Members of the ski industry have started to get involved in politics due to the uncertain future of the sport. Now, one ski mountaineer is entering the race to become a U.S. Senator.
Last week, mountaineer Caroline Gleich announced that she will be running for the U.S. Senate seat in Utah. The current Senator, Mitt Romney, announced last year that he won’t be running for reelection, meaning that many people are jumping into the race to replace him.
Caroline’s athletic accomplishments are well known. Some of her accolades include winning the 2018 US Ski Mountaineering National Championship, being the first woman to ski all 90 lines in “The Chuting Gallery,” Summited and skiing Cho Oyu, and summited Mt. Everest on a torn ACL.
For political causes, she has been a member of Protect Our Winters, which has advocated for new laws to reduce our carbon footprint. With her running for the Democratic ticket, her policy viewpoints include transitioning to clean energy, implementing a national privacy policy for tech users, being pro-choice, and having affordable healthcare for all.
While there are a few other names that have entered on the Democratic side, Caroline appears to be the front-runner.
The challenger on the Republican side is more of a toss-up. I’d argue that her most likely challenger will be U.S. Congressman John Curtis. He’s part of the Ski & Board Caucus in Congress and founded the Conservative Climate Caucus. Another top contender is Brad Wilson, who was the Speaker of Utah’s House of Representatives and has his fair share of accomplishments during his term. Some more longshot candidates include Brent Orrin Hatch, who’s the treasury secretary of the Federalist Society and the son of former Senator Orrin Hatch, and Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, who has the support of some of the major players in the MAGA base.
Caroline is running for a seat that has been solidly red for decades. While the last Senate election was close between incumbent Mike Lee and Independent candidate Evan McMullin, Lee has become a more divisive politician over the years. McMullin got the endorsement from Democrats, but has moderate Republican viewpoints, leading some on the right to vote for Evan in that election. This time around, it seems likely the Republican nominee will gain them back.
I’ll be rooting for Caroline in this race because I believe Utah needs to be represented by more than one party. I lived out in Utah for a couple of years and helped with some causes like electing Ben McAdams to Congress and getting a referendum on the ballot to have an independent redistricting committee for the state’s U.S. House of Representatives seats. Even though this referendum passed, Utah’s Congress ignored the committee’s advice and created an even further gerrymandered map to solidify their one-party rule. I believe that this strategy is not beneficial to the state’s future, especially with the environmental challenges that the state faces.
The primary elections are set to take place on June 25th.
Image/Video Credits: Caroline Gleich, John Curtis
