Never Trump, Democrat, and Mitt Romney donors have swarmed to Utah Speaker of the House Brad Wilson’s campaign for U.S. Senate.
Wilson’s campaign announcement includes a who’s who of anti-Trump, Democrat, and Romney establishment backers.
This includes:
- Kem and Carolyn Gardner
- Crystal Maggelet
- Steve and Tiffanie Price
- Scott Anderson
- Gail Miller
Weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Kem Gardner, the chairman of Gardner Company, penned the op-ed, “Why Mormons should support Hillary Clinton”:
That friend and others, including myself, believe supporting Trump could weaken our nation’s moral values and make fornication, adultery, breakdown of the family, vulgarity, racism, misogyny and so forth more “prevalent and acceptable in our society.” But unlike me, many of these same friends want to support a third party candidate. I could argue they should go ahead and vote for such a person thinking as long as it is not a vote for Trump, it benefits Hillary.
…
First, I believe Hillary will be our next president. It makes no sense to support a third-party candidate that has no chance of winning and have Clinton finish third in Utah. She and Bill reached out to us. Let’s reach out to her with our support; and, second, we need a president who will protect and defend our religious liberties. In a recent letter to me, President Clinton said: “Hillary and I deeply appreciate the opportunity to discuss issues of importance to the LDS community. I learned a lot from our conversation and hope it can be the start of many more.” That is my hope as well.
Gardner has donated to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Romney’s reelection campaign, the Utah State Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, the Utah State Democratic Committee, and Put Utah First, Evan McMullin’s independent Senate campaign. Gardner also gave to Becky Edwards, a Republican primary challenger to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) during the 2022 election.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) is surrounded by reporters as he arrives at the historic Old Senate Chamber at the Capitol on November 16, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Scott Anderson, the president and CEO of Zions Bank, has donated to Sinema’s campaign, Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) Senate Committee, and Becky Edwards’s campaign.
Crystal Maggelet, who was the CEO of FJ Management, has donated to McMullin’s campaign, the Great Task PAC, the leadership PAC for Never Trump Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), and Ben McAdams’s race against Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT).
Gail Miller, a manager at the Larry Miller Group, has donated to Utah First PAC, Becky Edwards, Ally Isom, another Lee primary challenger, and McAdams.
Steve Price is the president of Price Real Estate and has donated to McAdams and McMullin.
Meanwhile, Utah Senate Republican candidate and Riverton, Utah Mayor Trent Staggs said that Utahns have a historic opportunity with a bona fide conservative that could create a “critical mass” for change in the Senate.
Listen to the interview here:
Staggs said that the establishment is trying to “prop up” an establishment “Romney 2.0” candidate.
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Staggs said.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
