Issues Important to Me
1.
Economic Opportunity and Security:
We must work tirelessly to raise local incomes, support our unions, advocate for a living wage, and ensure fairer taxation to support vital public services. Promoting and nurturing new businesses and industries is important, but they must demonstrate sustainable plans and not detract from a community's character, housing, or living standards.
2.
Environmental Stewardship:
Promoting clean energy, protecting local air and water quality, and tackling climate change at the community level is a process that takes generations. Its policies and incentives can’t ebb and flow with every election. We need to respect science and incentivise opportunities to progress and adapt as new technologies bless us. We owe it to future generations to make responsible investments today to ensure long-term environmental stewardship.
3.
Voting Rights and Democracy:
Protecting democracy and access to the ballot box, ensuring fair district representation, and encouraging civic engagement are more than goals or objectives, it is in our very name! Shouting out voter fraud so that politicians can create laws to address voting problems that virtually do not exist by making it harder to vote is, in fact, a form of voter fraud. The disenfranchisement of voters is one of the last tools the opposition has to eke out a meager victory. To secure fair elections, every citizen must be protected and granted the opportunity to vote by mail if desired. This provides the most informed vote and the most accountability to our public servants.
4.
Accessible Healthcare and Education:
Our children and youth are the hope and foundations of our future. Ensuring easy access to affordable, quality healthcare and promoting strong public education from pre-school through higher education or trade school is worth every dollar spent. Affordable knowledge and health care can also form the best defense for our nation and its values. Public education is what I have devoted my life to. And it faces many challenges, not the least of which are politicians who claim to know more about education and health than our professionals. This will always be one of my top priorities.
5.
Protect our Lands and Water:
We need to do everything possible to defend our farmlands and critical open spaces from sprawling development, but we also need to be willing to put up the funds and effort to make it work for the owners. The leasing of irrigation rights will be needed to make our Great Salt Lake great again. Open spaces, parks, and trails support not only our physical health but also our mental health by relieving the burdens of a hectic world and bringing peace to our spirits. Federal and state public lands must also be protected. These national assets are what make our country extraordinary. We the people own them, and they are not to be sold to the highest bidder.
6.
Community and Housing Support:
Providing or advocating for a safety net for vulnerable populations, including access to affordable housing and childcare, is essential. As we advocate for living wages, we must also develop innovative programs to provide secure, attainable housing for our families and communities. Many of our local communities, especially near recreation or resort areas, have seen property values skyrocket. We must find ways to stabilize property taxes for our older citizens who simply want to live and thrive on the property they have lived in for many years. We cannot lose our farmers, working-class people, or our senior citizens, who are the heart and the heritage of our communities.
7.
One Community:
Everyone, regardless of background or beliefs, should feel welcome in our communities. Each individual should be treated with dignity and respect, and each should feel safe in their environment.
We should be especially mindful of the downtrodden and less fortunate around us, and do all we can to serve all our neighbors.
How we love and care for our neighbors defines not only us, but also our faith and love for God. We are one community, and everybody is needed in a unified effort to keep our state strong, resilient, and promising for generations to come.
8.
Fair Representation:
Has never been more important, particularly at the state level, to better share our community values and common concerns. Legislators are elected to fairly represent, and using maps to divide us into unrepresentable shapes does not reflect our values. The citizens of the State voted in favor of fair boundaries. Legislative leaders should honor the voice of the people as they exercise their constitutional duties. Packing and cracking our communities is not the way to protect a representative democracy.
9.
Transparency and Civility:
Promoting open, honest government and encouraging civil public discourse. is becoming a lost art. Advancing fear, conspiracies, culture wars, and enmity for those who don’t agree with us or look like us are common tools used to divide us, consolidate power, and ultimately rob us of freedoms enshrined in our Constitution. I commit to work hard, to build bridges rather than walls, and to encourage respect for the public process and consensus with other lawmakers. Fighting, dividing, and name-calling is like wrestling with pigs; we all get dirty, and the pigs will enjoy it!
10.
Property Rights:
The state legislature is increasingly usurping authority from local governments to determine land-use policy. I believe that city and county governments will always be the closest, most approachable, and responsive to the needs of their citizenry. I will be a strong advocate of supporting local jurisdictions’ rights to control their own destiny. In this regard, I will always advocate for and respect property owners’ rights.
11.
Accountability:
I care. Whether in Morgan, Rich, or Summit County, you can count on me to serve you. I commit to listen, act, and be held accountable, not only to you, but to myself. I also believe we need to work more diligently to hold local, state, and federal Republican officials accountable for all their actions. You will discover that I am the real deal, and I will not be bought or sold. My commitment to you is that I will work as I did on the family farm, stubbornly hard, with energy, and a determination I am proud of. In the end, I really work for you, and those simple acts define my true and lasting patriotism!