Rob Bishop joins the Utah Legislature — again
by Bridger Beal-Cvetko ksl · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- Rob Bishop, former congressman and Utah House speaker, rejoined the Utah Legislature this week.
- He won a special election to replace Rep. Matthew Gwynn, who resigned recently.
- New members Jackie Larson and Grant Pace were also sworn in on Wednesday.
SALT LAKE CITY — Rob Bishop, a former congressman and Utah House speaker, returned to the Utah House of Representatives earlier this week after winning a special election to replace former Rep. Matthew Gwynn.
The Brigham City Republican was one of three new members, along with Reps. Jackie Larson, R-Spanish Fork, and Grant Pace, R-Provo, were sworn in on Wednesday. Larson replaces former Rep. Jefferson Burton, R-Salem, who resigned because he moved out of his district, and Pace replaces former Rep. Tyler Clancy, R-Provo, who was appointed by the governor to serve as the state homeless coordinator.
Bishop has had a long career in Utah politics and is most known for representing Utah's 1st Congressional District from 2003 to 2021, but first made his name in the Utah Legislature, where he served from 1978 to 1994, serving as House speaker for the last several years.
Although he's technically one of the newest members of the Legislature, Bishop has spent more time at the Capitol than many of his peers, but said he still expects a "learning experience."
"Everyone who is in the Legislature brings something to the table, and the results tend to be a group effort, much more so than back in Washington," he told KSL. "It's going to be as much a learning experience for me as it is sitting in the back and talking about the good old days."
After serving in Congress for close to two decades, Bishop is excited to return to the Legislature, which he prefers because it "tends to stay in its own sphere more often than Congress ever does." But he says his experience in Washington will help him navigate federal and state issues, especially on land use and water.
"It gives me an idea of how I can get the Utah Legislature to work with our congressional delegation — or at least most of our congressional delegation — to make sure that Utah citizens are not going to be bullied by either the federal or the state government and will actually be heard by those bodies," he said.
While some things remain familiar to when he left the Legislature in the 1990s, Bishop said the Capitol feels more closed off than before, with more restrictions on who can be on the chamber floors.
"There was more interaction," he recalled. "I don't know if that's necessarily bad or not. There were no elevators that went from the garage up to the third floor back then; you had to walk through people to get to either the House or the Senate. I kind of liked that."
Bishop joins the Legislature alongside two colleagues from Utah County who are joining the House for the first time.
Larson, the Spanish Fork Republican, said she first became interested in politics when a recent zoning change was proposed in her area.
"I didn't really follow politics closely much at all before then," she told KSL. "And then the more you ask, the more you get involved, the more it's eye-opening, and I found myself here."
She said she believes the state has hampered what local governments can do and said smart planning for growth is one of her top priorities.
"We're all aware Utah is growing quickly, and I think that we need to plan for that growth responsibly while still protecting the infrastructure, farmland and the water systems and the communities that make that sustainable long-term," she said.
Larson announced a campaign to challenge Burton earlier this year, before he announced his resignation, and recently won a special election to fill his seat for the remainder of his term, which ends early next year.
"I'm just stepping in and doing the best I can," she said. "I'm just going to get to work and do what I can."
Like Bishop and Pace, Larson is seeking reelection to a full term this fall.
Pace is a CEO and entrepreneur, according to his campaign website. He earned a law degree from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Harvard University.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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Bridger Beal-Cvetko
Bridger Beal-Cvetko is a reporter for KSL. He covers politics, Salt Lake County communities and breaking news. Bridger has worked for the Deseret News and graduated from Utah Valley University.