By Canadian Press

Republican US Rep. John Curtis wins Mitt Romney’s open Senate seat in Utah

Nov 5, 2024 | 8:05 PM

PROVO, Utah (AP) — U.S. Rep. John Curtis will succeed Mitt Romney in the U.S. Senate after the Republican breezed to victory over his Democratic opponent in deeply red Utah.

Curtis defeated Democrat Caroline Gleich, a mountaineer and environmental activist from Park City, in a race that often centered around each candidate’s climate policies. The incoming senator leads the Conservative Climate Caucus on Capitol Hill and has developed a reputation for pushing back against party leaders such as Donald Trump who falsely claim that climate change is a hoax.

The former mayor of Provo began his political career as a county-level Democratic Party official. He is the longest-serving member of Utah’s U.S. House delegation and is viewed as a moderate in the manner of Romney.

Curtis, 64, has said he plans to carve out his own brand of conservatism in the post-Romney era of Utah politics, with a focus on bringing Republicans to the table on issues involving climate change.

His caucus takes a market-based approach to climate issues, countering Democratic policies with proposals that Curtis has said aim to lower emissions without compromising American jobs and economic principles. Gleich had accused him of pandering to the fossil fuel industry instead of supporting policies she said are needed to protect public lands, air and water.

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Curtis was heavily favored to win in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1970.

In the June primary, he emerged from a crowded pool of candidates to defeat a Trump-backed mayor.

Moderate Republicans tend to prevail in statewide elections in Utah. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who make up about half of the state’s 3.4 million residents, have been a reliably Republican voting bloc for decades. But many have been hesitant to embrace Trump and his allies, saying the former president’s brash style and comments about immigrants and refugees clash with their religious beliefs.

Hannah Schoenbaum, The Associated Press