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SALT LAKE CITY — A familiar face to Utah voters may be running for a spot in Washington.
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes is reportedly eyeing a run to the U.S. Senate in 2024, according to a report published Wednesday by Politico. The seat currently belongs to Sen. Mitt Romney, who has not publicly announced whether he will seek reelection.
Alan Crooks, who served as Reyes' campaign manager in the past and is currently a general consultant for Reyes, told KSL.com that he could neither confirm nor deny the Politico report, but he said that Reyes is "well set up" for whatever he chooses to do in politics.
A spokesman for the Utah Attorney General's Office declined to comment Wednesday, saying the official office does not handle questions of a political nature.
Reyes, who has been in the job since he was first appointed by then-Gov. Gary Herbert in 2013, has been reelected to the attorney general's office three times since his appointment.
The Politico article cites an unnamed source familiar with Reyes' plans for the future, saying a final decision and public announcement would be in May.
"Sean is very seriously considering running, regardless if Mitt runs or not," the source told Politico. "He's confident that regardless of what Sen. Romney wants to do, he's going to pursue this."
If both Reyes and Romney would choose to seek the Republican nomination in 2024, the two would be on opposing sides of a central GOP issue: former President Donald Trump.
Romney, elected in 2018, has been a staunch critic of Trump. On the other hand, Reyes served as Utah's co-chairman for Trump's reelection campaign and said last November he would be taking part in the litigation process to contest President Joe Biden's victory, though claims made by Trump were later disproven. Reyes spent time in Nevada reviewing what he called "voting irregularities." The results of the 2020 election were later confirmed and Biden was sworn in as president.
Politico's source said that Reyes met with Trump in September and December 2020, and each time Trump encouraged him to run for the Senate seat.
"When he meets with Trump, the only thing that comes up is, 'Will you run against Romney? I need you to run against Romney. Get that guy out,'" the source told Politico.
Greg Smith, a former official in the Trump White House, told Politico that there's support for Reyes to run for the higher office.
"He's been the attorney general for nearly a decade, is charismatic, and has a dynamic background," Smith told Politico. "Of course people want him to run."
