Cruz is on pace to take all of the state's delegates by finishing with more than 50 percent of the vote.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich was running second with Trump in last place.
Cruz's win follows endorsements in the last week from Utah. Gov. Gary Herbert and Mitt Romney, the GOP's last presidential nominee who holds clout among the state's predominantly Mormon voters.
Romney and Herbert backed the Texas senator in an effort to derail Trump's path to victory.
All three Republican presidential candidates made public appearances last week in Utah ahead of the caucus.
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11:35 p.m.
Bernie Sanders has won Utah's Democratic presidential caucus, though he remains hundreds of delegates behind Hillary Clinton.
The Vermont senator campaigned hard in Utah over the last week. He appeared twice at rallies that drew thousands of people, many of them young voters.
Clinton didn't make any public campaign appearances in Utah ahead of the caucus, instead sending her daughter to speak last week on her behalf.
Sanders told Utah voters at a rally Monday in Salt Lake City that they were compassionate people who should embrace his "political revolution." He vowed to raise the minimum wage, provide equal pay to women and alleviate student debt. He decried an economy that favors the wealthy and a flawed criminal justice system.
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11:10 p.m.
Utah Republican Party chair James Evans says he believes the party has had tens of thousands of new Republicans who registered in order to participate in Tuesday's presidential caucus.
Evans said at the state GOP headquarters in Salt Lake City that he believes there's major turnout among Republicans and Democrats because there's a reordering of presidential politics.
He says many Americans seem to have had enough and want something different. He says that's spurring them to turn out at caucuses and vote for Democrat Bernie Sanders and Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
Both Republicans and Democrats are caucusing in Utah Tuesday night.
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11 p.m.
Utah Republican Party chair James Evans says some GOP voters have had trouble with the party's online voting system and a tech support hotline has been flooded with from confused voters.
Evans said at the GOP headquarters Tuesday that voters have had trouble correctly entering their 30-digit number needed to vote online. He says other voters accidently deleted the email where they were sent their number or it was stuck in their spam folder.
He says a tech support hotline helping people through the online voting process has been flooded with calls after a national news network mistakenly announced that the hotline would help people register to vote online.
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9:30 p.m.
Utah voters are turning out in unprecedented numbers at presidential caucuses, creating major delays for people casting their ballots and leading some sites to run out of ballots.
Yándary Zavala of the Utah Democratic Party says several of the party's caucus sites ran out of ballots as turnout exceeded projections.
Claire Francis, caucus host at Emerson Elementary in Salt Lake City, said they sent volunteers out to bring reams of paper to print more ballots for thousands still waiting to vote.
Cindie Quintana of the Utah Republican Party said they've instructed caucus organizers to have extra blank paper on hand to use for ballots in case they run out.
Vote counts may be released later based on the delays at caucus sites.
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9:10 p.m.
Voter Coralie Hodson says she caucused for Bernie Sanders because he'll support military veterans and wants to give students free college tuition.
The 22-year-old from the east Salt Lake City suburb of Millcreek said Tuesday that she considered four-year schools but ultimately chose a community college American Sign Language primarily because it's more affordable.
Her fiance is now deployed to Afghanistan, so making sure that veterans are able to use the benefits they've earned through their service is especially important to her.
She says that Sanders isn't just a candidate for young people, but she worries that if older voters assume that they won't take him seriously.
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8:20 p.m.
Thousands of people waited in line to vote at the Democratic caucus on the east side of Salt Lake City.
Organizer Nancy Carlson-Gotts said Tuesday she's never seen a turnout like this and the numbers are almost overwhelming. The scene was crowded but orderly as people worked through long lines, then sat down to fill out paper ballots at cafeteria tables.
Carlson-Gotts says the turnout in 2014 was about 500 people. This year, four times that many people, about 2,000 people, registered to caucus ahead of time and hundreds more showed up to the Democrats' open caucus Tuesday night.
Democrat Bernie Sanders is looking to pick up some delegates in Utah to cut into front-runner Hillary Clinton's lead, and he held two rallies in the state in the lead-up to the presidential caucus.
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8:05 p.m.
Ted Cruz supporter Patty Butts of South Jordan, Utah, says she started out supporting Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for president but switch her allegiance when Rubio dropped out of the race.
