Our Vision

Towns across District 69 are experiencing different stages of tourism and growth. Some have subsided on tourism for decades, while others are just beginning to promote visitation. Rural towns should be able to benefit from tourism while also having the authority to enact town-specific policies that preserve our quality of life. Consistently, the Utah legislature prevents towns from enacting zoning policies that would protect tenants, enforce noise ordinances, and direct tourism money to programs supporting working families. Rural Utah can be more than a cash cow for the state government. We can be a network of thriving communities who respond to local needs, putting rural Utahns first.

Utahns are working harder than ever and our wages aren’t keeping pace with skyrocketing housing costs. Working families that have called District 69 home for generations struggle to imagine a stable financial future for their children. $7.25/hour won’t buy a house anywhere—especially in real estate markets where second home owners and wealthy real estate developers are driving up costs beyond what working people can afford. That is one reason why we need an across-the-board wage increase in this state and I will fight so that local elected officials gain the power to raise the minimum wage. A sick child or caretaking a loved one should not prevent working individuals from earning their whole paycheck which is why I will support paid family leave and an expansion of childcare services.

Rural communities thrive with a diversified economy. Many towns are moving from extractive industry to tourism economies and finding a variety of issues in that transition. I support robust, resilient, and sustainable economies. When our economies are more resilient to shocks such as tourism dropping off or businesses pulling out of communities, working families will have more stable incomes and lives. The concentration of power into the hands of just a few large corporations has locked local business-owners out of prosperity. I will fight for expanding rural economic development programs and support local entrepreneurship.

Good teachers are the lifeblood of a good public education system and our rural communities. Utah ranks 31st in the nation in teacher pay, putting the whole state at a competitive disadvantage. Low teacher pay disproportionately impacts students and communities in rural Utah where attracting high-quality teachers is even more difficult than in larger, urban areas. If elected I will listen to our teachers and fight to ensure Utah pays a living wage for all public servants—especially those we trust to educate the next generation.

Our children are our future and all children in Utah deserve a world-class education, regardless of what school district they call home. We have a lot of work to do to make this a reality. Utah ranks 50th in the nation in per-pupil public education spending, shortchanging our students, working families, and our economic future. I am one of the many parents in our district who had to make the difficult choice of sending their kids to an underfunded rural school or to a bigger city with greater educational opportunity. I don’t want any other family in rural Utah to have to make that decision. I will fight to invest in our rural schools and students.

In today’s learning environment, high speed internet is a prerequisite for student success. All across District #69, large numbers of homes still lack high-speed internet service. When the pandemic moved all learning online, students in these areas were left behind. If elected, I will work with the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity to coordinate and fund broadband expansion. I will also fight for educational opportunities for transgender youth, and fight for their inclusion in school sports.

My priority is to preserve housing for locals in communities affected by tourism, and improve the quality of housing. We must develop workforce housing to support local workers and businesses alike and ensure that new developments include affordable options.

We also need protections for renters to ensure they are not priced out of their homes. I will advocate for creative place-based solutions to the housing crisis, such as providing incentives for homeowners to build and affordably rent out Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), taxing second homeowners, and supporting replacement programs for dilapidated trailers.

To avoid greater housing insecurity in our communities, the government must invest in emergency housing shelters, temporary assistance to keep people in existing housing and rapid rehousing when that is not possible. Just because we don't see rural houselessness doesn't mean people aren't suffering from it all the same. Providing choice-based solutions like vouchers to those facing housing insecurity and houselessness gives people the ability to stay in the communities of their choosing, while also adding to market incentives for reasonable development.

Utah may have enough water to sustain our population growth, but only if policy is enacted to conserve water usage and the appropriate water rights are obtained. We must create climate resilient communities in the face of increasing temperatures, droughts, wildfires, and other environmental shifts. Our lake and river levels are falling at alarming rates but high-water-use golf courses are proposed in desert communities. There is no running water for many families living on the Navajo Reservation. Agricultural water is liable to be cut off, while lawn watering is not sustainably managed. We must be better stewards of Utah’s waters and work towards a future where humans and the environment are living in a mutually beneficial relationship in Utah. I will listen to scientists, water rights experts, indigenous people with deep local knowledge, and community members facing the negative impacts of our decreasing water supply in Utah. Clean water is a human right.

