It was his first chance to sell himself as a presidential candidate, and Mitt Romney was determined to make it memorable. The Massachusetts governor stood before the 2006 Southern Republican Leadership Conference, and began to sing.

“Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, greenest state in the land of the free. Doc-torrr, Doctor Bill Frist, king of the wild frontier.”

Other audiences might have cringed, but the Memphis crowd chuckled at the tepid joke comparing hometown favorite Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist, a physician, to Davy Crockett.

They liked him, and the next day, Romney, a Mormon, surprisingly came in second in the early straw poll of southern conservatives, who largely distrust members of that Utah-based faith. Romney acolytes went wild, and, 1,500 miles away, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman cheered with them. He sent Romney a handwritten note: “Mitt, well done in Memphis! You made us all very proud. It was just a hint of what is to come! Respectfully, Jon.”

Just four months later, the relationship between the Romney and Huntsman clans, the biggest names in Mormon politics, would be in tatters—a sudden collapse made even more stunning when considering the long ties between the families. While Huntsman had only first met Romney while running for governor in 2004, they are distantly related through Mormon pioneers. Their fathers—Jon Huntsman Sr. and George Romney—were friends and wildly successful business leaders. Huntsman’s mother had shared a college dorm room with Romney’s sister. And to top it all off, Huntsman Sr. was a big financial backer of Mitt’s previous campaigns.

So what happened? In the run up to 2008, Jon Huntsman Jr. wanted to be a player in national politics, and Mitt Romney all but patted him on the head and urged him to sit on the bench. Three years later, the specter of the next presidential election would fan smoldering resentment into flaming disgust in full view of the political world. Huntsman, then ambassador to China under President Barack Obama, left his dream job for his own White House run against Romney, whom he considered an exceptionally weak front-runner. Romney, for his part, saw Huntsman as a political opportunist he would relish crushing.

Members of both families deny a feud exists and instead offer polite, politically correct compliments about their counterparts. Behind the facade, though, lie two political tribes that have grown to dislike and distrust one another.

“It’s almost like they are trying to be king of the Mormons,” says one person with professional and personal ties to Romney and Huntsman. “They are two royal clans who have had so much success financially and politically and in other ways. It is not easy for them to be second place.”

***

Romney, Massachusetts governor at the time, first met Huntsman Jr. in 2004, when he agreed to attend a Huntsman for Governor fundraiser in Utah. It also gave him a chance to pitch his book about running the 2002 Winter Olympics. The state loved Romney for being the Olympic savior, and it appeared that Huntsman loved him too.

Shortly after winning the governor’s race, Huntsman gushed over his new friend at a state Republican Party dinner. “He is principled. He is brilliant. He has boundless energy. In fact, the only flaw I can find is that he attended BYU,” Huntsman joked, a nod toward his own years at the rival University of Utah.

When Romney returned to Utah a few months later for a Republican Governors Association fundraiser, he set up a private meeting with Huntsman. Seated around a conference table at Utah’s only five-star hotel, with just a few aides present, Romney asked the new governor to help his nascent 2008 presidential campaign. The conversation was a little murky, with Romney using wiggle words about his “team” without actually mentioning what that team was trying to accomplish. But close advisers of both parties thought it was clear enough: Huntsman agreed to back his friend.

He just assumed that all the nice boys in Utah would just sort of hang around and wait for future guidance and light."

When Huntsman huddled with Romney in a suite at the lavish Wynn Las Vegas hotel weeks later, in mid-2005, Huntsman, accompanied by his wife Mary Kaye, told Romney he wanted to be the first governor to endorse him and asked to be included in the campaign’s strategy sessions. Romney demurred, saying he’d welcome Huntsman’s support if he decided to run—but he hadn’t decided yet. Soon afterward, during a Deseret News editorial-board meeting, Huntsman underlined the commitment. “I’ll do whatever I can. Mitt would make an excellent candidate. I’m probably the only governor who has come out this early.”

It’s hard to read those comments as anything but an endorsement. And yet Huntsman would argue in the years to come that he never fully committed, noting that Romney never issued a press release mentioning his support.

