When childcare works, families thrive, and our communities become stronger. We must reduce the economic burden on parents in District 13 and across the state by funding universal pre-K and expanding refundable childcare tax credits for all eligible Utah families. 

Renters make up more than a third of District 13. In some neighborhoods, they account for more than half of all households. Renters don’t just live in our communities, they invest in them. But unregulated developers have driven up housing prices by maximizing profits and leaving units vacant rather than lowering rents. 

Housing is a human right, and we must keep District 13 a place where everyone can live, work, and thrive by overturning Utah’s prohibition on Rent Control and passing a tenants’ bill of rights to give renters basic protections like freedom from excessive fees and the right to public eviction support, including ​​free legal counsel, mediation, and relocation.

ICE’s indiscriminate violence across the country is not just a statistic; it is futures stolen, families torn apart, and a blatant disregard for Utah’s right to enact compassionate, common-sense immigration reform. Public servants at every level must defend our immigrant communities and shared safety by declining to sign agreements with ICE and revoking immunity for any escalation of state violence in our neighborhoods.

Everyone has the right to seek sanctuary from undue persecution, and nobody knows that better than Utahns. When we promote safety and stability for our immigrant community, we cultivate the culture of care embedded in our state’s foundation. We must protect our communities from indiscriminate violence by expanding state sanctuary designations to include public schools, government buildings, hospitals, and shelters, and organize the community to enforce those sanctuary zones.

Unions consistently improve workers’ wages and working conditions, but “right-to-work” laws threaten workers' abilities to form, join, and sustain unions by diminishing workers’ right to collective bargaining. Failing to require equal dues from every worker that benefits from collective bargaining only leaves working people with less money in their pockets. We must ensure workers have equal control of their workplace by repealing Utah’s Right to Work law.

Collective bargaining is a civil right under U.S. law. When we empower workers and strengthen their right to organize in the workplace, wages, benefits, and the quality of life for Utah families improve. We must eliminate barriers to collective bargaining by banning public employers from interfering in union organizing efforts and giving public workers the right to unionize through simple card checks. That also means certifying existing unions as legal bargaining representatives, including certifying CWA 776 as a legal bargaining representative for the University of Utah and University of Utah Health, our state’s largest employer.