Utah GOP voters back John Curtis as their pick for Romney’s Senate seat

In a crowded Republican primary field to become Utah’s next U.S. Senator, Rep. John Curtis is now headed to the Nov. 5 general election. The Associated Press called the race for Curtis at 8:23 p.m.

This was one of the most anticipated races on the primary ballot. Curtis, Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, former Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson and businessman Jason Walton all saw an opening after Mitt Romney announced he would not run for reelection.

At Curtis’ election watch party at Riverview Park in Provo, the city where he got his political start as mayor, he said the win shows his campaign “had the right message” and the “right reputation” from the beginning. Curtis heavily leaned on his experience in the House as the reason he was fit to move onto the Senate.

Primary voters had their pick of a spectrum of Republican candidates.

On one end of the scale, Staggs, endorsed by former president Donald Trump, was considered more of a hard-right candidate. In a Truth Social post, Trump called Staggs “100% MAGA.” Staggs has also been vocal about his unwavering support for Trump and committed to pushing the “America First Agenda” if elected.

“I think it's just sad for all of America to see how Donald Trump has been the most attacked and maligned, persecuted president or presidential candidate in the history of the United States of America,” Staggs said during the June 10 Senate debate.

Staggs was also selected as the party's nominee by delegates by a wide margin at the April 28 statewide nominating convention. Curtis qualified for the primary through the signature gathering path, which is largely condemned by the more ultra-conservative delegates. Walton and Wilson also gathered signatures.

Staggs did not concede at the end of election night. He also did not offer any remarks at the watch party he attended, hosted by the Salt Lake County Republican Party at the Utah Trucking Association in West Valley City. Once the election was called in favor of Curtis, Staggs quietly left the building and waited outside.

“Although a few outlets have called it, we are still waiting for all the votes to be counted,” his campaign manager James Nelson said in a comment to KUER.

On the other end of the scale is Curtis, who has served in the U.S. House since 2017 and largely branded himself as more of a coalition builder conservative with a measured approach. He is the founder of the Conservative Climate Caucus, a group of Republican lawmakers concerned about the growing threat of climate change.

Voters and political scientists have aligned Curtis with more of the Romney brand of conservatism than the Trump version. At his election party, Curtis pushed back against the claims that he was similar to the outgoing senator.

“If you expect me to be Mitt Romney, I'm going to disappoint you. If you expect me to be Mike Lee, I'm going to disappoint you. I'm John Curtis,” he said. “And I think it's just fair to say I'm really different than both of them.”

While Curtis hasn’t pinned a label on himself per se, during the Senate primary debate, he noted that people connected with his “brand of conservatism,” which means “representing the values of the people that you serve.”

Even though Curtis voted with Trump more than 90% of the time when he was in office, he said he doesn’t blindly follow the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

“This narrative that you're either all in or all out on Donald Trump is a false narrative,” he said during the debate. “And the way I chose to do it when I worked with him is if it’s in Utah's best interest, I'm there. And if it's not, I'm going to push back.”

The primary election results match a poll conducted the week before the election by Noble Predictive Insights that showed Curtis with a comfortable lead over his opponents.

Curtis will take on Democrat Caroline Gleich in the general election. And the odds would seem to favor him. The last Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in Utah was Frank Moss in 1970.