After being shut out at the polls in 2014, Tooele County Democrats are coming back strong.
More than 120 people filled the community room at Tooele Applied Technology College for the Tooele County Democratic Party’s nominating convention.
Those 120 people included 70 voting county delegates elected at last month’s Democratic caucus meetings to represent their precincts.
That’s a 40-percent increase in the number of delegates that attended the convention compared to the number of delegates that participated in the county party’s 2014 nominating convention.
“It was great to see the turnout,” said Rick Pollock, Tooele County Democratic Party chairman. “Especially all the new faces.”
Some Democrats gave credit for the surge in interest in their party to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“The rise of Donald Trump has caused a crack in the Utah myth,” said Vaughn Cook, Democratic candidate for governor while speaking at the Tooele County Democratic Party convention.
Cook described the “Utah myth” as a belief that only Republicans can represent personal values and that all Mormons are Republicans.
“Because of Trump, many voters in Utah that have been voting Republican are starting to ask if the Republican Party really represents them,” Cook said.
Tooele Democrats also have a record number of people wanting to be delegates at the state party’s convention.
Over 65 people signed up for 40 slots to represent Tooele County at the state Democratic convention.
State delegates were selected by drawing names of volunteers from a box.
“This is the first time since 2006 we have had more people ask to be state delegates than we had positions to fill,” Pollock said.
There were no presidential politics at the county Democratic convention.
Utah’s Democratic national delegates’ votes for presidential candidates were determined by the votes cast on caucus night. On caucus night, Sanders won both the state and Tooele County with 80 percent of the vote.
Democratic candidates for federal, state and local offices spoke at the convention.
After the speeches, the delegates cast a unanimous vote to nominate their candidates for local offices.
The local candidates chosen at the convention included Rick Pollock for State House District 21, Cindee Beard for State House District 68, and Katie Carlile for Tooele County Commission.
All three candidates had no Democratic opposition for nomination.
This may be the year for Democrats to get elected, according to Peter Corroon, Utah State Democratic Party chairman.
He spoke at the Tooele County Democratic Party Convention.
“In the last election, we lost five races by less than 5 percent at the state level,” Corroon said. “If people get out and vote, Democrats will win. Stand up and be heard. In order to do something different, we need to elect Democrats.”