Pressured by church authorities to join political parties
Until 1893, the LDS church had an established political party in Utah, known as The People's Party. However, once Utah entered the union, they had to establish wings of the prevailing parties—the Democrats and Republicans. The Republican Party in Utah, however, was so small and so few Mormons would join the platform (since it had been the party to vote against the church on polygamy and other matters), that the LDS church held meetings “with stake presidents and bishops where they were instructed to encourage more Latter-day Saints to vote Republican … Church members who were known to have strong Democratic convictions were not asked to switch parties, but those whose commitment was not particularly strong were encouraged to change”
Some of the era have said that it was more by assignment than by encouragement.