What are the political views and Religious Beliefs of Jon Huntsman?

Jon Huntsman Jr. was born in Redwood City, California and grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Huntsman is a Mormon, whose faith he officially professed on national television, saying:

I believe in God. I’m a good Christian. I’m very proud of my Mormon heritage. I am Mormon.^[1]

Later, however, Huntsman felt the need to clarify. It wasn’t clear if he was backpedaling because of the documented American prejudice against Mormons^[2] (and their likely hesitancy to elect one for president), or if he just wanted to offer his “big tent” approach to religion as a peace offering to minority religions in America (or we could give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was being honest, but he’s a politician so… no). But he said:

I was raised a Mormon, Mary Kaye [Huntsman’s wife] was raised Episcopalian, our kids have gone to Catholic school, I went to a Lutheran school growing up in Los Angeles. I have [an adopted] daughter from India who has a very distinct Hindu tradition, one that we would celebrate during Diwali. So you kind of bind all this together.^[3]

But you won’t see Huntsman pitting science against religion. In fact, he broke with his Republican peers when he said (in response to Rick Perry’s creationist views):

To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.^[4]

Word to the wise: Politics in Moderation

As two-time governor of Utah (one of the most conservative states in the union), it’s safe to call Huntsman a conservative Republican.^[5] Supporting that would be his record on social issues. He opposes both gay marriage and abortion for example.^[6]

But much of his fiscal, environmental, and foreign policies point to a moderate, or even Democratic, view. Huntsman is critical of the U.S. tax code for its pandering to big business and vested interests and would like to see loopholes eliminated, saying:

Over the last few decades, our tax code has devolved into a maze of special-interest carve-outs, loopholes and temporary provisions that cost taxpayers more than $400 billion a year to comply with. Get rid of all tax expenditures, all loopholes, all deductions, all subsidies, all corporate welfare.^[7]

Huntsman, as previously stated, takes science at its word when it comes to global warming and even appeared in an TV advertisement urging Congress to cap greenhouse gas emissions.^[8]

And he is the U.S. ambassador to China under the Obama administration and has criticized China’s human rights record.^[9]

All in all, Huntsman is a moderate who comes to his own conclusions about the issues. He is able to think outside of any pre-packaged ideological box and probably would have been a good president if the cartoon characters like Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum didn’t drown out any chance of rationality in the 2012 Republican primaries.