Mike Lee’s Support For Trump’s Coup Attempt Could Cost GOP The Senate

Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee and his independent challenger Evan McMullin shake hands before their televised debate, on Oct. 17, 2022, in Orem, Utah. “I’m a staunch Republican, but I’m sick of him.” As the Senate minority leader and his allies focused on a half dozen states around the country with open seats or vulnerable Democrats, they largely ignored one of the most reliably conservative states in the nation ― but one where a culture of rule-following appears to have taken offense with the two-term incumbent’s attempt to help former President Donald Trump remain in power despite his election loss. A recent survey by Republican pollster David Hill on behalf of the anti-Lee Put Utah First super PAC found that 46% of Republican voters said that Lee’s work on Trump’s “fake elector” scheme made them more likely to vote against him. “It’s really the first time that Utahans have been engaged in a U.S. Senate race, in a real way, in a really long time,” said Becky Edwards, a former Republican state legislator who unsuccessfully ran against Lee in the primary earlier this year. “I believe it will be your legacy.” From Never Trump to Always Trump Lee, like so many of Trump’s current Republican supporters, started out appalled that his party was in danger of being taken over by a vulgar game show host from New York City who had a history of donating money to Democrats.