Utah County businessman Tanner Ainge rang in the new year with an announcement: He plans to run for embattled Utah County Commissioner Greg Graves’ seat.
The 34-year-old Republican unveiled the decision via a Facebook post Sunday night. Ainge intends to file the necessary papers this week, he wrote.
Graves, who faces sexual harassment and bullying allegations, is under increasing pressure to resign. He has said he won’t step down, while adding that he won’t run for re-election.
Ainge, the son of Boston Celtics general manager and former Brigham Young University basketball star Danny Ainge, spent the summer of 2017 campaigning for Jason Chaffetz’s vacated seat in Congress before losing in the GOP primary to former Provo Mayor John Curtis, who eventually won the 3rd District post.
Ainge had run on a platform of lowering taxes, cutting national spending, reforming immigration laws and protecting gun rights.
“We have also found that when you spend an entire summer daily expressing your love for this state and country and act out of a genuine desire to serve and represent this community, it sticks with you,” he wrote on Facebook. “Those feelings are no longer buried down like they were for much of our lives, but sit right at the surface and are ready to be acted upon.”
Ainge, who also is an attorney, spent a year volunteering on Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign. He was general counsel for a health care trust and founded an investment-management company in California. He lives in Alpine.
Follow @tiffany_mf