Outgoing Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) allies are flocking to two establishment candidates he admittedly would welcome winning Utah’s Republican Senate primary: State House Speaker Brad Wilson (R-UT) and U.S. Rep. John Curtis (R-UT).
The Washington Examiner’s Nancy Vu reported both are trying to up their conservative brands as they face off with America First-aligned Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs (R) and Brent Hatch, the son of late U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), for the nomination.
But Curtis and Wilson’s conservative records are spotty.
Curtis, for instance, has not endorsed former President Donald Trump, even though the 45th president has held the title of presumptive Republican presidential nominee for a month. Wilson has flip-flopped on Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), attacking it now on the campaign trail after gushing over the Utah Compact on Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in 2021, which he signed.
Is John Curtis (RINO-Utah) the only Senate candidate in the country still refusing to endorse Donald Trump for President? pic.twitter.com/kdhDzH0H1C
— Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) April 10, 2024
And being tied to failed 2012 presidential candidate Romney while trying to win over conservatives is what one individual close to the Wilson campaign told the Examiner is “politically toxic.”
Republican Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson announces that he is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mitt Romney, who recently announced he won’t run for re-election, during a rally Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, in Draper, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
“It’s politically toxic, if you’re trying to win a conservative primary, to inherit Romney’s staff,” the source said. “If you want to win, you’ve got to distance yourself from Romney as much as possible.”
One Utah state lawmaker, speaking anonymously, told the Examiner that Romney and Wilson are closely aligned on the issues and that a lack of enthusiasm for Romney in Utah is driving Wilson’s efforts to distance himself from the former Massachusetts governor.
As Vu points out, one link from Wilson to Romney runs through his campaign manager, Caleb Worthen. Worthen was a regional field director during Romney’s 2012 campaign. Romney and Wilson share donors in common, too.
Citing FEC filings, Vu reports that family members of “one Romney’s closest friends,” Ken Gardner, and Gardner himself contributed a combined $39,600 to Wilson’s campaign. The campaign also received $9,900 from former State Sen. Dan Hemmer (R), “who recruited Romney to run for Senate in 2017.”
Gardner – who wrote an opinion article entitled “Why Mormons should support Hillary Clinton” in the lead-up to the 2016 election and contributed to former Gov. Chris Christie’s (R-NJ) 2024 presidential campaign – was listed as a host for a “reception to benefit” Wilson’s exploratory committee in October, as Breitbart News noted. Other establishment donors and anti-Trump Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) were also listed as hosts.
Billionaire Gail Miller, who donated to Romney’s Senate campaigns, also donated a maximum of $9,900 to Wilson in September, according to FEC records. Vu writes Miller and her family have donated a combined $23,100.
And while FEC records are not yet available on Curtis’s campaign, a January fundraiser for the candidate requesting donations of at least $5,000 listed several Romney allies as hosts, Vu writes:
A number of alumni staffers and donors tied to the Utah Republican held a January fundraiser for Curtis shortly after he announced he would run. One notable host was Spencer Zwick, who raised more than a billion dollars as Romney’s finance chairman for his 2012 presidential bid. Other people listed on the fundraiser include Matt Waldrip, Romney’s former campaign manager and previous chief of staff in the Senate, and Alex Dunn, who served as Romney’s chief of staff during his governorship in Massachusetts. Zwick had previously urged Dunn to launch a primary challenge to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) in 2015.
Romney told the outlet in March he would welcome a scenario in which either man wound up in the U.S. Senate, but his chief of staff, Liz Johnson, later said he would not be weighing in on the primary.
And as Curtis attempted to paint himself as being different from both Romney and America First-leaning Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) in an interview with Deseret News in January, Staggs declared in March that Utah needs a second Mike Lee.
“Utah deserves another Mike Lee. And that’s exactly what I would give us in this state. A true conservative,” he said.
Staggs, an ardent Trump supporter, has coalesced the support of key MAGA figures, such as former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell and former Pentagon Chief of Staff Kash Patel, who served in the Trump administration.
Mayor Trent Staggs (Facebook/Mayor Trent Staggs)
He is also backed by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake, Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk, and best-selling author and conservative commentator Mark Levin.
In January, while speaking with Breitbart News on Saturday, Staggs warned that “Romney is still on the ballot” in Wilson and Curtis’s candidacies.
“I’m the only America First candidate in this race, and I have been so lucky to have been endorsed by a bunch of great conservatives, like Mark Levin, Charlie Kirk, Kash Patel, like Kari Lake,” he said.
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