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Alleviate childcare costs for working families

• 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. 

Protect renters and ensure stable, affordable housing for all

• 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.

End all cooperation between local law enforcement with ICE, full stop

• 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.

Expand and defend designated sanctuaries

• 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.

Repeal Utah’s “Right to Work” law

• 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.

Protect collective bargaining

• 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. 

Environmental stewardship is a cornerstone of our state, and it’s crucial that we preserve and protect Utah’s natural resources and the Great Salt Lake for the health, happiness, and economic prosperity of current and future generations of Utahns. We must fund and support infrastructure to refill the Great Salt Lake and promote water conservation through water leasing and pursuing water market reforms like use-based water right adjustments. 

Utah communities should not be sacrificed for billionaire-backed data centers that drain our water, raise energy costs, and accelerate climate pollution. In May 2026, the Stratos Data Center Project was rushed through approvals by the Box Elder County Commission without meaningful community input or adequate impact studies, despite massive environmental concerns. Our elected officials should answer to working people, not outside corporate interests. We must stop the development of the Stratos Data Center and all future data center schemes by demanding transparent oversight of the development and permitting process, strengthening state environmental protections, and prioritizing policies that put communities, public resources, and our future ahead of private profit.

Paden believes that not only do all people deserve a right to health insurance, we must abolish the concept of “health insurance” completely, introducing a robust, state-managed, single-payer, universal healthcare system which serves the needs of people equitably rather than serving profit. Paden will advance any legislation which increases people’s access to healthcare and decreases the influence of big business in our right to healthcare. Due to the size and strength of the healthcare industry, Paden will focus on building power for workers through organization, rather than the half measures that will never make it through the legislature. 

Though ICE terrorism is obviously the loudest crisis facing undocumented (and documented) working people in the United States, inhuman immigration enforcement has been a cornerstone of both parties. Paden believes that the enforcement of two classes of workers, one less free than the other, is not only immoral but hurts all people besides the ultra-rich. By having a lower class of working people with fewer rights who can be deported at any time, businesses can reduce the wages and benefits of all workers and crush unions more effectively. In the long term, we must fight for universal amnesty for all undocumented workers and open the borders to all immigration. Borders do not stop immigration, they just make it more violent. By abolishing this “second class,” we will strengthen the working class movement across the board.

Paden advocates for the right of all people to love who they love and freely express their gender identity. Queer and trans Utahns are faced with an increasingly hostile political environment and a regressive legislative agenda that attacks their basic rights. Paden will advocate for policies which increase access to gender affirming care and protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.

Taylor Paden stands against Trump’s illegal, imperialist war on Iran. This action is barbaric and foolish. At a moral level, it is despicable, with the US admitting that one of its first actions was to murder over 100 girls at a school. At a strategic and economic level, it is demonstrative of the self-destructive nature of the current administration and its Republican and Democrat backers. This war not only kills American soldiers and Iranian people, it also endangers the economic and political interests of Salt Lakers, Americans, and all the poor people of the world. As a State Senator, Taylor will introduce a resolution to condemn this illegal war and legislation to cap gas prices in the state.

There is a genocide in Palestine and the apartheid in Israel has been around much longer than the last two years since Oct. 7th. Paden believes that we must completely divest from Israel, including all weapons (as there is no distinction between “offensive” and “defensive” weaponry, especially for an occupation), promote consumer boycotts of Israeli goods with the BDS movement, and work towards a complete liberation of the Palestinian people.

One of the cornerstones of Paden’s campaign as a Democratic Socialist, especially one partnered with the Salt Lake Democratic Socialists of America, is that the structures of our government and political parties are designed to be fundamentally undemocratic, catering to monied interests rather than the vast majority of humans in the US, working people. This existing reality, combined with the Trump administration's obvious attacks on our first amendment rights to political speech and the fairness of our elections, there is very little democracy left to go around. Paden believes one part of the socialist movement is forcing the government to deliver on its promises of democracy to the people, despite the disproportionate influence of the billionaire class in our government. We do this through organizing large groups of people, learning how to struggle together through trying, and escalating that action as we get more effective. Paden will support all legislation that protects our elections, ensures they are democratic for workers, reduces the influence of money in politics, protects our right to speech and protest, because those rights facilitate the increased organization of workers.