UTAH, Aug. 8, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — What seems to be a light-hearted Instagram post on the page of Mary and Jon Huntsman brings up the idea of a write-in campaign for the former Utah governor.
Gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman was defeated by a thin margin in the Republican primaries in June. Winning the party’s nomination was Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, to be featured on the ballot in November’s election.
“Isabel trying to convince her Bapa to do a write in campaign,” says the Instagram post, featuring a photo of Jon Huntsman and a small girl. “He told her he’d think about it….” the post concludes.
The account has 10,300 followers.
According to a July article in political news website UtahPolicy.com, a source assisting with the potential write-in effort told the news agency, “there is a ‘large group of supporters’ currently ‘diving deep’ into the feasibility of mounting, and more importantly winning, a write-in campaign.”
The article also notes that a second source said the polling was by a “third party, not connected to Huntsman or his campaign.”
Huntsman served as Utah governor from 2006-2011. His other political positions include being Deputy United States Trade Representative (2001-2003), and ambassador to Singapore (1992-1993), China (2009-2011) and Russia (2017-2019).
I feel that Jon Huntsman would be the right person as Governor of Utah, but entering the race at this time as a write in Republican candidate would be a disaster for the Republican party and would take away much needed votes from Spencer Cox. The last thing we need is a Democrat Governor in Utah.