Policy Nerd Who Shuns Freedom Caucus Filling Utah House Seat

The next new member of Congress will walk in with clear opinions on which political risks are worth taking.

Giving up a Capitol Hill job to run for her boss’s seat was worth it to Republican Celeste Maloy, who won Tuesday’s special election in Utah. Aligning with the Freedom Caucus? Not worth it.

While campaigning to succeed Rep. Chris Stewart (R), the soon-to-be juniormost freshman said she disagrees with the tactics of the Freedom Caucus, a bloc of hardline conservatives who’ve stalled consideration of bills and opposed bipartisan compromises like a debt-ceiling agreement (Public Law 118-5) and short-term spending measures to avert a federal government shutdown.

“I think joining the Freedom Caucus sends a message to everyone else in the House that you’re unwilling to work with them on things,” Maloy told Utah radio station KNRS.

Utah Republican Celeste Maloy

Source: campaign website

Stewart’s backing helped Maloy secure the Utah Republican Party’s endorsement at a nominating convention in June and then defeat two better-funded candidates in the September primary, which was the key election in a Republican-leaning district that runs from metropolitan Salt Lake City hundreds of miles south to the Arizona border.

BGOV Campaign and Redistricting News

Maloy worked as legislative counsel for more than four years. The only caucus the self-described “policy nerd” committed to joining is the Congressional Western Caucus because of its focus on land management and water policy and limiting the reach of the federal government.

Once she’s sworn in, the House will have a record 126 women — or 29% out of 435. The 34 Republican women in the House also will be a new high, though a smaller bloc than the chamber’s 92 Democratic women. And the House will be full again for the first time since the end of May, with 222 Republicans and 213 Democrats.

Federal Land Focus

Maloy, who has a degree in agriculture from Southern Utah University, wants to join the Natural Resources Committee because of its jurisdiction over public lands policy — a major issue in a state where the federal government owns most of the territory. Utah’s 2nd District covers more than 39,000 square miles of land area — about the size of Virginia.

She’s also seeking a seat on the Armed Services Committee to look after Hill Air Force Base just north of Utah’s 2nd District. Eventually, she said, she’d like to serve on the Appropriations Committee like her ex-employer. “I have good appropriations experience and I think long term I could probably get there, but I don’t think I could get it in half a term,” she told a Utah TV station.

Maloy opposed President Joe Biden’s use of the Antiquities Act to re-expand the district’s Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument after Donald Trump shrank its boundaries. She has said she favors revising the Antiquities Act to bar presidents from creating national monuments from federal lands.