One of Utah’s largest newspapers, located in the heart of Mormon country, has endorsed President Obama over Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

The Salt Lake Tribune endorsed Mr. Obama on Friday in an editorial that praised the president for engineering passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to stimulate the economy and accused Mr. Romney of flip-flopping and being “willing to say anything to get elected.”

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The paper acknowledged that their choice may be surprising to some, considering Mr. Romney’s Mormon faith and his leadership and financial turnaround of the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City.

The Tribune also endorsed Mr. Obama in 2008 and endorsed George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.

The article made brief mention of Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy — arguing that it minimized long-term damage from the 2008 financial meltdown — but most of its words were spent accusing Mr. Romney of betraying his record as a bipartisan governor and successful businessman in an effort to cater to right-wing Republicans and wealthy donors.

While Utah is a majority-Republican state, its capital city of Salt Lake is considered largely left-leaning.

Mr. Romney is expected to win the state by a wide margin this year, and no Democrat has carried Utah since then-President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.