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📰 Above the fold
The Heritage Foundation — the influential conservative group behind Project 2025 — is in turmoil after president Kevin Roberts defended Tucker Carlson’s softball interview with white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
Employees are reportedly in “open revolt” after Roberts posted his defense on social media. Several staffers have called on him to resign, and multiple members of the group’s antisemitism task force resigned in protest.
Why it matters: Heritage helps set the conservative agenda. If Roberts exits, the choice of his successor would reshape the movement — and could ripple back to Utah politics.
If Roberts leaves or is forced out, there’s a prominent Utah Republican who might want the job.
Sen. Mike Lee.
Hear me out.
Lee is deeply tied to Heritage. Many staffers in his Senate office come from the organization or depart to work there. Most recently, his former legislative director Ryan Neuhaus was hired as Heritage’s chief of staff in January and was later reassigned as a “senior advisor” amid the post‑interview shakeup.
In 2012, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint stunned observers by leaving the Senate to run Heritage.
After Lee easily won his second term in 2016, there were whispers among Utah Republicans that he did not want to become a “lifer” in the Senate, and taking a similar path as DeMint might be very attractive to him. Unfortunately for Lee, those kinds of jobs rarely come open.
It’s clear Lee lusts after a possible lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court—he came close several times during the first Trump administration. However, running Heritage, one of, if not the most influential conservative organization might be his close second.
He would immediately become a leader of the conservative movement, rather than a back‑of‑the‑pack senator. The high‑profile role would give him a platform to burnish his self‑styled constitutional‑scholar brand.
Plus, the trolling/shitposting persona he’s cultivated on his “BasedMikeLee” X/Twitter account fits the confrontational style favored by Republicans in a second Trump administration. He could keep lobbing social‑media grenades without reporters (me included) writing up every latest outrage.
The 2022 election likely put a scare into Lee. His 10.5‑point win over independent Evan McMullin was Utah’s closest U.S. Senate race since 1976, when Orrin Hatch defeated Frank Moss by 9 points. Two years later, Republican John Curtis won by 28%, underscoring that Lee’s close call was the exception.
Is it likely? No. Roberts could ride out the backlash and Lee still has Supreme Court ambitions—one or two retirements could be on the horizon. And his perch in the U.S. Senate is safe until 2028.
But, it’s not impossible. If Heritage wants a high‑profile fighter who is a close ally of President Donald Trump and speaks MAGA fluently and Lee wants a bigger stage than back‑bench Senate life, the incentives could align. And in today’s topsy-turvy political environment, never say never.