Peter Crosby launches early campaign against three-term Rep. Blake Moore

NEWS

Peter Crosby signs the paperwork to officially run for Congress in CD 2. Image provided

Last July, Peter Crosby began formulating a plan to run for Congress in 2026 against three-term incumbent Blake Moore, even though the filing deadline is from March 9 to 13 this year. 

Pres. Donald Trump’s 2nd term was well underway, steamrolling over Congress with little respect for its power of the purse or lawmaking authority.

For starters, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiated by Trump and led by Elon Musk, hacked away at the federal workforce, eliminating hundreds of employees at the IRS – Weber County’s largest employer with about 6,000 workers.

“The real issues started to happen around April or May,” Crosby said, “when I realized that Blake Moore wasn’t going to do anything to push back” against actions by the Trump administration that he believes crossed legal lines. 

Crosby also criticized Moore for “actively taking part in some of their worst policy decisions like DOGE which has cut thousands of jobs here in northern Utah.” 

Moore, who co-chaired the bipartisan congressional DOGE Caucus, recently spoke by phone about the committee’s lack of ability to collaborate with Musk and DOGE. 

“We had a really thoughtful plan put in place to identify some of the most actionable ways to limit waste in our government,” Moore said. “But the administration side, led by Elon Musk, never really engaged with us at all.”

Moore described it as a “huge missed opportunity.” 

“There are enormous nonpartisan areas where we could agree on finding and limiting waste,” Moore said. “And for some reason, Musk came in like a firestorm and wasn’t as thoughtful about how to enact some of this through legislation.”

Then by July, the Republican-controlled Congress passed the 900-page “One Big Beautiful Bill” with no Democrat support, ushering in large tax cuts while significantly trimming Medicaid and SNAP dollars.

And by October, the federal government shut down for 43 days due to partisan Congressional deadlock over the 2026 budget.

The 1st Congressional District – which has now become the 2nd due to a 3rd District judge’s landmark decision favoring plaintiffs in an anti-gerrymandering case – also houses Hill Air Force Base where thousands of civilian workers faced furloughs during the 2025 shutdown.

By mid-November, housing anxiety and food insecurity hit new heights with local food pantries serving hundreds of new recipients.

On Nov. 24, Crosby – a Cache County resident who recently became a Democrat – hosted his first of several meet the candidate forums to take the pulse of northern Utahn voters whom he hopes to one day represent in D.C.

This February, he held his first Ogden event — sparsely attended but electric in terms of the wide-ranging discussion that touched on DOGE actions, the Epstein files, ICE and immigration, housing affordability, renewable energy, Trump’s tariffs and shifting foreign alliances.

Peter Crosby speaks to members of the Ogden community as a guest of Ogden Dining Liberally. Image provided

View filing deadlines here: https://vote.utah.gov/current-election-information/.
Learn more about candidate Peter Crosby here: https://www.petercrosbyforcongress.org/.
Learn more about Rep. Blake Moore here: https://blakemoore.house.gov/

WHY THE HEADSTART?

Crosby said that he wanted his campaign to reflect the actual needs of the community, and “that just takes time – to talk to people, to understand what their challenges and concerns are.” 

Also, he’s fully aware that the incumbent is well-funded and enjoys broad name recognition – campaign commodities that Crosby needs to acquire.

“It takes time to build up a grassroots support network to make a victory in November possible,” Crosby said. 

Federal Election Commission filings indicate that Moore had over $2.2 million cash on hand at the end of 2025.

CAN WE GET SOME ACCOUNTABILITY

Crosby took Moore to task for not standing up for victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s human trafficking operation. 

“If there was ever an issue that was nonpartisan, that everyone here in northern Utah would have supported Blake Moore on, it would have been defending the victims of the Epstein situation,” Crosby said. “We all would have been behind him if he would have stood up and said this is wrong, I want you to hold these people accountable. He didn’t.”

But Moore said he’s had nothing to do with that aspect of congressional oversight.

“When Attorney General Pam Bondi came on to the scene, I thought great, she’ll release the files,” Moore said. “And then when she held back it became hyperpolitical. My viewpoint was that I’d defer to the oversight committee chaired by James Comer. I know him to be a sound, thoughtful guy, not overly politicizing everything.”

But the bottom line for Moore is that justice gets served.

“So it kind of goes back to complete support of transparency while protecting victims’ information. There’s a lot of jury testimony … troves of it,” Moore said. “I support holding anyone responsible for wrongdoing accountable. It’s a horrible situation.”

Moore also co-chairs the Congressional Friends of Denmark caucus. Amid Trump’s feverish aim to acquire Greenland, he worked to reassure Danish officials that military strikes would not happen.

Crosby gave Moore credit for that, but noted that “his actions in this regard have been woefully underwhelming. Trump’s foreign policy is best understood through a lens of what is best for Russia.”

In his own defense, Moore described himself as the “leading voice opposing the White House initiative about Greenland.” 

“I’ll continue to be a voice that is reasonable,” Moore said, “moving my district in the right direction – and hopefully the country will follow.”

Moore also touted the Upward Mobility Act that he and Sen. John Husted introduced this January. If the bill passes, it would institute a pilot program to merge pockets of anti-poverty funding and allow recipients to continue receiving benefits until their work situations stabilize.

Moore described the measure as “one of the best ways to ensure that folks on these programs have the ability to work themselves out of it. Right now there’s a big cliff, so if you start making a little bit more money then your benefits drop off fast.”

Moore believes the Upward Mobility Act can be a game-changer by getting rid of those cliffs. 

“Any challenger who wants to hit me on my work on these types of welfare programs, please bring this one up,” Moore said. “I will win on this issue because this is the way to support people who need assistance. It won’t happen tomorrow but we’re in the early stages.”