SALT LAKE CITY — In the hours after what he called a Republican shellacking on Election Day, Sen. John Curtis called for the party to return to its roots and the core values he believes the GOP has put aside.
The first-term Utah Senator implored Republicans to look in the mirror after the midterm defeat and stop blaming others for their current disconnect with Americans.
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Curtis shared his thoughts on the devastating night suffered by Republicans in a Substack post and blamed the massive defeat on a party that has "steadily drifted from the principles that once defined us."
At the beginning of his message, Curtis said his values were shaped by the pioneer values he grew up with in Utah, which focused on "hard work, thrift, self-reliance, faith, family, integrity, and responsibility to our neighbors."
Curtis said that until the last decade, he found those same values in the Republican Party.
"Unfortunately, by putting aside our core values, we’ve let down a lot of those same Americans who recently joined our party," he wrote of the populist movement that saw millions of voters join the GOP.
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The Senator called out numerous actions taken by Republican leadership during the Trump Administration's second term, such as the Iran War, a rising debt balloon that has soared over $40 billion, and nonstop headlines of "scandals, incompetence, and corruption."
President Donald Trump was also a target of Curtis's ire.
"Instead of peace through strength, [Americans] saw the leader of the free world side with [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin over a strategic ally," Curtis wrote.
Curtis appeared to have had enough, with Tuesday's election results being the last straw.
"Tonight’s shellacking should be a wake-up call," he wrote. "We are losing good colleagues—people who served honorably and deserved better than to be swept up in the failures of our party as a whole.
"But if our response is to blame the media, the polls, or the voters, we’ll have learned absolutely nothing. We might start by looking in the mirror."
Curtis alluded to the pioneers who founded Utah, saying they never blamed others when things went awry, saying, "they rolled up their sleeves, worked together, and got to work."
The Senator ended his message by asking colleagues and fellow GOP members to put aside partisan politics and unite to battle the issues facing Americans, who shared their thoughts on the state of the country at the ballot box.
"The voters have done their job," said Curtis. "Now it’s time for us to do ours."