LOGAN · In the weeks since the capture of accused Charlie Kirk shooting suspect Tyler James Robinson, Rep. Celeste Maloy said she has been grappling with the news that Robinson lived in the district she represents.
“I’m a southern Utahn, and it never even occurred to me that it would be somebody from that area,” Maloy, who represents the state’s 2nd Congressional District, said in an interview Tuesday evening. “It’s something that we’re all sort of having to grapple with.”
Maloy was in Logan on Tuesday evening for a Turning Point USA event at Utah State University, the organization’s first event in the state since Kirk was shot and killed during an appearance at Utah Valley University earlier this month. It has been, she said, a trying month for Utahns.
In the last few weeks, Maloy said, Utahns have had to deal with a political assassination in the state, and an attack on a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation in Michigan on Sunday also hit close to home.
Maloy was not among the elected officials who were set to speak at the Tuesday night event at USU, which included Gov. Spencer Cox, Arizona U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs and Utah’s former U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz. Instead, she said, she wanted to demonstrate that she believes large political gatherings can still be safe.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Fans listen to speakers during the Turning Point event Glen Smith Spectrum Arena, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025.
“I am really excited that we’re having gatherings like this, and I’m here to show that I’m willing to be in large political gatherings,” she said. “I’m willing to talk to people and engage in political debate and political conversations, and I’m hoping that will encourage more people to do it.”
It was a message she said she hoped would resonate with young Utahns.
“I want young adults in Utah to engage,” she said. “I don’t want them to withdraw and stay on the internet.”
Government shutdown
The event Tuesday evening came with only hours left before the federal government shutdown, as Senate Republicans failed to secure enough votes to pass a seven-week stopgap funding measure.
Maloy, along with the rest of Utah’s all-GOP congressional delegation, voted in favor of the funding measure earlier this month. In the Senate, however, Republicans needed at least seven Democrats to cross the aisle and close debate in order to pass the continuing resolution, or CR.
Maloy said, just hours before the shutter, that it was “up to Senate Democrats at this point.”
Democrats have aimed to force Republicans to extend tax credits that help millions of people afford Affordable Health Care coverage, as well as to restore health care funding cuts passed earlier this year as part of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” But Maloy said Tuesday that the demands were too expensive to include in the short-term funding bill she and other Republicans have backed.
“The problem right now with having that conversation is we’re talking about a seven-week CR,” she said. “So that’s a major policy decision that should be made on its own and not in a seven-week extension of funding.”
Asked whether she thought the tax credits may be extended outside of the short-term funding bill, Maloy said she thought the extension was a “non-starter” for many in her party. “I don’t see that being something that passes, but it should be its own conversation,” she said, “not a tack-on to a seven-week continuing resolution.”
The shutdown could have massive impacts on Utah, with a particular impact on the state’s five national parks, though Maloy said Tuesday she had not yet received guidance from the Trump administration regarding whether parks would close as part of the impending shutdown.
“I’m hoping that by tomorrow we get filled in on that,” she said.
More generally, Maloy added, “Shutdowns are chaotic.” Federal employees, she said, are concerned about whether they will be paid, and a shutdown looks bad for the U.S. on the world stage.
“It’s just not a good look to have this problem where we can’t decide whether we’re going to fund our own government or not,” Maloy said, adding that she wants any shutdown to be short-lived.
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