Rep. John Curtis wants to heal a climate of distrust in the Senate

Rep. John Curtis visited Utah’s oil country, which had just been incorporated into his 3rd Congressional District, with the conviction that showing up and sitting down with constituents was the surest way to change hearts and simultaneously keep his finger on the district’s pulse.

The initial hesitancy of Uinta Basin petroleum producers toward the “climate guy” quickly dissolved, the congressman said, after he listened to their concerns and explained his approach to policy.

In a conversation like many others he’s had with rural residents and skeptical lawmakers, Curtis framed fossil fuels and free market fixes as a part of the solution, not an obstacle, to the country’s energy and environmental demands. When he was up for reelection several months later, Utah’s northeastern counties voted for Curtis by larger margins than anywhere else.

“I’ve done more to change the false narrative that fossil fuels are bad and they need to be eradicated than anybody I know,” Curtis told the Deseret News editorial board on Wednesday.

As a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Curtis has strived to gain the trust of the other three-quarters of the state he doesn’t represent by highlighting his expertise in energy policy, public lands and national security. He also hopes the effectiveness of his consensus-building style can help rebuild trust in the institution he aims to return to.

“Trust is so broken,” Curtis said. “You only repair trust a little bit at a time, and you earn trust; you can’t demand trust.”

Leading on energy

If Utah voters give Curtis a promotion from Congress’ lower to higher chamber, he would use his newfound influence to advance the same issues he prioritized during his seven years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Curtis said, beginning with reorienting the nation’s energy policies toward reliability and affordability as well as emission reduction.

“I’ve shown that that can be done,” Curtis said. “And I am considered by my colleagues to be one of the leaders on that back in Washington, D.C.”

Curtis has led efforts to help his Republican colleagues in the House address concerns about the environment by forming the Conservative Climate Caucus. He has led Republican delegations to the United Nations climate conference, championed nuclear energy innovation and hosted multiple climate summits in the state.

“I like to make the case that our energy plan would reduce more emissions than the Green New Deal or our Democratic colleagues,” Curtis said. “A Republican approach to this is that you don’t have to give up energy independence, you don’t have to give up affordability, like Europe did, to reduce emissions and you don’t have to demonize fossil fuels.”

Promoting local control of public lands

Curtis said he would also focus on promoting Utah control and ownership of public lands, which make up 90% of some parts of his district.

“I feel confident that I understand public lands better than anybody in the race,” Curtis said. “It’s a huge differentiator.”

The congressman has passed 19 bills into law during his tenure in Congress, many of them focused on public lands, making him one of the most productive lawmakers in the country.

One of the most impactful of these was the Emery County Public Land Management Act, which established the San Rafael Swell Recreation Area and Jurassic National Monument, expanded Goblin Valley State Park and secured 100,000 acres of school trust land in Utah. Through various deals, Curtis has helped transfer at least 9,000 square acres of federal lands over to the state, his campaign said.

“I’ve moved more land from federal ownership to state ownership than anyone in the state’s history,” Curtis said.

Under a potential future Donald Trump administration, Curtis said he would lead an effort to legislate smaller boundaries for the Bears Ears National Monument and repeal a new Bureau of Land Management rule that allows the agency to lease land for conservation purposes and prevent other uses for the area.

Curtis on national security

Finally, Curtis said he would continue his strong record pushing back against foreign aggression, particularly from China — where there have been calls for Curtis’ arrest — and Russia — where a senior diplomatic official has called Curtis’ tough stance “maniacal.”

Last week, Curtis voted in favor of military funding for Israel, U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific and Ukraine. Curtis said the narrow House GOP majority tried to address concerns from Republican voters about U.S. support for Ukraine by including several new accountability measures.

Curtis said lawmakers should take the opportunity to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from continuing on to other European — potentially NATO-member — countries and to send a strong signal to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Over three-quarters of money spent on Ukraine aid stays in the U.S., Curtis said, to buy and build new weapons stocks, with $90 million going to Utah’s Hill Air Force Base.

Curtis at the center of opponents’ criticism

Curtis blew past his primary opponents in first-quarter fundraising. In the first three months of 2024, he received nearly $1.4 million, for a total of $3 million this election cycle. Former state House Speaker Brad Wilson and Moxie Pest Control CEO Jason Walton both raised just over $250,000 and have loaned their respective campaigns at least $2.5 million.

But Curtis’ fundraising strength, and comparatively high name recognition, have also made him a target. As the crowded field of candidates have sought to distinguish themselves as the most conservative, Curtis has been labeled a RINO (Republican in Name Only) and attacked as being insufficiently loyal to Trump or overly focused on climate change.

Curtis said the phrase RINO has become divorced from conservative credentials and now is used to disparage “anybody who disagrees with one slight difference from me.”

Unlike his primary opponents, Curtis said, he has had to vote on tough issues like Ukraine aid, immigration reform and federal spending levels. He has also taken constituent face-time to the extreme, holding more than 300 constituent events since being elected to Congress in 2017, and recently winning the constituent accountability and accessibility award from the Congressional Management Foundation.

“I think that’s how you don’t become Washington,” Curtis said.

He will vote for Trump in the upcoming presidential election, Curtis said, because “the alternative is Joe Biden and it’s just not acceptable to me.”

“I found, last time I served with President Trump, a comfortable place to support him when he was doing what I would call promoting Utah’s values. ... And I was also OK standing up when I felt like he was going against Utah values,” Curtis said.

Convention vs. primary success

Curtis said he is “keeping expectations low” for the outcome of Saturday’s Republican Party nominating convention because it “has never been my home court.”

Curtis is one of three Senate candidates, including Wilson and Walton, who have gathered the requisite 28,000 signatures to qualify for the Republican primary. Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs and conservative political adviser Carolyn Phippen are candidates who have chosen to pursue a convention-only path to the primary.

The Republican state convention will be held on April 27. Candidates who receive more than 40% of delegate votes, or who have gathered enough verified signatures, will appear on the primary ballot on June 25.

Curtis said internal polling has left him feeling confident he will win the primary election among what is expected to be a crowded field.

Other Republican candidates, besides those already named, include attorney Brent Hatch, certified public accountant Josh Randall, Bookroo founder Chandler Tanner, Brian Jenkins and Jeremy Friedbaum.

The GOP nominee who emerges from the primary will face off against the nominees from other registered political parties in the Nov. 5 general election.

The Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate in Utah include mountaineer Caroline Gleich, Archie Williams III and Laird Hamblin.