Huntsman, who had been ambassador to Singapore under President George H.W. Bush, did write a white paper on China for Romney shortly after their Vegas visit, helping the governor bone up on foreign affairs, and urged a group of foreign policy experts to support him. But Huntsman had wanted a bigger role in the Romney campaign, making repeated calls throughout the end of 2005 and into 2006 to see how he could help. Those calls went unanswered. Huntsman warned Romney aides that he was unhappy but heard nothing—a silence he took as disrespect from his distant cousin.

Romney didn’t want to waste time patting the back of people already on his team; he wanted to shake new hands, expanding his support. But key aides acknowledge that this strategy left some feeling ignored and disgruntled. (Romney, though his aides, declined to be interviewed.)

Romney, McCain and Huntsman walk on the tarmac towards an airplane in Salt Lake City Thursday, March 27, 2008. | AP Photo

“He just assumed that all the nice boys in Utah would just sort of hang around and wait for future guidance and light,” Huntsman says, years later.

Meanwhile, another presidential candidate was giving Utah’s governor the attention he sought.

***

Huntsman has always sought to be his own man, not just the son of a billionaire. He likes motocross and street food. He’s proud of wearing cowboy boots with a hole in the heel and of liking potty-humor comedies like “Dumb and Dumber.”

He fashions himself a maverick—someone who as governor could transcend his state’s religious divide and his profession’s standard partisan splits—and he has always gravitated to like personalities.

Enter Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Huntsman approached the hard-charging fellow westerner at a governors association meeting in January 2006, and asked the senator to headline the Utah’s 2006 Republican Convention in May. McCain agreed, but in exchange, he wanted Huntsman to join him on a trip to Iraq in March. The two foreign-policy wonks bonded first in Utah and in then the warzone. And in July, when McCain heard Huntsman was in D.C., McCain summoned the Utahn to his office. The senator asked for Huntsman’s endorsement and said he wanted the governor to be a co-chairman of his presidential bid. Huntsman paused, caught off guard by McCain’s bluntness. Then he said yes.

“He knew it was going to be a bombshell locally, and he knew outside the state of Utah no one was going to care,” says a Huntsman confidant.

No one, that is, except Romney. But Huntsman believed McCain was the right man when it came to foreign affairs, his pet issue, and he felt taken for granted by the Massachusetts governor.

He broke the news to his staff, many of them Romney admirers who didn’t understand his decision. Even more confusing than the abrupt about-face was that Jon Huntsman Sr., the governor’s billionaire father, remained on Romney’s national finance team. Huntsman Sr. said he’d stick to his early commitment, and acted like it wasn’t at all odd for the family to have split political allegiances.

When McCain aides announced Huntsman’s endorsement on July 20, 2006, Huntsman ducked the news media, instead sending out spokesman Michael Mower to say the governor and McCain “share common viewpoints on many important issues.” He also said the endorsement wasn’t a slight against Romney.

Romney, his family and his advisers sure saw it as a slight. Mitt learned of the endorsement from the Washington Post and immediately called an adviser in Utah with ties to Huntsman. During the tense conversation, Mitt was incredulous, and his wife Ann, also on the call, seethed. Romney understood Huntsman had been irritated, but how could he take such drastic action? And to do so without even the courtesy of a call? Romney saw that as downright cowardly.

Spencer Zwick, a close confidant sometimes referred to as Romney’s sixth son, served as Mitt’s go-between with Utah’s political elite. That same day, he sent angry texts to at least three Huntsman aides, one of which said only: “Not even a phone call.”

Huntsman confirms that he received a call from Romney himself, who delivered this harsh criticism: “Your grandfather would be ashamed of you!”

Mitt Romney and his wife Ann greet Jackie Leavitt, center, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, left, and John Huntsman Sr., center left, during the funeral service of Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the Mormon church, in February 2008. | AP Photo

In the pantheon of put-downs, this would typically rank pretty low, but unpacking the power of those seven loaded words says everything about the way Romney perceived Huntsman’s betrayal. The grandfather Romney referred to was David B. Haight, a beloved Mormon apostle and one of the most influential people in Huntsman’s life. Haight, who had died in 2004, was also a close friend of Mitt’s father, George, a three-term Michigan governor who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968. Haight, Huntsman Sr., the Romneys and the Marriotts (yep, the founders of the ubiquitous hotel chain) were all part of an emerging group of Mormon businessmen with political interests. And they were all friends.

