2018 may see Sen. Hatch run for 8th term

File photo, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah | St. George News

ST. GEORGE – The United States’ longest-serving Republican senator, Utah’s own Sen. Orrin Hatch, said Thursday he may want to serve a little longer.

The senator told CNN he is planning to run for re-election in 2018, abandoning a 2012 promise that his seventh and current term was his last.

However, a statement from Hatch, tweeted out by his press secretary Matt Whitlock, clarified that his decision to run for re-election is not final, yet he nonetheless plans to ensure “all options remain on the table.”

Senator Hatch appreciates the encouragement he’s receiving to run for reelection. While he has not made a final decision for his plans for 2018, he has made plans thus far to ensure all options remain on the table. His focus remains on the many fast-moving agenda items in the Senate like repealing and replacing Obamacare and confirming Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

Last November Hatch said he was contemplating a run for an eighth term due to colleagues and people in Utah asking him to run again. As well, “circumstances have greatly changed,” he said, leading him to consider the possibility.

Hatch told CNN Thursday that President Donald Trump and other top Republicans have also encouraged him to run again.

His pitch is he needs me,” Hatch said of Trump. “Things are going to be just fine.”

Like other Republicans, Hatch shared his disapproval of lewd comments Trump made about women in an old Access Hollywood video that surfaced during the 2016 presidential campaign. However, Hatch never withdrew his general support of the then-presidential nominee as others had at the time.

Hatch, who turns 83 this month, has served in the Senate since 1977 and is currently its president pro tempore, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and a senior member of the Judiciary Committee.

The announcement comes the day after former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. accepted an offer from the Trump administration to become the U.S. ambassador to Russia.

Huntsman had previously expressed an interest in running for Hatch’s senate seat in 2018, though some reports have stated that was dependent on whether or not Hatch decided to retire or run again.

Former 2016 independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin could also be a possible candidate, having told Fox 13 News last November he had been thinking about running for Hatch’s seat or another federal office.

“Anyone who wants to take me on knows it’s going to be a real ordeal,” Hatch said to CNN in regard to a pending 2018 campaign.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @MoriKessler

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.

 

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22 Comments

  • lcambridge March 9, 2017 at 5:32 pm

    We need to get this clown out…

    • comments March 9, 2017 at 7:02 pm

      If he gets the nomination he’ll be a shoe-in, as always. The mormons always whine that he’s been in too long, but come voting day they just check whomever has the little ‘r’ by their name. Congrats on another 6 years Orrin, or is it another 60?

    • Chris March 9, 2017 at 8:49 pm

      clown is right. He is the epitome of the professional politician with over 40 years in office.

    • mesaman March 9, 2017 at 8:53 pm

      We? As if you and any other liberal socialist wanted him out. Don’t like it? Flee to elsewhere.

      • comments March 9, 2017 at 11:43 pm

        So socialism is ok for Nolan but not for anyone else. Remind us who pays that check of yours every single month. We’re tired of paying for your free ride. You are a parasite.

        • .... March 10, 2017 at 4:47 pm

          Well heck Bob if it bothers you that bad, by all means feel free to leave

          • comments March 11, 2017 at 4:54 pm

            Leaving won’t help. He’ll still be a bottomless sinkhole sucking away my tax dollars.

      • lcambridge March 10, 2017 at 7:22 am

        This is where my tribe is from… my reservation is in this state… so please spare me the flea comments..

      • Chris March 10, 2017 at 2:33 pm

        Nolan is pretty much the same as Orrin–lived his whole life soaking up our tax money not working one day of his life in the private sector.

  • comments March 9, 2017 at 6:59 pm

    That’s a good photo of Orrin–very vampiric, sinister and demonic looking. I aint religious at all, but wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Orrin long ago sold his soul to the Devil.

    • .... March 10, 2017 at 4:51 pm

      He still has more friends than you do and at least he doesn’t look like a moron in a picture the way you do

  • r2d2 March 9, 2017 at 7:02 pm

    I agree get him into D.C. Hatch for President.

  • Proud Rebel March 9, 2017 at 7:45 pm

    “The senator told CNN he is planning to run for re-election in 2018, abandoning a 2012 promise that his seventh and current term was his last.”
    And this surprises just who? I mean, isn’t it unheard of, for a politician to break a promise?
    I am shocked, SHOCKED! I tell you…smh

  • Badshitzoo March 10, 2017 at 2:19 am

    If we never had to look at the “Translucent Twins” Mitch McConnell & Orrin Hatch again, it would be too soon!

  • Not_So_Much March 10, 2017 at 6:26 am

    NO

  • voice of reason March 10, 2017 at 6:31 am

    Dear Mormon Jesus,
    We get it, Orrin thinks he’s on the Prophet schedule and required to serve until his time on Earth is done. Would you be so kind as to call him home?
    He’s lived a good life, had lot’s of grandkids, recorded an album. When you look at all of it, he’s done a lot more than most of us ever could.
    If you won’t call him home, how about a debilitating stroke like you gave my Grandpa? I’m open to ideas.

    thanks,
    a concerned citizen

    • comments March 10, 2017 at 11:30 am

      Amen

    • Henry March 10, 2017 at 4:31 pm

      If no debilitating stroke, how about blind him in an eye like Harry Reid?

    • ladybugavenger March 10, 2017 at 7:47 pm

      I shouldn’t, but I did….I laughed when I read Mormon Jesus….holy cow! Jesus wasn’t Mormon he wasn’t even Christian…if he was Christian he would have been walking around in circles following himself…..

      Back to Orrin hatch, it does make me wonder why some people live longer than others, maybe when he sold his soul to the evil politics, he signed up to live a couple more decades to torture people.

  • Lastdays March 10, 2017 at 8:40 am

    The really sad reality of Orrin wanting to run again is that if he does, he’ll probably win.
    The Utah voting record shows that many people vote straight Repub. party or majority Republican if they go through the whole ballot.
    So, even if he was in a wheelchair, ventilator tube and barely alive on election day, he would probably win.
    And he knows that too. That’s the other sad part to this issue.
    But he really doesn’t have any more left to offer in my opinion.
    Is there enough support in the many Caucus meetings to oust him before that could happen ? We’ll see.

    • comments March 10, 2017 at 11:33 am

      I don’t know if Orrin may have done some good way back when (he was voted-in in 1976), but he’s evolved into the worst kind of self-serving destructive parasite. He is the epitome of everything wrong with our political system.

      • .... March 10, 2017 at 4:54 pm

        And you are an ignorant self serving bigot racist that serves no purpose to society

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