Rep. Matheson won’t challenge Hatch for Senate in Utah

Rep. Jim Matheson, a conservative Democrat, won’t challenge Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch for Utah’s Senate seat next year.

“There has been a great deal of speculation during the past several months about whether I will consider entering the U.S. Senate race. After consulting my family, I have made the decision that I will not run in next year’s Senate election,” Matheson said in a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune and other outlets.

Matheson, a six-term congressman, met with Hatch Friday morning to inform him of the decision, the paper reports.

The Tribune notes that the decision preserves Matheson’s option to run for governor and that he also “may still run for the U.S. House in the redrawn 2nd Congressional District, where he lives, or in the newly created 4th Congressional District.”