Orrin Hatch is the longest serving Republican senator in American history. He’s retiring at the end December and it’s hard to imagine it now, but there was a time in his career when victory wasn’t a sure thing.
Like in 1982 when he was running against then Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson.
There was one moment, a brief moment, when Wilson thought he just might win.
Archival material: KUTV CBS 2; Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah; The Salt Lake Tribune; Vernal Express; The Daily Herald; The Daily Utah Chronicle; The Missoulian Sun; The Arizona Republic; Orem Geneva Times; Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
