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Rep. John Curtis speaks during an interview at the Daily Herald office in Provo on Oct. 20, 2022. Curtis represents Utah’s 3rd Congressional District.
Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald
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Rep. John Curtis speaks during an interview at the Daily Herald office in Provo on Oct. 20, 2022. Curtis represents Utah’s 3rd Congressional District.
Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald
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Rep. John Curtis speaks during an interview at the Daily Herald office in Provo on Oct. 20, 2022. Curtis represents Utah’s 3rd Congressional District.
Rep. John Curtis speaks during an interview at the Daily Herald office in Provo on Oct. 20, 2022. Curtis represents Utah’s 3rd Congressional District.
As people across Utah and the 3rd Congressional District begin their day next Tuesday, John Curtis will be alone. On Election Day, the two-plus-term member of Congress will be starting the day with a hike — with solitude and nature.
Curtis is a former mayor of Provo and was first elected to the US House of Representatives in a 2017 special election to replace Jason Chaffetz.
Having served as mayor of the fourth largest city in Utah, Curtis came into the federal government’s legislative branch with eight years of experience as an executive. Through his time in Congress, though, Curtis believes he’s improved in the job, while accepting there’s still room to grow.
“The skill sets that I think that helped me, as a mayor, are different than the skill sets that are needed as a federal legislator,” he told the Daily Herald. “What I would hope is that during the next two years, I could continue to perfect those skill sets that are important for a legislator.”
Curtis has become a leader in Congress on climate-related issues, founding the Conservative Climate Caucus — a 73-member coalition of Republicans that includes the full Utah delegation and seeks to “Educate House Republicans on climate policies and legislation consistent with conservative values,” among other goals.
He has quickly become one of the Republican party’s leaders on the issue and hosted a summit looking for conservative conversations around climate change last month in Salt Lake City. The caucus is the second largest in Congress, but comes at a time when climate denialism continues.
According to the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, 109 members of the US House of Representatives are considered climate denialists, meaning they have publicly shown hesitancy “to acknowledge the scientific evidence of human-caused climate change.” Still, Curtis believes there is a way to bring in his GOP colleagues on environmental policy.
“Almost all, if not all, are comfortable with the concept of leaving the Earth better than we found it. Regardless of your political persuasion, regardless of how you feel about climate science, you’re comfortable with, ‘I want to leave the Earth better than I found it,’” Curtis said. “I’ll have the conversation with you, and we’ll worry about the science later. But let’s agree less pollution is better than more pollution. And let’s agree, we want to leave this earth better than we found it. And now we have a massive basis to work together on.”
He added that taking people where they are, rather than looking for everyone to pass a climate litmus test, gives the best chance of passing meaningful climate legislation.
Back in Utah, Curtis is promoting his work on climate to a slightly different 3rd District than in years past. After congressional redistricting due to the 2020 census, the district now includes part of Utah County — primarily Provo and the area to the north — while including Park City, Moab, the Uinta National Forest and Navajo Nation.
While the old boundaries included coal country along the state’s eastern border and in central Utah, oil and gas in Uinta is new. On his first visit to the area, Curtis said he received a little bit of suspicion that he, as the “climate guy,” was a threat to people’s livelihoods.
In the GOP primary for the seat, Curtis had the highest rate of support, over 76% in the energy-producing counties, namely Carbon, Duchesne and Uintah, a fact Curtis is proud of.
“It validates, to me, this concept of ‘you’re oil and gas, you have a role in this,’ I’m not demonizing you, you have a role in lowering emissions, and we need you,” Curtis said. “We don’t need to demonize anybody. We don’t need to destroy economies, we don’t need to give up national security. And we can still reduce emissions.”
He also criticized President Joe Biden for his decisions to cut oil and gas drilling and cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline.
During Curtis’ first partial term in Congress, he worked in a GOP-led House while Republicans held control of the Senate and presidency. Since then, he has worked with a Democratic-led House and a Democratic White House. Because of his personal philosophies, Curtis said there wasn’t much difference between the two scenarios.
“The way that me and my team operates is, we’re only gonna get it if we can find a bipartisan pathway sooner or later, maybe getting things across the line,” he said.
He referenced his work lobbying fellow Republicans on a debt ceiling increase, saying he plans to be “far more instrumental” in crafting a potential debt ceiling increase with Republicans in control of the US House. Curtis believes his policies surrounding the debt ceiling, and other economic issues, will resonate with Utah County voters and the rest of the 3rd Congressional District.
Specifically, he has advocated for limiting inflation and reducing the costs of energy and gasoline. To do so, he believes the country should cut excess spending and, to free up supply chains, deregulate in areas that “are not critical to health, safety, environmental life.”
Curtis also advocated for changing permitting policy and reforming the National Environmental Policy Act.
In terms of international affairs, Curtis advocated for more accountability in sending aid to Ukraine, though he does not believe in abandoning the nation as their war continues with Russia. “The success of Ukraine is critical. If they fail, the likelihood that many US men and women end up in Europe. Fighting a war is too high for me,” he said.
When it comes to Saudi Arabia, another cautiously ally, Curtis believes the United States is best served by working with countries that share our national values. “I think, this recent decision by Saudi Arabia to cut back on petroleum, that maybe they’re not as good a friend as we thought they were,” he said.
With ballots already having been mailed out, voting will come to a close on Election Day, next Tuesday. On the ballot for the 3rd District is Democratic challenger Glenn Wright, a Summit County Council member, and candidates from the Constitution, Libertarian and Independent American parties.
Regardless of how people vote, Curtis hopes they remember the human side of everyone running for office.
“I think, too often, you see somebody, particularly on a national stage, and you see this Teflon persona that we like to put forward. But the end of the day, I believe, like everybody else, I’m as saddened by discord as everybody else. I’m as affected by negativity as anybody else. I just think that sometimes it’s easy to forget,” Curtis said.
He also made one promise to voters, if he is elected to Congress.
“I’ll be John Curtis. And I’ll be true to who I am. That may disappoint you — and if it is I’m actually OK with that,” he said. “I get my kicks on being a good representative and doing a good job of representing the district and that’s not going to change.”
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