SALT LAKE CITY — Chris Herrod, the candidate in the 3rd Congressional District primary who advanced to the ballot by GOP delegates, likes to spell out that he's not just a Republican but a platform Republican.
"If you look at the Republican platform, I believe in all those planks," Herrod, a member of the Utah GOP's governing State Central Committee, recently said during a combined meeting of the Deseret News and KSL editorial boards.
Herrod said he gets frustrated because in Utah, "we're kind of a passive-aggressive society sometimes. We all like to smile, but we think that comparing records is negative campaigning."
The former state lawmaker said he is the only one of the three Republicans in the Aug. 15 primary with "a consistent, conservative record" from his time in the Utah House and his bids for both the U.S. Senate and the state Senate.
Herrod challenged Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in 2012, but it was another Republican, Dan Liljenquist, who forced Hatch into his first primary since 1976. Four years ago, Herrod pushed state Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, into a primary, then lost.
Both of his congressional opponents, Provo Mayor John Curtis and Alpine lawyer Tanner Ainge, are campaigning as conservatives, although Curtis was once a Democrat years ago, and Ainge has no previous political experience.
"I always got beat up on (Utah's Capitol) Hill for being conservative in the off year. But whenever we would have an election, then everybody is conservative," Herrod said. "Everybody wants to use that term."
Curtis and Ainge both qualified for the primary ballot by gathering voter signatures. Curtis also competed for the party delegate nomination that went to Herrod, who had backed a GOP challenge to the law creating the alternative path to the ballot.
During his six years in the Utah House, Herrod co-founded the conservative Patrick Henry Caucus and positioned himself as a promoter of states' rights and constitutional principles, and a staunch opponent of illegal immigration.
If he wins the primary and beats Democrat Kathie Allen and several other candidates already on the ballot for November's special election to fill the vacancy left by former Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Herrod said states' rights will be his priority in Congress.
"My primary focus is to restore the original intent of what I believe the Constitution was," he said.
Herrod said there's nothing more frustrating as a state lawmaker than hearing he couldn't get something done because of Washington, D.C.
"To all of a sudden, be told the federal government says you can't do that, I think there has been way too much power taken away (by) the federal government that needs to be restored to the states," he said.
Herrod's strong political viewpoints date back to childhood.
"My father taught me to be patriotic," he said, recalling growing up across the street from the founder of the Freedom Festival that showcases traditional American values and meeting honorees who's escaped communist control.
Herrod said he was able to earn early admission to BYU and study abroad in Vienna for six months. A trip then to West Germany, where he stood by the Berlin Wall, left an "indelible impression," he said.
So much so that years later, after earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from BYU, Herrod decided to teach in the Soviet Union. Four months after arriving, he married his wife, Alia, the Ukrainian woman who had greeted him at the airport.
"My wife grew up in the Soviet Union, and she's greatly concerned, as I am, that we seem to be headed down a path that does not work," Herrod said."That system, whether it be socialized medicine or a socialized system in general, does not work."
Stansbury Park businessman Rundassa Eshete, who has partnered with Herrod on real estate developments, was a student from Ethiopia studying economics at the same Ukrainian university where Herrod was teaching in the early 1990s.
It was just a coincidence that they met, Eshete said. He'd intervened when he saw someone yelling at Mormon missionaries, who were "very, very friendly" and invited him to attend a church service.
Herrod "was sitting behind me where we were gathering," Eshete said. "We started talking about politics. I was extremely passionate about politics back then. I was a troubled person, running into trouble arguing with my teachers."
But he and Herrod shared the same conservative views, Eshete said, and they formed a lasting friendship. Herrod encouraged him to keep trying for a visa to study at BYU, and when it finally came through, Herrod's parents gave him a place to stay.
"Chris is an exceptional person. He'd rather die than lie. He never lies. He never takes advantage of people," Eshete said. "He never compromises on principles that are universal."
Herrod is able to "confront anything if he thinks it's wrong. He's never an opportunist," Eshete said. "Even with politics. I try to tell him to be flexible like many people do. He won't do it."
Dale Benson, who served with Herrod on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Stockholm, Sweden, said he didn't see Herrod then as a future politician.
But Benson said he "come to love and appreciate (Herrod's) determination."
As a missionary, Benson said Herrod never took a break from proselytizing.
"His nature was he could not sit still. It was, 'I should be talking to someone sitting beside me.' … He engaged just instantly."
Benson said he saw that same "passion for working with people and communicating his values" when Herrod was first appointed and later elected to serve in the Legislature.
"He jumps in full force," Benson said.
Ken Sumsion, who sat next to Herrod in the Utah House during most of their time together, was also part of the same now-defunct conservative caucus that promoted itself in a video some compared to a scene out of the "Magnificant Seven."
Herrod had a reputation for pushing back against legislation he saw as favoring illegal immigration, sometimes tearing up as he described what he saw as the difficulties faced by people trying to come to the United States legally.
"Chris isn't afraid of taking difficult issues," Sumsion said. "He actually really is a compassionate person. In the whole immigration debate, that often is not characterized that way."
Sumsion, who is volunteering for Herrod's campaign, said Herrod knows how to compromise.
"He gets that there is some give and play in legislation because there's so many different opinions and people involved in the process," Sumsion said, something learned as a state lawmaker.
"Chris is not naive," he said. "He's had success, and he's had failures. But that would be expected, I think, if you're really working to move forward something that you believe in."
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Chris Herrod
Age: 51
Party: Republican
Occupation: Loan officer and real estate developer
Political experience: Utah House, 2007-12; ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2012, and Utah Senate in 2016
Reason for running: "Most people forget that a significant portion of a congressman's job is an international role. So I feel very comfortable being able to go back and give an international perspective."