Mitt Romney will be replaced by a man who certainly looks a lot like Mitt Romney.
Republican Rep. John Curtis, who has occasionally criticized former President Donald Trump, won a crowded GOP primary for Romney’s Utah Senate seat on Tuesday, defeating Trent Staggs, a MAGA candidate with Trump’s blessing, to secure a victory for the mainstream GOP in a devoutly Mormon state that has long been skeptical of Trumpian politics.
First elected to Congress in 2017, Curtis is a moderate conservative who has refused to support Trump outright and has not been shy about criticizing the former president. Curtis voted against both of Trump’s impeachment trials — unlike Romney’s guilty votes in both Senate trials — although the representative did call for censure of the then-president following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Romney’s discontent with Trump’s Republican Party prompted him to retire from the Senate after just one term; Curtis overcame his to secure the Republican nomination.
Curtis, who is known in Congress as a Republican advocate for fighting climate change, was pushed into the race by a super PAC funded in part by climate activist Jay Faison. He initially turned down a Senate bid, but changed course after the super PAC ran ads urging him to run.
Staggs, the mayor of Riverton, won Trump’s endorsement shortly before the state’s Republican Convention — a move that surprised some Utah Republicans who considered Staggs a long-shot candidate. Staggs won the convention, made up of the party’s more MAGA-affiliated activists, which secured him a spot on the primary ballot, but he struggled to raise money. Curtis spent $1.5 million on advertising, according to the media tracking term AdImpact. Staggs didn’t show any ads. Curtis also had the support of two well-funded super PACs that together spent nearly $7 million.
Businessman Jason Walton and former Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson were also on the ballot. Brent Hatch, the son of the late Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, made a bid but failed to get on the ballot.
Romney remained neutral in the race, but praised both Curtis and Wilson. On Tuesday night, the outgoing senator praised Curtis after his victory.
“John Curtis is a man of honor and integrity who cares deeply about our fellow citizens and the future of our country,” Romney wrote on X. “We need more leaders like him.”
Curtis’s past made him unlikely to win Trump’s support. Curtis denounced Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. And he criticized Trump’s trade war with China and cuts to foreign aid, and voted to certify the 2020 election results. His wife was a supporter of Nikki Haley’s presidential bid.
“Serving for him is a 10-degree of difficulty,” Curtis said during a debate earlier this month. “If President Trump does something that I think is consistent with Utah’s values, and I can check off a pretty good list, then I have the wind at his back. But I’m not going to give him an unconditional yes to everything he wants.”
He will be a heavy favorite when he faces Democrat Caroline Gleich, a professional ski mountaineer and climate activist, in the fall.
