Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes eyeing 2024 Senate run

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes backed Donald Trump's efforts to challenge the 2020 election results. Photo: Utah Office of the Attorney General

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes is preparing for a 2024 Senate run, potentially setting himself up as an opponent to incumbent Senator Mitt Romney, according to Politico.

“Sean is very seriously considering running, regardless if Mitt runs or not,” a person familiar with the matter told Politico. “He’s confident that regardless of what Sen. Romney wants to do, he’s going to pursue this.”

Reyes, who has been elected statewide three times, backed Donald Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election results. According to Politico’s source, Reyes and Trump met one-on-one twice, in September and December 2020.

Days after the 2020 election, Reyes said he was taking personal leave “to help prepare and support litigation in several states dealing with compromised election process.” He later signed on to a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton along with a dozen other Republican attorneys general seeking to overturn election results in critical battleground states.

“Prior to the election, Reyes ran digital ads on the attorney general’s office Facebook page announcing he was “standing strong with Trump,” including one that showed a photo of him pointing a handgun.” — Politico

The 51-year-old Reyes, who is a Latter-day Saint, may prove attractive to the GOP as they look to bring in more diverse candidates. He is the son of a Filipino-Spanish father who moved to the U.S. and a Hawaiian-Japanese mother.

“That isn’t something I’m prepared to decide yet or communicate,” Romney told Politico Wednesday. “But were I to decide to run again, the best news I could get would be that Sean Reyes was my opponent.”

“I guarantee Trump will come up with somebody,” Carson Jorgensen, chair of the Utah Republican Party told Politico. “There’s enough vitriol there that no matter if Trump is running for president, he will run a candidate against Romney.”

“There isn’t a Republican candidate in the country who isn’t seeking the support of President Trump,” a Trump spokesperson told Politico. “Mitt Romney will be replaced in 2024 by a champion for America First, that goes without question — he abandoned Utah and caved to the Radical Left.”

According to a February poll by Deseret News and the Hinckley Institute of Politics, Sen. Romney’s statewide approval rating has increased five points in recent months to 51%.