SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah is warning supporters that Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith could be attacked by Democrats during the presidential campaign.
Hatch told state Republican delegates that President Barack Obama’s campaign could make Romney’s religious beliefs an issue. The senator’s campaign manager, Dave Hansen, said Wednesday that the topic came up during a campaign event Tuesday in northern Utah.
More than 60 percent of Utah residents are Mormons, and Romney is extremely popular in the state.
The chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, dismisses the suggestion that the party would attack a candidate’s religion.
Wasserman Schultz told MSNBC that Obama, whose citizenship has been challenged and Christian faith doubted by opponents, wouldn’t stoop to that level of criticism.