Morning Digest: Utah election law trips up election denier
The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.
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Leading Off
● UT-Gov: State Rep. Phil Lyman announced Monday evening that he would ask the Utah Supreme Court to prevent election officials from booting his running mate, former Trump administration official Layne Bangerter, from the June 25 GOP primary ballot after an outside adviser to Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson concluded that Bangerter did not meet the state's residency requirements. The Lyman-Bangerter ticket is waging an uphill battle to deny renomination to Gov. Spencer Cox and Henderson.
The state constitution says that candidates for both governor and lieutenant governor must have been Utah residents "for five years next preceding the election." Bangerter grew up in Utah but moved away in 1990 and says he did not return until 2021. During the intervening time, Bangerter led Donald Trump's 2016 campaign in Idaho and mulled a bid for the U.S. House there the following year.