SALT LAKE CITY — Last summer, tiny microbes reacting to changing levels of salinity in Great Salt Lake turned the water half red and half blue. It created a stunning visual image — and an apt metaphor for the political changes that are starting to happen in Utah.

If you’ve never been to Salt Lake City, you might assume that it’s a rather conservative, buttoned-up place. It was founded in 1847 by pioneers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the most heavily Republican-leaning religious group.