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SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Rand Paul endorsed veteran Colby Jenkins in the race for Utah's 2nd Congressional District seat on Tuesday, calling for "better Republicans" in Washington.
Jenkins entered the race against Rep. Celeste Maloy — who is in her first term in Congress after winning a special election last fall — with relatively little name recognition, but was endorsed by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, ahead of the GOP nominating convention last month. That endorsement helped boost Jenkins to a victory over Maloy at convention, though Maloy earned enough support from delegates to force a Republican primary on June 25.
Paul, a well-known Republican from Kentucky, was first elected to the Senate in 2010 amid the same Tea Party wave that helped Lee unseat then-Sen. Bob Bennett. The pair have often been aligned on issues of government spending and both were opposed to pandemic relief passed in 2020 and the recent foreign aid package to Israel and Ukraine, which had support from Democrats and Republicans.
"The problem in Washington isn't just Democrats," Paul said in a statement endorsing Jenkins. "Half of the Republicans in Congress vote for deficit spending, endless wars and unconstitutional mandates. That's why we need better Republicans, like Colby Jenkins."
In addition to Lee and Paul, Jenkins has also been backed by Kash Patel, a former Trump administration official, and the House Freedom Fund, a political action committee linked to the House Freedom Caucus.
Jenkins resides in St. George. He spent more than 25 years in the military where he led a Green Beret Special Forces A-Team on several deployments and later served as a Green Beret liaison to Congress and counter-terrorism adviser to the Pentagon.
