Former state representative and current Utah Republican Vice Chairman Morgan Philpot is exploring a bid to challenge Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson in Utah's 2nd Congressional District.

Philpot has scheduled a series of public events and speaking engagements around the district to gauge his public support. He was in Naples, near Vernal, Tuesday night to meet with "everyday activists."

He has another meeting scheduled Thursday in Highland City where, according to the announcement on Facebook, he will discuss "what it will take to return Congressional District 2 to Republican hands."

"I'm seriously thinking about it," Philpot said. "I'm just gauging response to how Republicans feel about the Second Congressional District.... I think something we've got to determine is how much support exists out there for someone to run against Matheson. Maybe the support he's garnered is a result of who he is or who his past challengers are not."

Philpot said he hopes to make up his mind one way or the other by mid-January.

Philpot's entry into the race would give the Republicans their first contender after much searching for a challenger to Matheson.

The Democratic Congressman has been criticized by activists in his own party for opposing health care reform legislation, climate change legislation and other priorities of President Barack Obama.

But Matheson won re-election by nearly 20 percentage points over the lackluster candidacy of Bill Dew and has built a daunting campaign account.

Philpot, took up socially conservative causes in the Utah House, including sponsoring anti-abortion legislation. He also was a sponsor of the Carson Smith Special Needs Scholarship for private school students that was vetoed by Gov. Olene Walker.

"I think I feel a little like everybody else: A lot of uncertainty about government, period, especially the national government," Philpot said. "We're standing at a point where our Congress has a decision to make, to thrust ourself over the precipice to become a new kind of government or to embrace more of what America was founded on, the maximum of individual freedom and responsibility versus turning ourselves into a European socialist democracy."

Philpot briefly flirted with running for Congress in 2000, the year Matheson was elected, but instead decided to run for the Utah House of Representatives.

He spent four years in the Legislature before leaving to attend law school at the Ave Maria School of Law, a private Catholic college established by the founder of Domino's Pizza.

He clerked for the Utah Attorney General's office and is currently general counsel for Reagan Outdoor Advertising, a billboard company.