marginalized and were really angry with the state of our current political process and affairs, so it was an outlet for a lot of those individuals and empowering in some ways.”

Pierucci also blames social media for hampering the ability to have civil dialogue. 

“I grew up talking politics at the dinner table. But more and more we shy away from talking about politics to avoid conflict,” Pierucci said.  “We’re in an echo chamber where we only listen to, read and consume media that reinforces our perspective.”

That insular thinking leads to demonization and dehumanization of people who believe differently, she added.

“Rather than looking at these people as our neighbors who have different ideological perspectives, they’re viewed as the enemy. At the end of the day we’re all Americans, we have to get back to that,” Pierucci said.

Running from RINO

The headline on a May 11 Washington Post article reads: “‘RINO’ used to mean Donald Trump. Now it means Liz Cheney. Republican cred is no longer defined by conservative beliefs.”

The perjorative acronym that stands for “Republican In Name Only” often nudges Republicans further to the right.

But Ricky Hatch — Weber County’s clerk auditor since 2010 — worries that too few data points are being used to determine a Republican’s true worth.

“I fear that a lot of people are using Trump as a litmus test the same way SB54 has been used as a litmus test,” Hatch said, referring to the Utah Legislature’s 2014 compromise bill that gave Republican candidates an additional path to the Primary ballot besides the caucus/convention system. A citizens initiative had threatened to do away with the latter.

That legislation — embroiled in costly court battles for years — also made national news, along with the GOP’s intense desire to maintain party purity. The dual path to the primary has the potential to give voters an ideologically broader slate of candidates.

“Regardless of whether you love Trump or hate him, or whether you love SB54 or hate it, the vetting of a candidate or a Republican is 100 times more complex and broad than those two issues,” Hatch said.

Venting and vetting

At 29, Jackson Wing was recently elected vice-chairman of the Weber Republican Party. He weighed in on allowing delegates to express themselves.

“I think the most important part of convention is letting the delegates have their say — and they did,” Wing said. “The role of the chair and vice-chair is to run the meetings in a way to let the delegates enjoy their meeting.”

Wing, a flight instructor, declined to comment on whether he voted to censure Romney. But he did address the issue of Trump loyalty. 

“The party needs to get to why we’re Republicans, that is going back to our founding principles and core values,” Wing said. “We’re all pro-life, we’re all pro-gun, we all believe in the Constitution … The party isn’t a party of one person, and it’s not the party of our elected officials. It’s the party of its members and our values.”