SALT LAKE CITY, April 21 (UPI) -- Utah's U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch failed to win 60 percent of delegates at the state Republican convention Saturday, forcing him into a two-man primary.
The six-term came up short of winning the nomination outright. Hatch did take 57 percent on a first ballot, and in second face-off directly with former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist took 59 percent, The Washington Post reported.
Now he will face Liljenquist in a June primary.
The Post said Hatch benefited when Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who was considered a sure bet to oppose Hatch, decided in August 2011 against a run.
Instead, Hatch is the favorite in the June primary, the Post said, since the electorate will be much larger than the approximately 4,000 delegates at Saturday's convention.
The Post said the 78-year-old Hatch apparently was not intimidated by being in the crosshairs of the Tea Party insurgents who led the party uprising that ousted Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, two years ago.
Hatch instead took advantage of Utah's system, in which only delegates to the party convention vote on nominations. Rather than trying to play up to the delegates, Hatch instead launched an intensive effort to recruit and elect new delegates at the local level.