For Romney, this wasn’t just politics. It was also about religion and family. Endorsements might be overrated, but losing this one was embarrassing. How could the only Mormon in the race fail to secure the backing of the Mormon governor from Utah, and his family friend at that?

Romney viewed Huntsman as a cold-hearted opportunist, say his advisers, latching on to a big name in an attempt to land a plumb presidential appointment. It didn’t help when McCain defeated Romney for the nomination, though it turned out to be the year of Barack Obama in the end.

Romney and Huntsman never attempted to repair their relationship, which would only get worse in the years to come.

***

Obama’s team saw Jon Huntsman as a potential threat in 2012—a moderate, charismatic governor with ties to wealthy donors. And they found just the place for him, halfway around the world. A well-known Sinophile, Huntsman was a respected pick to be ambassador to China, a job he had not-so-secretly coveted for years. Huntsman left his governorship to take the post in 2009.

Back home, Romney never stopped campaigning. His steady performance in 2008 made him the front-runner in the lead up to the 2012 election. Romney had the money, the media attention and—at least from his perspective—a straight line to the nomination.

One former supporter, watching closely from China, saw it differently.

During his service as ambassador, Huntsman kept in touch with John Weaver, a former McCain campaign adviser, through his wife Mary Kaye and his chief of staff. They weren’t mapping out a campaign but Weaver tried to keep Huntsman aware of the political climate back home. At first, the talk within the Huntsman team was all about 2016, but that was before it became clear there wasn’t a moderate, experienced—and sane—alternative to Romney.

At some point, based on Weaver’s intelligence that the rest of the field was weak against Romney, Huntsman and his wife decided that there might not be a better time or opportunity. In January 2011, Huntsman resigned his post and made preparations to return to the country he wanted to lead.

Huntsman didn’t leave his post in China because he missed American burgers and brats. He came back because he considered Romney a flawed candidate.

“I thought [Romney] had compromised himself with his move to the right. The Romney of Massachusetts, as governor, I thought, was the ideal model for national success, truly,” Huntsman says. But Romney’s “move inexorably to the right on a lot of issues, I think left a huge opening in the market for somebody who was willing to stay consistent on issues that they have stood for, whether popular or not popular.”

Huntsman wanted to talk about his own successes as governor and stay true to his principles, even if his message wasn’t as popular with conservatives as Romney’s, which had undergone serious revisions on abortion, gay rights, health care and other key issues.

It was an annoyance,” says a top Romney aide, “like a gnat.”

“I thought there had been that element of authenticity that was lost in that transition for Mitt,” says Huntsman.

Others saw Huntsman’s return as nothing but a way to distance himself from Obama and boost his name ID for a future run, maybe in 2016 or 2020.

After all, Huntsman didn’t even know the political landscape. While he was in China, dealing with Communist leaders and international relations, the Tea Party had poked and needled the GOP until politicians succumbed to its far-right platform. The right wing essentially owned the party. Huntsman, who had worked for the Democratic president the Tea Party was revolting against, seemed like an interloper.

Even those close to Huntsman were surprised that he wanted to run in 2012.

“I didn’t see it coming,” says a close Huntsman aide. “I thought it was ridiculous. The other guys were raising money for four years. He had nothing.”

But his mind was made up. He scored endless media attention as the anti-Tea-Party moderate—experienced, thoughtful, with the looks and political pedigree to climb the rough road ahead.

He had one target: Mitt Romney. But Huntsman wasn’t positioning himself as the anti-Mitt as were other candidates; Huntsman wanted to be the better-than-Mitt alternative, the one with similar credentials in business and government but without the baggage.

Huntsman’s entrance was met with sneers from the Romney folks. To them, he was a little-known latecomer who had just left the Obama administration and had the arrogance to think he could topple the heir apparent.

“It was an annoyance,” says a top Romney aide, “like a gnat.”

Almost immediately after Huntsman’s return from China, the Romney team set out to undercut him in his home state, lining up dozens of endorsements from state lawmakers and other prominent Utah Republicans. None stung more than that of Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, whom Huntsman had plucked from relative obscurity to run his first gubernatorial campaign and then tapped to be his chief of staff. The go-getter went on to bounce a six-term congressman, Chris Cannon, in 2008. Chaffetz had since cozied up to Romney and saw him as more electable than his one-time mentor.

