Kael Weston is the presumptive Democratic candidate challenging Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). He is a former U.S. State Department official and a professor at Westminster College, the University of Utah and the Marine Corps University.
SALT LAKE CITY – Political observers say that Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) should be worried about Becky Edwards, who has gathered nearly twice the number of GOP signatures needed to earn a spot on the ballot in the June 28 Republican primary.
Maybe the incumbent senator should also be worried about his Democratic challenger, Kael Weston.
“I’m running for the U.S. Senate because Utah voters deserve elected leaders and policies that will bring political balance to our fast-growing state,” Weston says.
“Voters in Utah this year — all the way through Election Day, Nov. 8 — deserve serious discussion about matters of war and peace. As the presumptive Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, I am uniquely qualified to ensure just that.”
Weston is a Utah native, with deep family roots in Milford, a rural community with a population of about 1,700. He is a graduate of the University of Utah and Cambridge University. He is now a professor at Westminster College, the University of Utah and the Marine Corps University.
While serving as a former U.S. State Department official in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2010, Weston held what his bosses called “… the toughest, most dangerous assignment of any State Department officer worldwide.”
In Iraq, he was the face of the State Department in Fallujah. During and after the biggest battle of the war, Weston and U.S. Marine Corps leaders were responsible for rebuilding the city’s infrastructure; facilitating the return of the city’s population; establishing a new city council despite the assassination of local politicians; and, worked closely with Iraqi governors in Ramadi.
In Afghanistan, he worked in Khost, a dangerous region adjacent to Pakistan, and Helmand provinces. There Weston helped to prioritize $50 million in reconstruction funds and worked with a Marine commander to develop a frontline strategy guiding the deployment of approximately 20,000 U.S. troops in a Taliban-infested area.
For his service in Iraq, Weston was awarded one of the State Department’s highest honors, the Medal for Heroism.
“Utah families and families across the U.S. can be assured that, if I’m in the U.S. Senate, any war votes will be based on firsthand experience — a lot of hard-earned wisdom about warfare,” Weston says.
“War, I believe, always represents the failure of politicians.”
“Sen. Mike Lee … never once visited our troops or diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Weston adds. “But he did travel to Moscow.”
“Past efforts by short-sighted politicians to undermine NATO must also be recognized for the dangerous game they played while on our payroll,” Weston says of the current crisis of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Humanitarian aid budgets should be passed quickly in Congress and be bipartisan. This includes fast-tracking refugee resettlement funds as Ukrainian numbers surpass two million.”
In 2020, Weston was the Democratic candidate in Utah’s 2nd Congressional District against Republican Rep. Chris Stewart.
He traveled more than 8,000 miles in an old truck, meeting not just with Democrats but also with Republican and unaffiliated voters.
In a district of 14 rural Utah counties, he received 37 percent of the vote.
Weston can only say that he is the “presumptive nominee” of his party because a group of Democrats will attempt to block his nomination at their upcoming convention to boost Independent candidate Evan McMullin’s chances of defeating the two-term incumbent Lee.