Butts, an 81-year-old retired therapist and school counselor, said at her South Jordan caucus site Tuesday that she had hoped Rubio would have attracted a broader base of voters and maybe even won support from Democrats.
She says she always liked Cruz and now thinks he's the best choice for Republicans because she feels he has a trustworthy record as a conservative.
Butts says billionaire Donald Trump won't win Utah because the state is conservative and he is not.
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7:40 p.m.
Brandon Perry of South Jordan says he's caucusing for Ted Cruz on Tuesday because he thinks the Texas senator can stop Donald Trump from becoming the Republican nominee.
Perry, a 35-year-old real estate developer, says he started out supporting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker but became a Cruz supporter as the GOP field of candidates has whittled.
Perry said at his caucus site in South Jordan on Tuesday that he thinks Trump is morally bankrupt and an untrustworthy TV persona who will say whatever it takes to get elected.
He says the billionaire tries to stir up people's hate and anger.
Perry says he likes John Kasich but thinks the Ohio governor has no chance of winning.
He says stopping Trump is the most important issue to him as a voter.
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7:25 p.m.
Monty Eggett thinks John Kasich's experience as Ohio governor makes him the best choice among the Republican presidential candidates.
But Eggett is voting instead for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in Utah's presidential caucus Tuesday in hopes of stopping Donald Trump from winning the nomination.
The 70-year-old retired insurance CEO says he agrees with Cruz and Mitt Romney that a vote for Kasich is essentially a vote for Trump.
Utah's dislike for Trump is the main reason Cruz is expected to win Utah.
Eggett is casting his vote at a Republican caucus at a country club in North Salt Lake with spectacular views of the Great Salt Lake and mountain ranges.
Eggett, a Mormon, has such intense disdain for Trump that he says he would consider voting for Hillary Clinton in the general election if Trump wins the GOP nomination.
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6:40 p.m.
The Utah Democratic website is running again after crashing about an hour before the party's caucuses were scheduled to kick off Tuesday evening.
Utah Democratic Party Communications Director Yándary Zavala says the site was down due to a heavy amount of website traffic.
The party's website includes such information as the addresses for the 90 physical Democratic caucus locations in the state, as well as guidance on what documents to bring and who is eligible to vote.
Zavala says the party's web team has fixed the problem.
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5:30 p.m.
Kathy Blosil of Provo says she plans to caucus for Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Tuesday because she thinks his experience and background make him the best qualified GOP candidate.
Blosil, a 60-year-old woman who works for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, says it's important to her that Kasich has avoided some of the personal attacks other candidates have engaged in.
She says billionaire Donald Trump has a lot of bravado and makes a lot of promises but the party would be taking a gamble by nominating him because he's an unknown.
Blosil says she admires Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's love for America and the U.S. Constitution but she doesn't relate to him.
She says Kasich seems like he has integrity and is trustworthy.
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5:25 p.m.
The Utah Democratic website has crashed about an hour before the party's caucuses are scheduled to kick off Tuesday evening.
Utah Democratic Party Communications Director Yándary Zavala says she doesn't know why the site is down, but guesses it is due to a heavy amount of website traffic.
The party's website includes such information as the addresses for the 90 physical Democratic caucus locations in the state, as well as guidance on what documents to bring and who is eligible to vote.
Zavala says the party's web team is working to fix the problem. She says she hopes the site will be running again soon.
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5:10 p.m.
Utah elections officials say thousands of people are trying to register to vote at the last minute in Republican and Democratic caucuses.
Utah's director of elections Mark Thomas says about 20,000 people started registering to vote online in recent days, with about half of those coming in Tuesday. He says those applications are still pending.
Thomas says anyone who registered to vote in the past week may have to re-register in person when they vote at a caucus site Tuesday because the state political parties do not have real-time access to applications pending in the state voter registration website.
Thomas says the thousands of applications in the process are in addition to 59,000 people who registered to vote in March.
There are more than 1.4 million registered voters in the state.
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4:45 p.m.
The Utah Republican party says Mitt Romney isn't planning to appear in person at Utah's presidential caucuses Tuesday.
Cindie Quintana with the state GOP says the former presidential candidate and Utah resident is out of town and voting with an absentee ballot.
