11 Republican candidates have declared they will run for the open U.S. Senate seat in Utah

By Gitanjali Poonia and Suzanne Bates

Among Republican candidates jockeying to replace Sen. Mitt Romney in the Senate, the race is still wide open.

A new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll shows about half of all registered Utah Republicans haven’t decided who they will vote for in the party’s June 25 primary.

A U.S. Senate seat rarely opens up, given the propensity of senators to remain in their seats often for decades once they’re elected. But Romney only served a single term before deciding he wouldn’t run again, saying, “Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders.”

Since Romney made his announcement in September last year, several candidates stepped up to run for the seat. The race is now fairly crowded — with 11 Republicans, three Democrats and two others — and the candidates have ramped up their campaigning and outreach efforts as they try to gain support and momentum.

That includes Brad Wilson, former speaker of the Utah House, who — like the others — is traveling up and down the state trying to convince voters he should represent them in Washington, D.C.

Wilson sat around a conference table recently in Salt Lake City with Aaron Starks, president of 47G, Utah’s aerospace and defense industry group, Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski and a group of others interested in the state’s economic development to learn about the stress points when trying to attract businesses to Utah. It was just one of many campaign stops Wilson planned to make that day.

While campaigning can be grueling, Wilson said he enjoys it.

“I’ve never done anything like this before” he said, of running a statewide campaign. When he was a state lawmaker, he was campaigning in his hometown. But now, he meets with people from St. George up to Logan. “I’ve loved it, it’s the most fun thing I’ve ever done.”

When pressed on whether this was actually true, he insisted it was.

https://www.deseret.com/2024/1/31/24049841/poll-utah-republican-primary-race-mitt-romney