United Utah Party candidate notes differences with Curtis and “Party of Trump”

Jim Bennett, candidate for the new United Utah Party in the special election to replace Jason Chaffetz in Utah’s Third Congressional District, congratulated Provo Mayor John Curtis on winning the Republican primary in that race.

 “Mayor Curtis was able to fend off hundreds of thousands of dollars in negative ads from hostile out-of-state groups to win his party’s nomination,” Bennett said. “That’s quite impressive, and I congratulate him on his hard-fought victory.”

Bennett and Curtis will be facing off against Democrat Kathie Allen in November, a candidate Bennett called “far to the left” of the average Third District voter. “Dr. Allen is following the Utah Democrat playbook by reaching out to her left-wing base instead of appealing to moderate voters,” Bennett said. “That’s probably why it’s been decades since Utah Democrats have been competitive in my district.”

Bennett noted that Mayor Curtis’s win came on the same day when President Donald Trump walked back his condemnation of Nazi and white supremacist groups and insisted that “both sides” were at fault for protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a neo-Nazi drove a car into a crowd, killing one person and injuring 19 others.

 “Mayor Curtis is a good and decent man, so he ought to be uncomfortable in the Party of Trump,” Bennett said. “While the mayor has condemned ‘white nationalism,’ he’s been silent about the president’s shameful response to it. It looks as if Mayor Curtis is following in Jason Chaffetz’s footsteps in his unwillingness to stand up to an unfit president from his own party.”

 Bennett also pointed out that this Congress is on track to be the most unproductive Congress in 164 years. “The GOP controls the House, Senate, and the White House, yet they still can’t get anything done,” he said. “Third District voters want someone back in Washington who will solve problems and not just become one more log on the fire of Republican dysfunction.”

 The special election will be held on November 7, 2017, and Bennett insists that he has the momentum to win.

 “I had to take on the establishment to get on the ballot,” Bennett said. “I fought hard and won, and I’m going to do the same thing in Washington DC. In the meantime, I look forward to a vigorous debate with Mayor Curtis and Dr. Allen on the campaign trail.”