I’ve been involved in politics for more than two decades now, and sometimes think I surely must have seen it all. Oh no. There’s always something out there to surprise me. Here are six of the political news stories that surprised me in 2023.
Utah
Flag controversy: Every legislative session, there’s some unexpected bill that ends up garnering a lot of attention — and usually controversy. The year I was a member of the Legislature, for example, it was feral cats. Snowball, a Utah feral cat, even got her (his?) own Twitter channel.
This year’s surprisingly controversial bill, was, of all things, a flag. Utah kept its historic flag, but also added a new one, designed with public input and over 7,000 submissions of potential designs. But, there are people in our state who feel it’s disrespectful to replace the flag that has been around, in one version or another, since the 1920s. (The flag of 2022 is not Utah’s original flag.) Committee meetings were heavily attended, and words like “Marxist,” “woke” and “child sex trafficking” were common. The ultra-conservative Sen. Dan McCay, R-Salt Lake, who sponsored the flag bill, was called a RINO (Republican in name only) and more. Who would have guessed?
Chris Stewart resigning: I was surprised to learn that Rep. Chris Stewart would be resigning from the U.S. House, especially since he was the senior member of the delegation and held some plum committee assignments. So few politicians can voluntarily walk away, so kudos to him. I was also somewhat surprised at Celeste Maloy winning at convention. She was not the “favored” candidate, but with 13 GOP candidates, you just never know. It wasn’t just the number of candidates, either. Rural Utah voters really came through for their local candidate.
Sean Reyes not running: I thought for sure Sean Reyes was running again — if not for attorney general, then for Congress, or maybe even governor. But, as stories broke about his “good friend” Tim Ballard, Reyes couldn’t separate himself from the fallout. To his credit, he said he believes the women who have come forward alleging that Ballard sexually harassed and assaulted them and has apologized to them.
Mitt Romney: I’m not all that surprised that Sen. Romney decided not to run again, given his votes to impeach then-President Donald Trump. What did surprise me was his decision to let a tell-all book be released while he still had a year to go in the Senate. From his less-than-friendly relationship with Sen. Mike Lee, to harsh words for other Senate colleagues on the events of Jan. 6, 2021, it would seem to me that Romney will find cool relationships even colder in this coming year. But he has fans, too, (I’m one of them) who loved the book and his approach to politics and wanting to get stuff done in the U.S. Senate. Also, it’s apparent to me he just doesn’t care what other people think of him at this point.
National
Flagging GOP support for Ukraine: This one really did surprise me. I understand “war fatigue” and that we can just tune out “old news,” but for a political party that used to look to leaders like Ronald Reagan, who called the former Soviet Union the “Evil Empire,” and who boldly told the Soviet leader to “tear down this wall,” to now equivocate on helping a sovereign nation not be completely overtaken and destroyed by a megalomaniac is not only surprising, it’s disappointing and dangerous. Have we forgotten World War II?
Thus far, we have kept our military men and women out of the fight, but Russia has made clear it does not intend to stop at Ukraine. Once a NATO country is attacked, the U.S. will be more heavily invested in protecting our allies. Friday, Poland reported that a Russian missile entered Polish airspace. Poland is a NATO country.
Santos out: I’m not surprised there’s a member of Congress who had some shady dealings. I was surprised that there were any legitimate consequences. I’m cynical enough to see that most of the time, there is either no consequence at all, or there’s a light slap on the wrist. To have George Santos expelled by the body did surprise me, even if it did take three attempts. Now, do Sen. Bob Menendez.
Holly Richardson is the editor of Utah Policy.