Utah is a solidly Republican state – and it's expected to stay that way at least until the next decade.
The Washington Post created an amazing gif showing how every county in the country voted vs. the national average since 1960. The redder a county is, the more Republican it voted than the rest of the country. If a county is blue, then it voted more Democratic than the rest of the nation.
Check it out:
By far the most interesting thing about this animation is how the density of the colors increases. In the late 1980s, most counties were fairly bipartisan. By 2000, there are a lot of very strong red counties — a trend that increases. Keep an eye, too, on Appalachia. Until 2008, it's a pale blue. Then it quickly grows red.
The Post also looked at the long term trends for each state all the way to 2020. By their measurement – a state would be more Democratic if the voting trend moved above the middle axis, and more Republican if the trend is below. As you can see, they expect Utah to stay very Republican through 2020.
The Post admits their extrapolation does not take into account demographic shifts, but it's a reasonable projection based on what has come before.
Interestingly, Utah voted much more Democratic than the rest of the country until the 1952 election when Utah voted for Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower In 1948, the state went for Harry Truman. After 1952, the state started moving more and more to the right. You can see big shifts in 1980 (Ronald Reagan) and 2012 (Mitt Romney).
