Utah Republicans fight to 'out-MAGA each other' in battle for Romney’s Senate seat

When Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) announced that he won't be seeking reelection in 2024, Never Trump conservatives were quick to lament his departure. Romney, they stressed, has been a voice of moderation who isn't afraid to stand up to former President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, GOP strategists and organizers are thinking about that U.S. Senate seat's post-Romney future. Mother Jones' Stephanie Mencimer, in an article published on September 18, warns that the lineup for Utah's 2024 GOP U.S. Senate primary is shaping up to be far-right and hyper-MAGA.

"When Sen. Mitt Romney replaced Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in 2018," Mencimer explains, "he was continuing a long tradition of relatively moderate Republican senators from Utah who were able to cross the aisle and get things done…. That tradition is likely to end with him."

Mencimer sees no indication of a Romney-like Republican taking over that seat.

"Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson created an exploratory committee for the seat in July, and Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs declared his candidacy in May," the Mother Jones reporter explains. "In an early indication of where the race is headed, Staggs is holding a fundraiser Monday, (September 18) that will be headlined by Kari Lake, the failed Senate candidate from Arizona who tried to overturn both her own election loss and promoted the lie that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election."

Lake's "presence," according to Mencimer, "will help cement Staggs' populist bona fides early in a race that promises to be full of candidates trying to out-MAGA each other now that they no longer have Romney to beat up on."

Mencimer observes, "Also reportedly considering a run for the seat is Tim Ballard, a Mormon former Homeland Security agent and founder of an anti-human trafficking organization whose work inspired the sleeper hit movie 'Sound of Freedom,' which has been popular with the QAnon crowd…. Even Wilson has worked to demonstrate his loyalty to Trump."