“It’s nothing against Huntsman; he’s been very good to me,” Chaffetz said at the time. “I had this discussion with Jon last week. It was tough for me, but I was honest and candid that I’m going to support Mitt Romney.”

After that, the official Romney strategy was to act like Huntsman didn’t exist, ignoring him as he had other Republican candidates.

For Romney, there was one interesting positive in Huntsman’s candidacy: Another Mormon in the race could help deflect the big issue that had dogged his 2008 bid. In that contest, Mike Huckabee was the former governor of Arkansas. Tim Pawlenty led Minnesota. John McCain was the maverick senator from Arizona. And Mitt Romney was … the Mormon.

No matter his business resume, his Olympic cred or his own gubernatorial experience, it seemed on the campaign trail the only adjective attached to him in news stories—and even water-cooler conversations—was his faith. Most Americans have heard of Mormons, even if most wrongly peg them as polygamists or deem them non-Christian. And in 2008, polls were clear that a Mormon candidate had only a slightly better chance of winning the White House than a Muslim or an atheist.

Romney publicly partially blamed his Iowa loss in January 2008 on the fact his main opponent, Huckabee, was a former Baptist minister. But this time around, Romney wasn’t the only one facing the Mormon question.

“In ’12, with Huntsman in the race, it was a shared burden,” says a former Romney adviser.

That’s not to say that Romney and Huntsman were the same brand of Mormon.

In 2011 as he hinted at White House ambitions, Huntsman was asked by a reporter point-blank whether he was still a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“I’m a very spiritual person,” he said, “and proud of my Mormon roots.” Pressed again, Huntsman sidestepped. “That’s tough to define,” he said. “I come from a long line of saloon keepers and proselytizers, and I draw from both sides.”

That’s not the answer Romney would have given. As young men, both Huntsman and Romney had traveled abroad on missions to share the Mormon message and convert others to the faith. But through the years, their approaches diverged. Romney dove into church service, taking on leadership roles; Huntsman referred to himself as a cultural Mormon. Romney downed Diet Coke; Huntsman sipped Chardonnay.

Abby Huntsman, Jon’s second-oldest daughter, says her dad is one of the “most spiritual guys I’ve ever met,” but he doesn’t talk much about the Mormon faith. Abby recalls going to churches of various denominations when the family was living in Asia, same as in Utah.

“That’s always been who he is,” she says. “I don’t think what he said nationally was anything different.”

Huntsman’s step away from Mormon orthodoxy earned him some distain back in his home state.

Huntsman and Romney were all smiles for the public when they greeted each other prior to marching in a Fourth of July parade July 4, 2011, in Amherst, New Hampshire. | Getty

“Mormons believe that Mitt Romney is sincere about his faith and Jon Huntsman Jr. is a charlatan,” says state Sen. Todd Weiler, who like most members of the Utah Legislature is a Mormon and a Republican. “He kind of pretended to be a card-carrying Mormon when he ran for governor, but it was all a ruse.”

An indicator of the popularity gap: Just weeks into Huntsman’s presidential outing, a poll showed Romney 50 points ahead in a state that overwhelmingly elected Huntsman governor twice.

“They want him to wear it on his sleeve and they want him to go out and preach the gospel wherever he goes,” Abby Huntsman says, “and that’s just never been him. Never.”

Romney, at least publicly, never tried to use Huntsman’s “cultural Mormon” description against him. If there was angst from the Romney family over Huntsman’s approach to religion, it didn’t show.

The Romney team, though, was irritated by the continued political hits by Huntsman.

***

In August 2011, Romney was one of the last candidates to stake out a position on raising the nation’s debt limit—delivered only nine hours before the House started voting on a negotiated deal. Huntsman pounced.

“When you need to stand up, you take your position, you defend your position, you run a little risk in taking that position, you don’t wait until the very end as Governor Romney did, [where] you put your finger to the wind and basically come down on the safe side politically; I just don’t think that’s leadership.”

Jon Huntsman Sr. came out wholeheartedly in support of his son, and in August 2012 publicly demanded that Romney release his tax returns. He would later be accused of leaking information to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that Romney didn’t pay any taxes for a decade. That claim was false, and Huntsman Sr. denied that he was the source.

But he wouldn’t deny his political frustration with Romney, as he saw him morph from his Senate run in 1994 to his last presidential campaign.

