Bryan Schott of UtahPolicy reported Thursday that Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman is still mulling a 2020 run for his old job as governor of Utah, and that he’d “met with political allies and advisers” back home about this race that very week. Unnamed sources said that the meeting was about “testing the waters” for a potential GOP primary bid, but there’s no word on whether or not Huntsman is leaning towards running.
Back in April, when reports first surfaced that Huntsman was considering seeking the GOP nod for governor, he very much didn’t rule it out. Instead, the ambassador would only say that there's "nothing to consider until our current commitment is done." Utah’s candidate filing deadline isn’t until March, and the former governor probably can afford to wait a while before deciding.
If Huntsman runs, though, he won’t have a clear path through the GOP primary. Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox is already running, and a number of other Beehive State Republicans are considering. However, while UtahPolicy recently reported that former state House Speaker Greg Hughes planned to jump in this summer, it looks very unlikely he’d run if Huntsman did. Greg Hartley, a close Hughes advisor who is heading up his nascent 2020 operations, said in April that his boss and Huntsman are “close friends and communicate often and would both likely support each other in future endeavors.”