WASHINGTON — Republican U.S. Rep. John Curtis won a Utah U.S. Senate seat Tuesday. The office is being vacated by Sen. Mitt Romney. Curtis beat Democrat Caroline Gleich, a mountaineer and environmental activist. Curtis was heavily favored to win against the lesser-known Democrat in deeply Republican Utah. The moderate Republican congressman has been compared to Romney for pushing back against Donald Trump and other members of his party who have falsely claimed climate change is a hoax. Curtis leads the Conservative Climate Caucus on Capitol Hill and is the former mayor of Provo. The Associated Press declared Curtis the winner at 10:00 p.m. EST.

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