Your Questions, Answered

Utah voters are concerned about corruption because it is real, and public trust has to be earned. While political noise and sensational headlines can add to public frustration, the deeper concern is whether government is truly accountable to the people it serves.

That is why transparency, accountability, and citizen involvement matter. As mayor, restoring trust was one of my top priorities. I created citizen committees to work directly with the council, made sure meetings strictly followed open meeting laws, expanded public access to agendas and materials well beyond state requirements, provided public comment opportunities at every council meeting, and presented legislation to create term limits to prevent political entrenchment.

The goal was simple: open the doors, pull back the curtains, and turn on the lights.

As your representative, I will bring that same level of transparency to the state by staying accessible, accountable, and connected to the people I serve.

As a Republican, I believe affordability starts with keeping taxes low, cutting red tape, and fixing the policies that drive up costs for families.

For example, California’s strict regulations forced several refineries to shut down, which led to a shortage of gas and diesel in our region. That has led to higher energy prices for Utah and surrounding states. Energy is one of the biggest cost drivers in the economy. When fuel and power costs rise, the price of food, transportation, construction, and other essentials rises with them. I will pursue opportunities to attract refining and energy infrastructure within district 67, to increase supply, drive down costs, create good-paying jobs, strengthen local economies, and generate tax revenue that will help ease the burden of residential property owners.

On housing, the government using hundreds of millions in taxpayers' money on subsidies and buyer incentives, has artificially increased demand without fixing the supply problem. We need to streamline permitting, reduce unnecessary regulation, protect property rights, and support local, private-sector solutions that increase the supply of affordable housing.

As the second-driest state in the nation, Utah must fight for every drop of water we are entitled

to and use our water as efficiently as possible.

Serving on the engineering subcommittee with the Central Utah Water Conservancy District

gave me firsthand experience with the planning and investment it takes to secure reliable water

supplies. Water policy cannot be built on slogans. It requires long-term strategy, local

coordination, and serious infrastructure planning.

We need state leaders with experience working with counties, water districts, and irrigation

companies to create a statewide water strategy that addresses immediate shortages, prepares

for growth over the next 40 to 50 years, and guides investments in storage, irrigation upgrades,

conservation, reuse, and new water supplies specific to municipal and industrial use, while

protecting agricultural water for our farmers and ranchers. I believe in the water doctrine of “first

in time, first in right”.

In addition, I will use my experience and connections in the water arena to fight for Utah’s water

rights and make sure our state receives its fair share of Colorado River water allocation.

Absolutely, Utah should continue pursuing nuclear energy, and District 67 is a player in leading that effort. Projects like Valar Atomics in Emery County show the kind of innovation and investment that can help secure Utah’s energy future.

I have said it for years, and just like a state water strategy, Utah needs a long-term comprehensive energy plan that identifies all of our energy resources, plans for future demand, and makes strategic use of the infrastructure and opportunities to ensure smooth, affordable and calculated transitions in baseload power. That would include Nuclear reactors, a combination of Combined Cycle and Simple cycle natural gas turbines, geothermal, as well as upgrading and maintaining our reliable coal-burning plants. When a strategic plan is implemented, all forms of energy available to us can and should work in harmony to provide affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy now and well into the future.

The Utah Constitution gives the Legislature the responsibility to draw political boundaries, and that responsibility should remain with the people’s elected representatives. Legislators can be held accountable by voters which is a key part of the trust needed for this process to function.

The process should be transparent and I’m all for advisory committees that assist in that process. However, we should never fully delegate those types of responsibilities to unelected bureaucrats and the legislature was correct to fight that.

Two potential abuses of judicial power that I personally saw was the severely delayed denial of the proposed map, making it impossible for the legislature to respond in the allotted time, then the immediate adoption of the plaintiffs map, which constitutes a major conflict of interest. Courts have an important role in interpreting the law, but they should not act as a super-legislature.

Yes. The balance of power is weakened when courts move from interpreting the law to effectively making it. Legislators are elected to debate policy, pass laws, and answer to the voters for those decisions. Judges serve an important role in applying the Constitution, but they should not override the policy judgments of the legislative branch simply because they would have decided differently.

Utah needs to return to a clearer separation of powers, the legislature creates the law, courts interpret it, and the executive branch enforces it.

I believe the most pressing issue facing voters this year is affordability: whether Utah families can continue to live, work, and build a future here.

That concern is intertwined with several issues on people’s minds, including water security, housing affordability, property taxes, economic opportunity, and the overall cost of everyday life.

Families are suffering from the rising cost of nearly everything they need. Addressing that requires much more than talking about budgets.

We need policies that lower the actual cost of living by keeping taxes low, cutting unnecessary regulation, expanding reliable energy, protecting and investing in our water future, increasing housing supply, and investing in infrastructure to strengthen economic opportunities and good-paying jobs.

Utahns deserve a government that is transparent, disciplined, and focused on solutions that strengthen families and communities long term.