Thrusted by great support from his constituency, Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah) officially entered the race for a Senate seat on Wednesday morning as Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) vacates the position.
Mr. Curtis, Utah’s 3rd District representative, first expressed an interest in filling Mr. Romney’s shoes following the latter’s surprise retirement announcement in September. At the beginning of October, however, he declared to have put these senatorial ambitions on ice.
“After many hours of consultation, prayer, and contemplation, I have decided to stay out of the U.S. Senate race at this time,” he said.
The decision caused a stir among his supporters and donors, who urged him to reconsider, which he did in November.
“The voices just kept growing in numbers and in volume. And to be honest, one of those voices was my wife and my children,” Mr. Curtis said in an interview with the Deseret News.
“This was not just a few voices. This was people from all walks of life reaching out to ask what is it going to take to get me to reconsider.”
And some of that was very public. In November, the “Conservative Values for Utah” PAC spent $89,000 on a television ad encouraging Mr. Curtis to run for Senate.
The congressman attributed his hesitation to run for senate to a couple of factors close to his heart, mainly the desire to fulfill commitments to his district and to continue his term as a lauded legislator in the House; and hoping it would allow him more time with the family, which includes his six children and 17 grandchildren.
“It came at me 100 miles an hour,” Mr. Curtis told The Salt Lake Tribune. “There was a lot of pressure to move quickly.”
Republicans Brad Wilson, a former Utah House speaker, and Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs had already been campaigning to succeed Mr. Romney for several months. Other candidates, including Brent Hatch, son of the late Sen. Orrin Hatch, also joined the race more recently.
“I started thinking about things like: ‘If I really cared about serving my district, could I actually be a better voice for them in the Senate than I am in the House?’ And the answer to that is clearly yes,” Mr. Curtis said.
Wednesday morning, he filed his declaration of candidacy at the Utah lieutenant governor’s office, making the decision official.
“It was clearly something I not only felt good about, but I felt like there was something I should do,” he added.
Mr. Curtis currently serves on the House Communications & Technology Subcommittee, the Federal Lands Subcommittee, and previously on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He said his political agenda involves regulating artificial intelligence and social media, expanding local control over public lands, being a conservative voice on climate change, and pushing back against China to stop it from further encroaching on Hong Kong and Taiwan, where he lived for three years as a young man.
A 2023 study by the Center for Effective Lawmaking named Mr. Curtis one of the “most effective” legislators in the House. Nevertheless, his low-key approach triggered some more partisan Utah Republicans to label him a RINO (Republican in Name Only) but he dismissed these accusations of lacking political loyalty.
“It appears we’re headed for a Biden-Trump contest. Under that scenario, I would vote for President Trump,” he said, adding that his support would not be unconditional.
“I intend to continue to be supportive when President Trump is working on things that I would say are in line with Utah values, but also to not be afraid to push back when he is out of line with those values,” Mr. Curtis said.
