This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The latest dust-up between Donald Trump and humanity may very well be the Republican presidential candidate's undoing, and it could hurt some down ballot GOP candidates in Utah who may be vulnerable already.

I'm talking of course about Trump's diatribe against Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Gold Star parents of Captain Humayan Khan, who was killed in Iraq while protecting his unit in 2004.

There are many elements to this story. The Khans are Muslims. Donald Trump has suggested banning all Muslims from entering the United States. The Khans, both by their words and their actions, are patriots, and their son is a hero.

Khizr Khan spoke at the National Democratic Convention, calling out Trump for his stance on people of their faith and asking what he has sacrificed. And Trump, being Trump, couldn't help himself but lash back, even making fun of the martyred hero's mother by suggesting that, as a Muslim woman, she was not allowed to talk.

In one statement, Trump managed to insult women, veterans, mothers and, not only Muslims, but all people of faith.

In Utah, he exacerbated his already acute Mormon problem. And that is bad news for Congresswoman Mia Love, Salt Lake County Councilman Richard Snelgrove and several Salt Lake County legislative candidates who have the misfortune of running on the same ticket as what some are calling an unstable Republican Party standard bearer.

Trump's initial statement last December about banning Muslims prompted The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to issue a statement supporting the Muslim faith and all religions. It was a strong message to the LDS community that the church was so appalled at Trump's religious bigotry it took the rare step of engaging in political warfare by denouncing his position on Muslims.

In the statement, the church invoked an 1843 declaration by LDS founder Joseph Smith that defended the religious rights of faiths outside his own.

"If it has been demonstrated that I have been willing to die for a 'Mormon,' I am bold to declare before heaven that I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbyterian, a Baptist or a good man of any denomination," Smith said. "For the same principle which would trample upon the rights of the Latter-day Saints would trample upon the rights of the Roman Catholics, or of any other denomination who may be unpopular and too weak to defend themselves."

The church's statement also referred to an 1841 ordinance from Nauvoo, Ill., which was then the faith's headquarters.

It declared that "the Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Latter-day Saints, Quakers, Episcopals, Universalists, Unitarians, Mohammedans [Muslims], and all other religious sects and denominations whatever, shall have free toleration, and equal privileges in this city."

Trump already is unpopular among Mormons, particularly after 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the first Mormon presidential nominee of a major political party, slammed Trump as a liar and a fraud. Trump lost badly to opponent Ted Cruz in the Utah Republican caucuses in March.

A recent poll conducted for the Salt Lake Tribune and the Hinckley Institute of Politics showed Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in a dead heat in Utah. That should be scary for Republicans since Utah hasn't gone for a Democrat in a presidential race since 1964.

The same poll had one-term Republican incumbent Love trailing Democratic opponent Doug Owens in Utah's 4th Congressional District.

That district includes a large swath of Utah County, whose heavily Mormon population has shown before a willingness to bolt from the Republican Party if their moral sensibilities are offended.

In 1990, the Utah County dominated 3rd Congressional District was statistically the most Republican congressional district in the country. Voters in the district were set to elect Republican Karl Snow to that seat. He was a popular Brigham Young University professor and a longtime state senator.

His Democratic opponent was an unknown political upstart named Bill Orton, a low-profile tax attorney who was unmarried.

The race wasn't even going to be close.

Then, a few days before the election, the Snow campaign ran an ad in a local newspaper showing Snow with his large family of children and grandchildren over the caption "Karl Snow's family. The ad also had a picture of Orton, along, captioned, "Bill Orton's family."

The family-oriented Mormon faithful was so off-put by what they considered a low blow, they jumped ship and voted for Orton in what became one of the most startling political upsets in memory. —