Rep. Celeste Maloy: ‘Politics is a rough sport’

Rep. Celeste Maloy candidly answered students’ questions about her close primary race at the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics as part of the Sutherland Institute’s 2024 Congressional Series.
One student asked Maloy about facing Colby Jenkins in this year’s Republican primary, when she was declared the winner seven weeks after election day by just 176 votes.
Considering Jenkins earned an endorsement from Sen. Mike Lee, who Maloy works with as part of Utah’s congressional delegation, the student asked, “How does that relate to how you work with other members of Congress?”
“The primary is over,” said Maloy, who represents Utah’s 2nd District. She noted that she received endorsements from the entire House delegation, while Jenkins earned just Lee’s endorsement. “It does make things a little trickier, but Senator Lee shook my hand and congratulated me on my win,” the congresswoman said.
“The Utah voters chose him. They also chose me. So now we both have an obligation to work for the good of Utahns,” Maloy added. “Politics is a rough sport. Somebody told me that it’s really fun as a spectator sport. It is garbage when you’re a participant — and he was right.”
Another student asked Maloy about polls that show Americans have low trust in Congress. “I’m curious, as a member of Congress, how can you reinstitute faith so Americans have more trust in you?”
“The thing that’s beautiful about Congress is we are a true slice of America,” Maloy said. “You have PhDs from Ivy League institutions serving with high school dropouts who started a business in their garage.”
“In that way, we reflect America, and it’s the beautiful part of our system,” she added. “I don’t know all 435 members of Congress, but everyone I know is a fascinating person. … But you put 435 people like that in a room together, we make idiotic decisions sometimes, and that’s just kind of the nature of having a whole bunch of people be part of anything.”
Maloy said she has a “fairly large family,” and it’s even bigger when you include the extended family members.
“Try to get someone to decide where to go to dinner — it’s difficult,” she said. “We’re deciding what level of clean air you need to survive, and what vehicle emission standards we should have, and what waters in the U.S. means, and if your kids should be able to get whole milk at school or only be allowed to have skim milk. It’s insane how many decisions we make.”
Maloy said it’s the nature of Congress. “I don’t know if we will get super high approval ratings,” she added. But, Maloy said, lawmakers need to communicate better with their constituents about their work, and that would help the ratings.