Weber County Farm Bureau member and Utah Commissioner of Agriculture & Food (UDAF) Kerry Gibson announced his intentions to run for Utah’s first congressional seat. The seat, which covers northern Utah, has been held by Rep. Rob Bishop since 2003. Bishop announced he is is not running for reelection. With the move, Gibson resigned as Commissioner for the Department of Agriculture & Food.

Gibson has served as Commissioner of UDAF since 2019 when he was selected to replace retiring Commissioner LuAnn Adams. At the time, Gibson had been serving as Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources, and has also served as a County Commissioner and in the Utah House of Representatives, including time chairing the Natural Resources committee.

Kerry Gibson grew up on a dairy farm in Weber County and has been greatly involved with the Utah Farm Bureau. He served as chair of the Utah Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee, and also chaired the same committee on the national level for the American Farm Bureau. Kerry was also part of the inaugural class of the Partners in Advocacy Leadership or PAL. The leadership class was devoted to creating advocates for agriculture and accelerating the personal and leadership development for Farm Bureau members.

Gibson was also selected for the Eisenhower Agricultural Fellowship, in which he spent several months in Europe researching food safety.

“While it’s early in the campaign cycle and there are several candidates who have declared, as an organization, we’re interested to see someone with agricultural experience run for Congress,” said Ron Gibson, President of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation. “Many decisions made in Congress have a direct impact on Utah agriculture, so ensuring those serving have a background in our issues is important.”

 

About the Utah Farm Bureau Federation

The mission of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation is to inspire all Utah families to connect, succeed, and grow through the ‘Miracle of Agriculture.’ The Utah Farm Bureau is local, county, state, national and international in its scope and influence, and is non-partisan, non-sectarian and non-secret in character. Farm Bureau is the voice of agriculture at all levels.