Utah's right turn: Republican ascendancy and the 1976 U.S. Senate race

This thesis examines the 1976 United States Senate race in Utah, in which Republican Orrin Hatch, a political novice, defeated three-term incumbent Democratic Senator Frank Moss. It explores Hatch's victory as part of a statewide political shift in favor of conservative Republicans and positions Utah as a bellwether state at the front of a broader regional and national shift to the right. During the 1970s, leaders of the majority religion in Utah, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, became increasingly outspoken in favor of conservative positions on social issues such as abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment. They expressed alarm over the cultural changes associated with the liberalism that emerged out of the 1960s. These concerns combined with a longstanding distrust of federal power among Utah's population, moving the state's Latter-day Saint (LDS) voters into the Republican Party coalition. Hatch benefited from the LDS people's skepticism toward relatively liberal Democrats such as Senator Moss. The Republican challenger portrayed himself as a devout member of the church and the candidate most representative of "Mormon values." He also took advantage of the disillusionment with government that developed throughout the nation in the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate. He campaigned to reduce federal spending at a time when many voters struggled with an economic recession and resented that tax dollars were being used to support redistributionary federal policies benefiting minorities and the underclass.