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Utah deserves another strong leader in the US Senate, and I didn't see anyone stepping up who I could support to be that person. I've worked on conservative state policy for nearly a decade, after my boys were older, as well as 3.5 years for Senator Mike Lee in the state. I see too many people afraid to speak the truth, but the truth really is just basic common sense these days and I believe that people who know how to make the case in a reasonable way can have a significant impact on the direction our state and nation head in coming years. I would work closely with Sen. Lee and other members like Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. Ron Johnson to limit federal power by working to get out of state issues (which often means cutting back on funding and all of its strings to the states) and pull back the administrative state (executive branch) that is strangling industry and society by implementing law through rule and taking powers constitutionally granted to the legislative branch.

1. Federal government overreach and imbalance of power, that is impacting everything from education to healthcare to federal lands in our state.
2. Inflation, driven by federal spending, that is crippling families and potentially creating greater dependence on government, and away from families and communities that are increasingly strained.
3. A virtually open southern border that will burden citizens of this nation in many different ways, for decades to come.

I believe that one of the best ways to find common ground with other reasonable people is to first determine our ultimate goal when implementing government policy. If we agree on the goal, we can generally find a way to come together to begin moving the ball down the field in the right direction. Too often, we don't discuss the goal up front and so we end up with policy that makes no sense or we compromise in a way that leads us away from where we really wanted to go. I, along with a few other people on the board of Utah Citizens for the Constitution, met last summer with a couple members of the state school board and legislators to start a discussion about untangling some of the federal education funding coming to our state. I had a prior commitment so walked into the meeting late. When I arrived, everyone was almost talking in circles as they rehashed many different concerns about federal involvement in the k-12 education system. I started by stating that until we could define the ultimate goal of a publicly funded education system in a free nation, we would just be picking through the rubble, one issue after another, trying to weed out the garbage. So we discussed what the actual goal should be, and one of the USBE members mentioned that they were just working on a new vision statement and based on our recommendations, ended up including language that addressed the need to educate students in such a way that they are able to sustain our constitutional republic. Of course that wasn't supported by the entire board when presented, but we made some progress. My point being that once we define our goals, it's much simpler to focus with others on figuring out how we come together to get there. And if they're interested in going in a different direction, we're able to identify that early on as well.

And I have to comment on question #6 below - I support a balance of environmental protection and economic growth, but at this point we are so uneven in one direction that if we solely focused on economic growth for the time being, we would probably still sufficiently be protecting the environment. We are in great need of massive environmental regulatory reform, as with NEPA and EAJA, which are strangling our ability to build roads and mine or drill, especially on public lands, in the US at this time. So while I support balance, I wasn't quite sure how to answer the question.