CNN
—
Utah Rep. John Curtis will win the state’s Republican Senate main, CNN tasks, overcoming a challenger backed by Donald Trump within the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Mitt Romney.
Curtis, 64, is projected to win a four-way main that included Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, who had the backing of the previous president and the state Republican Occasion. Curtis can be closely favored within the November common election within the deep-red state that final elected a Democrat to the US Senate in 1970.
Although anti-Trump Republicans are dropping a standard-bearer in Romney, Curtis has additionally saved the previous president at arm’s size in a state that, whereas closely Republican, has not all the time rewarded probably the most strident conservative candidates in GOP primaries. Curtis didn’t again Trump throughout this 12 months’s Republican presidential main – although he did largely vote with the previous president throughout Trump’s time period in workplace.
The founder and chairman of the Conservative Local weather Caucus in Washington, Curtis commonly hosts what he has referred to as “mountain climbing city corridor” occasions at which he invitations voters to speak with him whereas he performs tour information via a few of the state’s most scenic spots.
Trump introduced his assist for Staggs in April, hours earlier than the mayor certified for the first poll by defeating Curtis on the state celebration conference. Such gatherings are typically dominated by celebration hard-liners, and winners haven’t all the time discovered success in primaries, which are a magnet for a broader swath of Republican voters. (Curtis certified for the first poll by delivering sufficient signatures.)
Staggs, who highlighted his opposition to Covid-19 measures as mayor of Riverton, a suburb of Salt Lake Metropolis, posted a video on social media final week by which the previous president referred to as him “a implausible individual working for the seat of one of many worst senators within the historical past of the Republican Occasion, Mitt Romney.”
Nonetheless, within the video, Trump acknowledged that Staggs was “a bit of little bit of an extended shot.”
Curtis was first elected to Congress in 2017, profitable a particular election to succeed Republican former Rep. Jason Chaffetz. He beforehand served as mayor of Provo, the state’s fourth most populous metropolis.
CNN’s Andrew Menezes contributed to this story.