Rep. John Curtis’ quest for Utah’s open Senate seat is notable for one of many teams lining up on his facet — a significant nationwide local weather group.
Curtis, who based the Home’s Conservative Local weather Caucus, has gained the endorsement of EDF Motion, the advocacy companion of the Environmental Protection Fund, some of the influential inexperienced teams within the nation. It comes at the same time as different inexperienced activists are lining up — as environmental teams extra generally do — on the Democratic facet of the race.
His 17-point win over a Donald Trump-backed rival in June’s GOP major put the four-term Home member on a glide path to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Mitt Romney. And it uncovered a break up within the historically Democratic-leaning environmental group over how to reply to GOP lawmakers who again motion to struggle local weather change, regardless of the celebration’s overwhelming precedence on selling fossil fuels.
Curtis, a heavy favourite to win the final election in November, may very well be able to offer an important GOP vote towards a gutting of President Joe Biden’s vitality and local weather insurance policies throughout a second Trump administration. He voted towards Biden’s huge local weather regulation however has stated he helps items of it and rejected requires a wholesale repeal.
In contrast to many different politically lively environmental teams, EDF Motion has ceaselessly backed average Republicans or partnered with firms that different inexperienced activists shun. However Curtis was the primary Republican it has backed on this yr’s primaries, stated group President David Kieve, the Biden White Home’s former nationwide director of local weather and conservation engagement, including that it has spent $100,000 for a radio marketing campaign supporting him.
EDF has a historical past of “searching for alternatives to assist good Republicans that align with us on a variety of our points,” Kieve stated, calling Curtis’ engagement on local weather points “genuine” and “outcomes oriented.”
And he argued it was sensible for EDF to become involved to guarantee the defeat of extra hard-right-leaning candidates — particularly since Utah’s Senate seat will nearly definitely stay in Republican fingers. The state has not despatched a Democrat to the chamber since 1970.
In an interview, Curtis stated he was “grateful for” the assist from EDF Motion, regardless that he didn’t search out the group’s backing and isn’t “100%” aligned with its positions.
“I joke with some individuals, I’m your least worst different,” Curtis stated. “And so, if I’m EDF’s least worst different, individuals ought to acknowledge it’s what it’s.”
One other main inexperienced group — the League of Conservation Voters Motion Fund — has endorsed Curtis’ common election opponent, Democratic nominee Caroline Gleich, an environmental activist {and professional} ski mountaineer. The group will commit sources towards defeating Curtis regardless of the actual fact he’s closely favored to beat Gleich, who has by no means served in elected workplace.
Craig Auster, the LCV Motion Fund’s vice chairman of political affairs, stated it’s a mistake to tell apart Curtis from different Republicans given his votes towards Democratic-led local weather initiatives — most prominently the Inflation Reduction Act.
Curtis has acquired a 6 % lifetime score from the environmental group, though that rose to a excessive of 16 % in 2022.
“What he’s saying does not match his voting report. Voting towards the IRA — the largest local weather motion ever taken — is just not pro-climate,” Auster stated.
Kieve acknowledged Curtis’ skinny assist for environmental measures in Congress however stated Republican options in Utah had been far worse.
“I do not need to go line by line on his voting report,” Kieve stated. “However the Senate can be significantly better served with John Curtis there than his excessive MAGA opponent.”
Regardless of the involvement of nationwide inexperienced teams, Curtis’ stance on climate issues was not a significant factor within the major, which was dominated by financial points and immigration.
Utah Republicans ceaselessly reject hard-right candidates in favor of moderates like Curtis and Romney.
Their views on local weather change distinction sharply with the state’s different senator, Mike Lee, one of many Senate’s staunchest critics of local weather science, who seems poised to lead the party in the powerful Energy and Natural Resources Committee — probably as chair if Republicans win management of the Senate.
Curtis has beforehand defended his determination to stay with Republicans in voting towards the IRA by criticizing Democrats for using the partisan reconciliation process that allowed them to go it with a easy majority within the Senate.
He notes he has supported particular person items of the sprawling local weather invoice, similar to tax incentives for carbon seize, nuclear and hydrogen initiatives. And Curtis has pushed back against calls from Trump and other Republicans to repeal the law, acknowledging that GOP states and districts are reaping the benefits of it within the type of tens of billions of {dollars} in deliberate investments by firms into renewable vitality, battery and electrical automobile initiatives.
Curtis, within the interview, additionally dismissed the significance of LCV opposing him, suggesting the group’s determination is consultant of its partisan leanings.
“I’ve turn out to be so comfy with my message that if there are some teams who don’t prefer it … nice,” Curis stated. “What I discover is the extra considerate individuals don’t land there. And the extra considerate you might be, the extra affect you’ll have in bringing this [climate change] to be a non-partisan problem and making progress.”
On the path, Curtis defended his engagement on local weather points by arguing Republicans would haven’t any platform to compete with Democratic insurance policies he says would result in the demise of fossil fuels — that are nonetheless dominant in his district and state regardless of higher consciousness amongst voters about warming impacts.
“It did not turn out to be the central level of the marketing campaign,” Curtis stated.
Which means some observers — together with different Republicans in Congress lively on local weather points — had been cautious about drawing conclusions from Curtis’ major win.
“I do not know whether or not I can learn that a lot into it,” stated Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), a vice chair of the Conservative Local weather Caucus.
Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), who not too long ago introduced he gained’t run for reelection after being rating member of Democrats’ Choose Committee on the Local weather Disaster in 2019, famous that Curtis already has a firmly established repute in Utah that helped him.
“John is a extremely considerate man, any individual who actually digs into points, tries to determine what’s the best factor to do — in some circumstances placing political implications apart,” Graves stated. “There are clearly far more broad points that have an effect on that state [other than climate change].”
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), a colleague of Curtis’ on the Home Pure Sources Committee, stated he was “happy” to see Curtis defeat further-right candidates within the major.
“Curtis is by the requirements of the trendy Republican Celebration nearly as good as you get,” Huffman stated.
However he’s skeptical different Republicans will draw conclusions from Curtis being profitable whereas leaning into local weather motion.
“I do not suppose anybody can learn some nice thawing of local weather denial into this. It’s nonetheless thick within the Republican celebration ecosystem,” Huffman stated.