“I watched Mitt as a very liberal candidate in 1994, as a liberal-to-moderate candidate in the race in 2002 and as a moderate-to-conservative candidate in 2008 and conservative in 2012, so at times it was a bit difficult to know which side he was supporting,” Huntsman Sr. says.

His granddaughters Abby, Mary Anne and Liddy—who, like the Romney boys, emerged as surrogates for their father—would be more biting in their commentary. In response to Romney’s debate vow that he would, once elected, label China a currency manipulator and go after the country for stealing intellectual property, they used their @Jon2012Girls account to tweet: “How does Romney know anything about China? He’s only been there once and that was for the Olympics. Panda Express doesn’t count.”

As the primary hurtled on, Huntsman Jr. stepped up his criticism.

“You can’t be a perfectly lubricated weather vane on the important issues of the day,” Huntsman told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in October. “Romney has been missing in action in terms of showing any kind of leadership.”

It wasn’t easy to get Huntsman to say such things publicly, though, advisers would later admit. Take the comments Romney made on the eve of the New Hampshire primary where he extolled the virtues of a free market to the Nashua Chamber of Commerce.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman celebrates during a primary night rally at the The Black Brimmer restaurant on January 10, 2012 in Manchester, New Hampshire. | Getty

“I like being able to fire people who provide services to me,” Romney said. “You know, if someone doesn’t give me a good service that I need, I want to say, ‘I’m going to go get someone else to provide that service to me.’”

Aides informed Huntsman, on his way to a rally in Concord, of Romney’s remarks, urging him to respond. Huntsman wanted context. “He really said that?” he asked. The aides didn’t care about context. Just shoot back, they argued, over and over on the drive.

“That’s what I hate about politics,” Huntsman admits, years later. “It’s the sound bite of the hour just to keep the media machine going. I can’t do that. I’m not a sound-bite person.”

But Huntsman did find his voice that day.

“Governor Romney enjoys firing people. I enjoy creating jobs,” he told waiting reporters in Concord. He went on to target Romney as being “slightly out of touch with the economic realities.”

In reality, Huntsman was the one out of touch with the electorate. Though he was stoked to finally see a surge of support near the end of the New Hampshire push, it wouldn’t be enough. Romney dominated the primary, Ron Paul claimed second and Huntsman rounded out third. He called it a “ticket to ride” but he knew his campaign was over.

“When we hit third, I knew that night,” Huntsman says.

After a few days of show campaigning in South Carolina, Huntsman decided he was done. His family was grabbing dinner in Charleston when he got a call from a New York Times reporter asking for comment on his dropping out of the race. The TV at the restaurant scrolled the news; Huntsman paid the check.

On a leisurely, and contemplative, stroll back to his hotel that night, Huntsman called Romney to tell him personally. The call lasted five minutes. The two discussed the “state of the race,” and Huntsman offered to help swing moderate voters in South Carolina and to record a robocall for Romney. He asked for nothing in return—and that’s exactly what Romney offered.

The next day Huntsman would mention Romney’s name only once in pulling out of the race.

“I believe it is now time for our party to unite around the candidate best equipped to defeat Barack Obama,” Huntsman said. “Despite our differences and the space between us on some of the issues, I believe that candidate is Governor Mitt Romney.”

Huntsman admits he didn’t really want to say those words. But he also didn’t want to face weeks of questions from reporters if he didn’t make a definitive endorsement.

To Romney and his coterie, Huntsman’s reluctance was glaring.

“If you looked at the endorsement, it looked like he was sucking on a lemon,” says a Romney confidant. “I saw the clip later. It was kind of like a backhanded endorsement.”

As if that wasn’t enough, after a short vacation Huntsman appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to announce that he was “not a surrogate for anybody” and that a viable third party in the presidential race would be a “healthy thing.”

It wasn’t long before Huntsman found himself ostracized by Romney’s Republican Party. GOP leaders uninvited him to a donor gathering in Florida. He never recorded a robocall or acted as a Romney surrogate. And at Romney’s coronation in Tampa, Huntsman was nowhere to be found.

***

Romney flirted with a third-presidential bid this January, offering to run on a platform focused on reducing poverty and promising to be more authentic. But after a few test weeks, Romney decided he wasn’t willing to put himself through another grueling presidential contest. And yet, he clearly wants to be relevant. In May, he participated in a charity boxing match against heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and just a few weeks ago, he hosted a slate of presidential contenders, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, at his annual policy retreat in the mountains near Park City, Utah.

