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Anti-Trump groups are turning their attention to later primary states, like Utah, Nebraska and North and South Dakota, to create a months-long primary battle against the billionaire real estate mogul. | AP Photo Anti-Trump group to pour money into later primary states

An anti-Donald Trump super PAC is laying the groundwork for a months-long, grind-it-out primary fight against the Republican front-runner — and it sees Tuesday night’s Idaho primary as a template.

Our Principles PAC, a group that is solely devoted to taking down the New York businessman, is spending big in a series of March 15 voting states — especially Florida, which awards its 99 delegates on a winner-take-all-basis. Yet its strategists, hoping to deprive Trump of the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination, now say they are looking well beyond Tuesday’s contests to states deep into the primary calendar like Utah, North and South Dakota, and Nebraska.

Each of those states, like Idaho, are closed nominating contests that allow only registered Republicans — and not independents, who are gravitating to Trump — to participate.

Ahead of Tuesday’s Idaho contest, Our Principles PAC launched a quiet and unpublicized effort to damage him there. At the center of the campaign was a video that spotlighted Mitt Romney’s speech in Utah that denigrated Trump as a fraud. In Mormon-heavy Idaho, where a Romney-centered message was seen as potentially effective, the video was advertised on Facebook and sent to Idaho voters via robocalls. Emails to past Romney supporters also were sent.

The super PAC also engaged in a get-out-the vote effort aimed at drawing conservative voters to the polls. Trump ultimately lost the state to Ted Cruz, who secured 20 of the state’s 32 delegates.

Our Principles PAC is one of a cadre of anti-Trump groups that have been pummeling the real estate mogul, spending millions of dollars against him in upcoming primary states. The groups are engaged in a long-shot effort to deny him the delegates he needs to win the nomination — and to force a potentially contested Republican convention in July.

During an appearance on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" on Wednesday, Trump attacked the groups. He pointed to his success in Michigan and Mississippi as evidence that the offensive wasn’t working.

“I think it's incredible that the people saw through those ads,” he said.

Yet none of the anti-Trump groups spent a dime in Michigan or Mississippi. The only state they invested in that voted on March 8 was Idaho.