Utah is among the most Conservative in the whole country - their judges and prosecutors tend to reflect that.
You mistakenly assume GOPe conservatism and Trump MAGA are one and the same. Utah is among the most important Never Trump ground zeros. With Bishop Romney headed to DC to replace McCain as the leading Never Trumper I don’t have a good feeling about this appointment.
“Utah is among the most important Never Trump ground zeros”
Utah is its own place - a stand alone powerbase within the Republican Party, effectively governed within the inner sanctums of the Mormon (LDS) Church. The Church is very sophisticated about what is going on, with many members in the Intelligence Services. It is hard to find a place in America with a higher concentration of clean living Boy Scout types, who can pass polygraphs without a hitch.
Romney is royalty within the Church (savior of the Salt Lake Olympic Games), as was his father (former Governor of Michigan). He has a mountain of political capital among the other top members of the Mormon elite, unrelated to his competition with Trump.
Regardless of the personal political ambitions of individual candidates like Romney, Huntsman, or McMuffin bringing them into competition to Trump; Utah is still among the the best places in the country to seek out an honest man for an important job like restoring rule of Law to a corrupted DoJ.