Brent Hatch didn’t get enough signatures to qualify for Republican primary. What does that mean for his Senate bid?

Senate candidate Brent Hatch, son of former Sen. Orrin Hatch, did not collect enough signatures to qualify for the June 25 Republican primary. But Hatch can still make it onto the ballot if he is nominated by delegates at Saturday’s GOP state convention.

By the 5 p.m. Friday deadline, Hatch had 21,035 certified signatures according to the state’s website, short of the 28,000 certified signatures necessary to appear on the ballot. Candidates can also qualify for the primary ballot by receiving more than 40% of delegates’ support at the convention, a feature of Utah’s unique party caucus system.

The candidate who wins the June 25 primary will face a Democratic candidate and third party candidates for the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Mitt Romney.

Hatch told the Deseret News, “I have been working hard for months meeting with delegates up-and-down the state. My focus from day one has been on the delegates and doing well at the convention on Saturday. That has not changed. I am touched by the overwhelming support I have received from the delegates so far and expect to do extremely well at the convention.”

The state GOP nominating convention has historically been characterized by a more ideological electorate. Candidates who might be popular generally with Utah voters, like former Gov. Gary Herbert and Romney, sometimes lose among delegates. Both Herbert and Romney won by large margins in their subsequent primary elections.

When he met with the Deseret News and KSL editorial boards in early April, Hatch called the task of competing with his well-resourced Republican opponents to gather 28,000 signatures “daunting,” and said his primary ballot qualification was “up in the air.”

“The daily grind of this is really pretty amazing,” Hatch said. “My father wasn’t here to warn me about that.”

Hatch is the son of the late Orrin Hatch, who was Utah’s longest serving U.S. senator, holding the seat from 1977 to 2019. Not wanting to ride the coattails of his father, Hatch built a career outside of electoral politics, first working as a legal counsel in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and then as a litigator at his high-profile Salt Lake City firm.

Who is running for the Senate in Utah?

Besides Hatch, the other Republican candidates running for the open Senate seat include Utah’s 3rd Congressional District Rep. John Curtis, former state House Speaker Brad Wilson, Moxie Pest Control CEO Jason Walton, Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, political adviser Carolyn Phippen, certified public accountant Josh Randall, Bookroo founder Chandler Tanner, former piano tuner Jeremy Friedbaum and Abraham Lincoln impersonator Brian Jenkins.

The Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate in Utah include mountaineer Caroline Gleich, Archie Williams III and Laird Hamblin. The Democratic convention is also on Saturday.