After The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints relocated its headquarters to the Salt Lake Valley in the mid-1800s and built four pioneer-era temples in what is the present-day state of Utah, 120 years passed until the church had established 10 temples in the Beehive State. And another 25 years passed as eight more temples were added to the state’s total.

That No. 18 Latter-day Saint temple — the Saratoga Springs Utah Temple — was dedicated Sunday, Aug. 13, by President Henry B. Eyring, second counselor in the church’s First Presidency. And that dedication starts a wave of temple growth, with the church having 10 more temples under construction in the state and projected to be finished and dedicated within the next several years.

By then, Utah will be home to 28 dedicated temples — from the 19th-century pioneer temples in Salt Lake City, St. George, Logan and Manti to the under-construction temples in Smithfield and Syracuse, Layton and Taylorsville, Orem and Lindon, Tooele (Deseret Peak) and Heber City (Heber Valley), and Ephraim and St. George (Red Cliffs).

The Saratoga Springs temple will be the 179th dedicated temple of 315 total Latter-day Saint temples, with another 57 under construction and 79 in planning and design.

GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy rejects Sen. Mitt Romney’s call to back one Trump opponent

Somehow, Vivek Ramaswamy, the longest of long shots has emerged as Donald Trump’s toughest challenger according to one poll, writes Samuel Benson, who interviewed the 2024 presidential contender at the Iowa State Fair. 

“When I said that at the start of this campaign, everybody laughed at me,” Ramaswamy told Benson. “I think now everybody understands that’s where this is going.” Ramaswamy was referring to a Cygnal poll this week that shows, among GOP voters across the U.S., Ramaswamy in the second-place spot, surpassing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“The Republican Party is going to become the party that nominates the outsider. And I think that’s what it’s going to come down to: which outsider do we want?” Ramaswamy said.

If Ramaswamy is anything, it’s anti-establishment, Benson noted. He’s largely self-funding his campaign, thanks to a net worth of over $600 million. He’s built his brand as an outsider and a firebrand through a steady beat of Fox News hits and book deals and CPAC appearances. He’s earned comparisons to the man he’s most focused on defeating, and some have gone as far as calling him Trump 2.0.

So, it's no surprise that he views Sen. Mitt Romney's recent call for candidates and donors to back a single Trump challenger by February 2024 as ludicrous. 

“It’s just about who the people want to select. ... And I think all of this other establishment artifice is nonsense," Ramaswamy said. 

Read more about Ramaswamy's America First "radicalism."

More in Politics

• Scott Howell: Reflections on President Biden’s visit to Utah and what he said at that fundraiser in Park City (Deseret News)
• Youngkin urges GOP to embrace early voting to beat Democrats 'at their own game' (Washington Examiner)
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