Huntsman, as expected, was not in attendance, though he too has tried to keep himself in the game. He’s a co-chairman of No Labels, a political group seeking moderate consensus between the parties. In this role, he regularly laments the vast sums of money needed to run for office. He’s also the head of the Atlantic Council, where he encourages Europe and the United States to strengthen ties with Asia.

He has said he’d consider a future run for Senate in Utah (likely when Sen. Orrin Hatch retires in 2018) or president (Jon Huntsman Sr., Utah’s richest man, suggests people keep an eye on 2020). And he’s long dreamed of being a secretary of state. He’s even heaped praise on Hillary Clinton, hinting he may be willing to serve another Democratic president.

“At the risk of totally destroying my future in politics, I have to say she is a very impressive public servant,” said Huntsman last May. (He worked for then-Secretary of State Clinton during his time as ambassador to China.)

As it stands, the Mormon rivalry may very well get passed down to the next generation, as both men fully expect their children to follow them into the public sphere.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney stands with his sons, from left to right, Josh, Tagg, and Craig, as he watches results for the Florida primary election in the "War Room" at the Tampa Convention Center. | Getty

In the Romney clan, the most likely candidates for public office are Mitt’s sons Tagg, 45, in Massachusetts and Josh, 39, in Utah. Tagg has become the mini-Mitt. He lived in the same apartment near Brigham Young University his parents shared 20 years earlier. And like his dad, he served a Mormon mission in France, went to Harvard Business School and made a career in venture capital. It’s not a big leap to say he’ll eventually run for office.

But does he have a place to land? Massachusetts hasn’t gotten any less liberal since his dad became governor there in 2003, and the Romney name has lost some of its sheen. “He is in a tough position,” says his brother, Josh. “I think being a conservative in Massachusetts is not an easy thing to do.”

Tagg Romney did buy some land in Park City, though he has yet to build on it. If he decided to relocate to the conservative bastion of Utah, he instantly would be a top-tier prospect for any elected office. But that turf belongs to his younger brother Josh, who brushes off the suggestion quite abruptly: “He’s not a Utah resident.”

Josh was rumored as a potential challenger to Utah Sen. Mike Lee in 2016 but decided to bide his time. Like Tagg, Josh Romney runs his own business, Romney Ventures—a real-estate development firm focusing on properties in Utah. He also has kept a toe in state politics, endorsing Republican candidates such as Rep. Mia Love. The most telegenic of the Romney boys, Josh remains careful and consistent when he talks about politics and his desire to run eventually.

“The thought of running for office doesn’t sound very fun, and even governing would be very hard,” he says. “But the impact you could have as a good leader, the impact you could have for generations, that’s what drives me.”

Some have also speculated about the political future of Huntsman’s two sons—Jon III and Will. But at this point, Huntsman finds it hard to believe his sons, who are Navy men, would seek the national stage. “The boys are about as nonpolitical as any two people I have ever met, but that kind of stuff comes out later,” he says. “They’re beginning careers in the military, and they are going to learn a whole lot about national defense and the intersection between politics and security.”

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is hugged by his wife Mary Kaye Huntsman, as his daughter Abby Livingston stands near after announcing that he will drop out of the race for the White House bid and endorse Mitt Romney, January 16, 2012. | Getty

Huntsman’s daughter Abby seems like the family’s best bet for a future in politics, which could be years, if not decades, away. She hasn’t yet hit 30.

A co-host of MSNBC’s The Cycle, Abby says she wouldn’t mind following in her father’s footsteps. Her family, from Jon Huntsman Sr. on down, has stressed public service, and she’s listened. “There’s the saying, ‘Where much is given, much is expected,’” she says. “I think about that all the time. I have been given a lot. And if I can in turn serve and give back in some way because I’ve been given so much, I feel that’s what I hope to do.” Her father would be supportive if she tried her hand at politics, saying: “Abby would, I think, be a very, very good candidate at some point.”

There’s a chance that members of this epic Mormon rivalry could clash again in the most Mormon of states.

Abby, who currently lives in New York, says if she ever does run for office, it will be in Utah.