Utah Sen. John Curtis Says Republicans Must 'Return to the Principled Conservative Values' They Have 'Steadily Abandoned,' Breitbart Reports
Breitbart says the Utah Republican blamed a hasty war, scandals, a ballooning debt and unpredictable tariffs after Democrats took both chambers, and called on the party to go back to Reagan-style limited government.
Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, is urging his party to change course after Democrats won the House and the Senate, Breitbart reports.
The post. Curtis wrote on X: "After the Biden era, Americans wanted an economy that worked for them. Instead, they received a hastily executed war, headline after headline of scandals, a ballooning $40 trillion debt, and unpredictable tariffs." He added: "It's time for Republicans to return to the principled conservative values that once defined us, and that we've steadily abandoned over the last decade."
The longer essay. In a Substack piece, Curtis wrote about growing up in Utah, where "pioneer values" shaped daily life: hard work, thrift, self-reliance, faith, family, integrity and responsibility to neighbors. He said he once saw those principles in the Republican Party, citing Ronald Reagan's push for limited government, free trade, resolute diplomacy, global leadership and fiscal responsibility.
On the party's drift. Curtis wrote that over the last decade the party "has steadily drifted from the principles" that defined it. "Many shrewd political minds found it worth abandoning these principles in order to win elections, and they were largely right," he wrote.
On populists. He said the populist movement brought millions of Americans into the party, many of whom felt forgotten by Washington. "I welcome them," he wrote. "They belong in our big-tent party." But he said winning was never the goal in itself: "We wanted to win so we could govern according to principles that make people's lives better."
Why it matters here. It is a second public argument from inside the party about why Republicans lost. Vance blamed the Iran war and Justin Haskins blamed a lack of vision, which we covered. Curtis ties the loss to spending, tariffs and a broader drift from limited government, a different diagnosis than Vance's focus on the war and immigration.
What we could not check. We did not read Curtis's X post or Substack essay ourselves. Quotes here come from Breitbart's report.