Rural Utah is home to some of our nation's most iconic landscapes. Since time immemorial, the Indigenous people who call this region home carefully managed these lands to sustain the health of ecosystems and people. Across my district, people rely on our land for sustenance and livelihood. From the ranchers who run their cattle on public lands to the service workers who serve visiting tourists to the Indigenous people who know them as sacred—our landscapes are our most valuable resource.

Without protection, our public lands will be governed by large corporations who will make this rural Utah unlivable and untenable for generations.

The communities of southern Utah, not out-of-state corporations and their shareholders—should be the beneficiaries of the wealth generated from our public lands. For too long, corporate greed has driven destructive land management practices and rural Utahn are left holding the bag, responsible for environmental clean-up and with less access for traditional uses. We must prevent extractive industries from destroying the land, contaminating the water, and polluting our bodies, while ensuring local people have jobs to support their families. If we want our children and grandchildren to have futures in southeast Utah, we must preserve the health of our local environment.. Sacred ancestral public lands such as Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments need to be managed in a way that gives indigenous people decision-making power and centers their voices.

We need to invest in cleaner energy and water infrastructure in southeast Utah, and listen to scientists about the changing environmental conditions in Utah. Economic Development opportunities must support a transition in Utah from fossil fuels to renewable energy in the face of climate change. Initiatives like the Community Renewable Energy Program simultaneously move our district away from reliance on volatile fossil fuels and create good paying jobs in our district. We still have uranium tailings and unfarmable contaminated land. We still have communities who are experiencing the harmful effects of the mines. We are part of this state, and our experiences cannot be overlooked.

I will fight to ensure all Utahns have access to quality, affordable health care. I believe in investing in recovery and treatment resources for drug addiction. No one should die or suffer if they can’t afford their life-saving medicine, prescription costs should be lowered and pharmaceutical companies should be held responsible. We must invest in mental health counselors. In rural parts of our district which have limited access to healthcare facilities, I will do everything possible to care for the elderly, chronically ill, disabled, LGBTQ2S+, and other communities whose marginalized status affects their healthcare outcomes.

Utah ranks number 8 for the highest number of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women cases. A 2016 National Institute of Justice report shows that 4 in 5 Native women (84.3%) will experience violence in their lifetime. We need to believe and empower survivors, and take action to protect one another. Police need to rapidly respond to cases of missing women, and be trained on domestic violence issues. In 2021, I was the Community Engagement coordinator for Restoring Ancestral Winds, an indigenous healing nonprofit that focuses on domestic violence amongst other issues. Through this work I have a clear vision of what needs to be done to protect women. We must do more. We must break the silence.

I grew up hunting with my dad and safe, responsible gun ownership is a deep part of my culture. A State House Representative will not determine constitutional issues such as the Second Amendment and I believe that Americans have a right to keep and bear arms, especially for self-protection and recreation. However, senseless gun violence is a dangerous force in the United States and common sense limitations must be put in place to prevent dangerous individuals from using firearms carelessly. We must protect our students, teachers, and domestic violence survivors from threats against their lives. Basic protections like universal background checks, red flag laws, etc can help keep us all safer, while still protecting the fundamental right to bear arms.

Abortion is healthcare. Healthcare decisions deserve privacy, understanding, and an intimate trust between a woman and her doctor. People should have free agency over their body and family planning. Governmental intervention into OB/GYN health represents a dangerous precedent of overreach into our individual choices and our constitutional right to privacy. Utah’s 18-week abortion ban does not afford pregnant people sufficient time to make such a significant decision as this.

Healthcare providers in District 69 must be prepared to fulfill a variety of citizen needs, continue to offer services that will save lives and protect a family’s right to plan their future. To combat governmental overreach, we need diverse voices in the state government and to support working people in having free agency and freedom over their family planning.