EXCLUSIVE: The race to interchange retiring Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is gaining steam as one other candidate has tossed his hat into the fold, the primary because the senator mentioned final week he would not run for re-election.
Talking with Fox Information Digital, Roosevelt, Utah Mayor Rod Chicken, Jr., a Republican, ripped Romney’s tenure in workplace, arguing the senator did not do what he mentioned he would do when first elected in 2018.
“When Romney ran, he campaigned on conservative values and gave lots of people in our state hope,” Chicken mentioned “Many believed he would battle for us, however in some ways he offered us out and didn’t preserve his phrase.”
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Roosevelt, Utah Mayor Rod Chicken, Jr. and Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney. (Getty Pictures, Rod Chicken, Jr.)
Chicken — who has served as Roosevelt’s mayor since 2018 — says he hopes to run a marketing campaign primarily based on the “spirit of small-town values” and “ideas of individualism, restricted authorities, and freedom.”
“We’ve got a number of profession politicians in Washington serving their very own agenda,” he mentioned. “[Romney] was fast to march with radical teams like Black Lives Matter, when he ought to have been strolling down Principal Avenue and speaking with small companies and dealing households struggling throughout our state.”
“My marketing campaign received’t be about him or personalities, it will likely be about standing up for our God-given, constitutional freedoms and preventing for working households, small companies, and on a regular basis people who find themselves struggling resulting from Joe Biden’s failed insurance policies.”
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Roosevelt, Utah Mayor and Republican Senate candidate Rod Chicken, Jr. (Rod Chicken, Jr.)
Chicken mentioned he grew up in excessive poverty, and that his household even needed to stay in a 10×20 foot shed after their residence was misplaced in a fireplace. Since then, he has constructed the oil and gasoline provide firm Paragon Oilfield Merchandise, which made him a multi-millionaire.
As Roosevelt’s mayor, Chicken has made a reputation for himself as a staunch opponent of presidency mandates associated to the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to pushing to decrease taxes for its residents.
“I grew up with the assumption that in America you actually can come from nothing and make what you need of your life,” he instructed Fox. “I nonetheless put on boots and denims to work on daily basis. I’m somebody that understands the struggles of on a regular basis Utahns as a result of I’ve lived them.”
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In saying his candidacy within the race, Staggs grew to become the primary particular person to publicly pose a problem to Romney, who has angered many citizens inside his personal celebration for his reasoning and help for sure insurance policies and payments. (Trent Staggs)
Romney’s retirement has launched a frenzy of Republicans seeking to fill the seat with a extra conservative candidate. Utah Home Speaker Brad Wilson and Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs have signaled they had been launching major challenges towards Romney earlier this yr, however Staggs is the one different candidate to have formally launched a marketing campaign for the seat.
Tim Ballard, the previous Division of Homeland Safety agent who impressed the hit movie “Sound of Freedom” mentioned Friday he was “very critically contemplating” a run for the seat.
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