Romney has announced his intention to vote for Ted Cruz in Utah, saying the Texas senator the best way to block Republican front-runner Donald Trump from collecting delegates from the state.
Romney called Trump a "phony" who must be defeated to avoid profoundly negative consequences for the party and the country in a speech at the University of Utah.
Trump, for his part, says Romney is a failed candidate whose loss in the presidential race four years ago was an embarrassment.
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3:30 p.m.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has secured another endorsement in a long line of Utah GOP heavyweights who have publicized their support for the Republican presidential candidate.
U.S. Rep. Mia Love issued a statement Tuesday saying she will vote for Cruz in the Republican party's presidential caucus. She says Cruz has proven he's principled and a courageous leader.
The Republican presidential candidate enters the race also fueled by support from Mitt Romney and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert. Both urged voters to back Cruz because he's the party's best chance to topple front-runner Donald Trump, whose brash style doesn't tend to play as well in Utah.
Online voting began Tuesday morning in Utah for the party's presidential caucus.
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3:30 p.m.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has secured another endorsement in a long line of Utah GOP heavyweights who have publicized their support for the Republican presidential candidate.
U.S. Rep. Mia Love issued a statement Tuesday saying she will vote for Cruz in the Republican party's presidential caucus. She says Cruz has proven he's principled and a courageous leader.
The Republican presidential candidate enters the race also fueled by support from Mitt Romney and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert. Both urged voters to back Cruz because he's the party's best chance to topple front-runner Donald Trump, whose brash style doesn't tend to play as well in Utah.
Online voting began Tuesday morning in Utah for the party's presidential caucus.
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2:30 p.m.
Utah's Republican party says a new online voting system for its presidential caucus is generally performing well, though there have been some problems.
GOP Director of Communications Cindie Quintana says nearly 59,000 people registered to vote online. That's comparable to the total of number of voters who participated in 2014.
Quintana says most of the complaints have been from people wondering why they can't register online Tuesday. Voters had to register last week to get approved.
Voter Terra Cooper of Syracuse tells the Standard-Examiner in Ogden that she registered online, but never got a required PIN number.
Greg Ericksen of Bountiful tells the Deseret News he got his PIN, but the system gave him error messages for nearly three hours before he could vote.
The system opened at 7 a.m. and is available until 11 p.m.
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11:45 a.m.
Lynda Tanton/Johnson of South Jordan says she plans to caucus for Donald Trump because he supports and donates to veterans' causes.
The 57-year-old woman says she's seen him choke up over the issue, and that's meaningful because several members of her family have served.
She acknowledges that Trump's bombastic style doesn't play as well among her friends and neighbors in Utah as it does in other conservative states. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is projected to win the GOP vote Tuesday in Utah, where a polite culture rooted in the Mormon faith prevails and political heavyweights have thrown their support behind Cruz as the best way to beat Trump.
Johnson is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and says she's questioned some of Trump's remarks before, but now she understands his meaning.
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8 a.m.
Online voting has begun in Utah for the Republican party's presidential caucus.
Registered Republicans who elected to participate online can now take their assigned 30-digit PIN to the state GOP website to vote.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is projected to win the contest against businessman and Republican front runner Donald Trump.
The online voting system opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday and is available until 11 p.m. local time.
Other Republican voters who haven't cast an absentee ballot are expected in-person at their neighborhood caucus meetings Tuesday evening.
Utah's Democratic caucuses are also being held Tuesday.
Voters can chose between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at neighborhood meetings or by casting a ballot.
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12 a.m.
Utah voters will put their stamp on the 2016 presidential race Tuesday when they choose candidates for both major parties, with Ted Cruz projected to win the GOP vote and Bernie Sanders expected to give Hillary Clinton a stiff challenge on the Democratic side.
Cruz enters the race fueled by newly pledged support from Mitt Romney and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, who both urged voters to back the Texas senator because he's the party's best chance to topple Donald Trump. Trump's bombast makes him far less popular in Utah where a polite, pragmatic culture rooted in the Mormon faith holds sway.
But, the businessman and Republican front runner could still walk away with delegates if sharp divisions within the party prevent anyone from winning a majority.miamiherald
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