Top Natural Resources Republican won’t run for Utah governor

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), who is retiring from Congress at the end of this term, announced Monday that he won’t run for governor of Utah.

“I don’t need to be governor. I don’t need it to validate my feeling of self worth,” Bishop told Salt Lake City radio station KSL, adding that he was “too old” to run.

Bishop, 68, endorsed Utah Republican Party Chairman Thomas Wright in his gubernatorial bid, saying he wants a candidate “who was very strong in coming up with creative, pragmatic solutions that had to be based on conservative, constitutional principles.”

Bishop is the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee and Utah’s longest serving House member. He announced last year that he would not seek reelection, but hinted at a possible gubernatorial bid by telling the Deseret News at the time that he was “thinking about” it.

Wright is one of six Republicans seeking the GOP nod in the governor’s race. Among his competitors is former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who ran for president in 2012 after serving as ambassador to China in the Obama administration. He later served as ambassador to Russia in the Trump administration.