Maybe they just assume that it sounds too much like the word “Democrat,” which is the opposite of “Republican,” which they are. So anything that smacks of democracy must be bad.
On the party level, the tail wagging the dog insists that the Utah Republican Party is a private club that gets to decide for itself who is and isn’t qualified to carry its banner into elections, with no concern for what the laws of the state might say.
Which would make sense, if it were not for the fact that the state, not the party, owns the ballot.