UT-Sen: Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs on Tuesday became the first notable Utah Republican to announce an intra-party bid against Sen. Mitt Romney with a video pitching himself far to the right of the 2012 presidential nominee-turned-party heretic. Romney, for his part, is still keeping everyone guessing if he’ll actually seek a second term, and his team reiterated this week he will reach a “final decision in the coming months.”
Staggs argues that, while Romney promised to fight for a conservative agenda, “[T]he only thing I’ve seen him fight for are the establishment, wokeness, open borders, impeaching President Trump, and putting us even deeper into debt.” (Those statements are accompanied by several newspaper headlines about Romney, including one from The Salt Lake Tribune that reads, “MITT ROMNEY MARCHES IN BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS IN WASHINGTON.” The mayor, after touting himself as a loyal conservative, unsubtly adds, “I’m not a career politician, or a Massachusetts millionaire.”
Staggs was elected in 2017 to lead Riverton, a Salt Lake City suburb of 45,000, and he made news early in the pandemic by telling police officers not to enforce Salt Lake County’s orders to limit public gatherings. He then sought to lead the county later in 2020 when he challenged appointed incumbent Jenny Wilson, who herself was Romney’s most recent Democratic opponent, but he lost 52-45. (Salt Lake County, which is a rare source of Democratic strength in this dark red state, favored Joe Biden 53-42.)
The only other serious Republican who has started raising money for a bid for Romney’s seat is state House Speaker Brad Wilson, who formed an exploratory committee last month and says he’ll make up his mind sometime in the fall. But several other Beehive State politicians haven’t closed the door on running including Attorney General Sean Reyes, Rep. Chris Stewart, and former Rep. Jason Chaffetz.
A crowded primary could make it difficult for anyone to win the plurality they’d need to beat Romney in the event he sought reelection, though Utah’s unusual ballot access laws may limit the number of people who actually appear on the ballot. The state allows candidates for Congress or governor to qualify either by turning in the requisite number of signatures or by competing at their party convention, though they’re free to try both.
Both methods carry risk. If one convention contender ends up taking more than 60% of the delegate vote, they would be the only candidate to reach the primary ballot. If, however, no one hits this threshold, then the two competitors left standing will advance to the primary. Staggs says he’s a “big believer” in this system and will pursue this route.
Signature gathering, however, is also an onerous and unpredictable task even for well-funded candidates. Romney needed 28,000 petitions in 2018 and turned in 80,000, but even his team reportedly wasn’t sure that would be enough. “When we turned those 80,000 signatures in, I thought there was a chance we didn’t make it,” an unnamed source told Utah Policy two years later, “We were praying we would get 30% validated.” Those prayers were more than answered, though, as Romney ultimately got about 60% of his petitions accepted.