Utah Republicans jubilant at prospect of Trump heading back to White House
Loud chants of "U.S.A." and "Trump" erupted at the Utah Republican Party's election night watch party as they watched Fox News projecting former President Donald Trump would win the White House just before midnight.
The crowd, many of whom donned "Make America Great Again" hats and pins supporting Utah Attorney General-elect Derek Brown (the race was called for him), gathered in Draper on Tuesday night.
Brown and Rep. Burgess Owens held their election celebrations at the Utah GOP's party. Other Republican candidates for statewide and federal offices held separate events across the state. While attendees at the party celebrated the wins Republicans tallied across the state, the focal point of the party was Trump's win.
In an interview, Brown said Trump's win will change a lot of what he does as Utah attorney general. He's traveled the state sharing his message and think his win shows the message was resonating with them.
A core part of his message was pushing back against federal overreach — this, he said, changes with a Trump administration.
Right now the federal government and agencies exceed congressional authorities, Brown said. He thinks they shouldn't.
"Eight years ago, when Trump became president, he made a concerted effort to roll back excessive regulations," Brown said. "So I would anticipate that he would do the same thing and a lot of the work that we need to do to protect the state of Utah, we don't need to do through litigation."
Instead of suing federal agencies, Brown said they will be able to work through more issues with them (but he still is looking at areas where litigation would make sense). He said he thinks there are areas where new caselaw may be necessary because of the Chevron doctrine being overruled. Brown said he's looking forward to tackling these areas as attorney general.
"A Trump administration is a massive opportunity for Utah," said Republican Party chairman Rob Axson in an interview at the party, explaining he believes the state is at a critical junction. In the next decade or so, Utah will host an Olympics and continue to grow.
"We have massive opportunities and also challenges that we have to tackle," Axson said. "Having a partner in the White House will be invaluable in that process."
Axson said anyone who has been involved in the political process for more than one cycle has seen a candidate they wanted to win lose, and vice-versa.
"The key thing now is for Americans to put in the effort of seeing one another with decency and being collaborative on good principles," said Axson. He added the Republican Party and all its elected officials and candidates have the opportunity now to showcase that their ideas and principles are good for the American public.
And then let the people decide what they think.
"You can look at the principles because it's making a difference in your life," Axson said. "Because if it's just about convincing somebody that 'oh, you should be OK with this even though it wasn't who you voted for,' that's not going to change somebody's mind."
It is Axson's hope people see how the policies of the Republican Party serve families, communities and the state well.
The election cycle in Utah has brought some division within the Republican Party. When asked about what Axson will do to bring the party back together, he said political campaigns always come with division.
"While it's certainly at times uncomfortable, and it certainly at times is unnecessarily divisive, I don't think we should shy away from being OK with the debating of ideas," he said. "It's OK to have differences of approach and differences of opinion."
Axson said he hopes the Utah Republican Party will focus on "an aspirational, consistent principle of what has worked in the past, what works now and what will work in the future and try to rally people that cause."
Ultimately, Axson said, he thinks people should focus not on scoring political points, but instead, finding solutions and building off of principles.
"I'm just extremely grateful for the opportunity countless Americans had today and over the last few weeks to cast their vote in countless races across this country and certainly in the most importance race in Congress and for the presidency," said Axson, adding Americans have the opportunity to come together and figure out how to solve complex issues now.
"I, for one, firmly believe and am confident that Donald Trump is best positioned and was the better candidate with the better ideas positioned to deliver on that," said Axson. "And now we get to see that happen."
