What Celeste Maloy’s win in Utah’s special election could mean for Romney’s future
Eden Villalovas
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Utah Republicans voted against a candidate branded as a staunch critic of former President Donald Trump, nominating Celeste Maloy in a three-way GOP primary in a special election.
Wednesday’s results may indicate trouble for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who has isolated himself from Republicans in his state by openly opposing Trump’s campaign to win his party’s third consecutive presidential nomination.
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Romney has been hesitant to announce his Senate 2024 reelection plans, stating he expects to decide on whether or not to run by this fall. However, Maloy’s victory over former state Rep. Becky Edwards, a GOP member who voted for President Joe Biden in 2020, could suggest Republican voters in Utah are not willing to elect someone who attacks Trump. The former president carried the heavily conservative state in both of his presidential bids.
Edwards ran an unsuccessful centrist campaign in 2022 against one of the most conservative senators, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), expressing her belief that Trump was rightfully impeached for his role in inciting the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Lee voted against impeaching Trump during both of his trials in the Senate.
On the other hand, Romney made history as the first senator to vote to convict a president of his own party in an impeachment trial in Trump’s first impeachment in February 2020.
While on the campaign trail in 2021, Edwards praised Romney, an endorsement that may have been viewed unfavorably by GOP voters.
“One thing I admire about Mitt Romney is his commitment to follow his conscience,” Edwards told the Salt Lake Tribune. “I don’t think he is dictated to by political whims or pressures. And he’s very consistent in his approach. And I respect that.”
Romney was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment, as he did in his first impeachment, declaring the then-president was “guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.”
The GOP senator has been vocal about Trump’s many legal battles, speaking on his second indictment that Trump “brought these charges upon himself by not only taking classified documents, but by refusing to simply return them when given numerous opportunities to do so.”
Maloy said she believes the federal indictments against Trump are politically motivated, pledging to serve on a committee to investigate the “weaponization of the federal government” if elected.
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The Republican nominee received an endorsement from the state Republican Party and her onetime boss, whom she hopes to succeed, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT). She defied poll numbers that showed Edwards beating her two opponents in the week leading up to the election, winning 38% of the vote. Edwards came in a close second with 35% after the polls closed on Tuesday, and former Utah GOP Chairman Bruce Hough was a distant third.
A new survey shows promising numbers for Romney if he commits to running. However, while nearly half of “very conservative” voters in Utah strongly disapprove of his job performance, he scored higher among “moderate” and “somewhat conservative” voters.