Current Employment
State Senator
Education
B.S. in Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies from the U of U and an MPA from Brown University
Campaign Website
nateforutah.com
Utahns are working harder than ever and still falling behind. That's not an accident, it's a system rigged for corporate profits over working families.
I ran a bill to raise Utah's minimum wage to $20 an hour, and I'll fight to do the same nationally and index it to inflation so paychecks never fall this far behind again. I'll repeal the Faircloth Amendment so we can build public housing again, ban the algorithmic rent-fixing landlords use to coordinate price hikes, and pass Medicare for All to lower healthcare costs and ensure everyone has the care they need. I'll fight to bring down energy bills with homegrown clean power and I'll vote to stop funding war and genocide abroad so we can build schools and housing here at home.
The Great Salt Lake is a public health emergency. As it shrinks, arsenic and heavy metals from the exposed lakebed blow into the air along the Wasatch Front, and our kids are the ones breathing it. One billion dollars is a start, but saving this lake will take more like $1 billion annually, sustained for years.
I'd direct that funding toward securing permanent federal water leases, mandating minimum lake levels with real enforcement, and addressing agricultural water use, which accounts for the vast majority of consumption in the basin. Congress should also tie any investment to verified conservation and pair it with action on the climate crisis driving our drought. The lake won't be saved by half-measures, and we are running out of time.
Congress has spent too long handing its power to the executive branch and then acting surprised when that power gets abused. I'll fight to take it back.
That means real oversight with teeth: subpoenas that get enforced, hearings that aren't just theater, and using Congress's power of the purse to block funding for policies that harm people. It means reclaiming Congress's authority over spending, war, and tariffs instead of letting any president rule by executive order.
I take no corporate PAC money, so my only job is holding power accountable to you, not to donors. When this administration cuts housing aid, guts clean air protections, or targets vulnerable people, I won't look away. I'll use every tool Congress has to stop it.
ICE agents in masks are raiding courthouses, churches, and hospitals, detaining people with no due process and killing American citizens in the process. They tear parents away from their kids and disappear neighbors who have lived here for decades. This is being done in our names, and it has to end.
I’ll fight to abolish ICE and prosecute those responsible for these abuses. No one should be above the law. Congress should rebuild immigration around accountability and due process, create a real path to citizenship for Dreamers and the millions who live, work, and pay taxes here, end for-profit detention, and protect families from separation. Immigrants are our neighbors and part of what makes Utah strong. Our laws should reflect that.
First, get money out of politics. I'll fight to overturn Citizens United, ban members of Congress from trading stocks, and crack down on the lobbying that lets corporations write our laws. When money buys access, working people lose every time.
Second, ban partisan gerrymandering nationwide. Politicians should not get to choose their voters. Fair maps are the foundation of a government that actually answers to the people.
Third, expand early voting and voting by mail. Democracy works best when more people can take part. We should be making it easier to vote, not throwing up barriers.
These reforms share one goal: a government that answers to people, not billionaires and their corporate interests.
Campaign Phone
801-845-2151
Current Employment
Attorney
Education
J.D., University of Michigan Law School (2014), B.A., UCLA (2010)
Campaign Website
www.michaelforutah.com
Utahns are being crushed by rising costs while billionaires and large corporations make record profits and our elected officials (on both sides of the aisle) do nothing to help. When elected, I will tax the ultra-wealthy fairly, close corporate loopholes, and use that revenue to lower costs for working people. I will pass legislation to build affordable housing and starter homes by having the government build and sell the houses to first-time home buyers at cost, invest in clean renewable energy to reduce utility bills, move us toward single-payer healthcare while expanding Medicare and lowering drug prices, cap childcare costs, pass a national ban on price gouging in food and groceries, support and strengthen unions, and raise wages.
Federal funding in the Great Salt Lake should prioritize funneling more water into the GSL through coordination with neighboring states, restrictions on large agricultural water use (such as alfalfa farms), funding to incentivize Utahns to convert their lawns to a xeriscape or zeroscape, watershed restoration, wetland protection, water reuse infrastructure, and dust mitigation to protect Utahns from toxic air caused by declining Lake levels. Congress should also support binding water conservation goals and minimum water levels, stronger drought resilience programs, investments in renewable clean energy to reduce long-term aridification across the West, and a total ban on any data centers being built in Utah or other water-stressed regions.
I will support aggressive oversight of corruption, attacks on civil rights, and corporate influence in government by strengthening inspector generals, protecting whistleblowers, enforcing ethics and transparency laws on every branch of the federal government, and banning dark money and all PACs to stop wealthy donors and lobbyists from buying access. Ben McAdams and Nate Blouin have already taken in tens of thousands of dollars in PAC money and Liban Mohamed worked as a lobbyist for Meta and TikTok immediately before running for Congress. I’ll fight for campaign finance reform, a ban on stock trading for all public officials, and a ban on lobbyists from serving in elected office because public officials should only serve their constituents.
Congress must fix our broken immigration system instead of using it to spread fear and chaos. I spend hundreds of hours a year with undocumented persons assisting them with their legal needs, and I've seen this broken system up close and personal. My positions aren't just talking points. We must abolish ICE and establish a pathway to citizenship for undocumented residents, Dreamers, TPS holders, and farmworkers, expanded work visas, and strong worker protections so corporations can’t exploit immigrant workers to drive down wages. I will also drive federal funding to more immigration judges for increased immigration, refugee, and asylum claim processing. Our nation is one of laws and opportunity and our immigration system should be the same.
First, I will support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to restore and expand voting rights and guarantee automatic voter registration, early voting, and protections against voter suppression. Second, I will support Supreme Court and judicial reform, including enforceable ethics rules, term limits for justices, financial transparency, and stripping the courts of the ability to undermine abortion rights, civil rights, or voting rights legislation. Third, I will support a ban on gerrymandering nationwide so politicians cannot rig districts to choose their voters. Democracy is real only when every vote counts and the powerful are held accountable to the people.
Campaign Phone
707-478-5375
Current Employment
Self
Education
Bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Utah and a J.D. with honors from Columbia Law School
Campaign Website
benmcadamsutah.com
My mom raised six kids on a teacher's salary. We had foreclosure and crushing medical debt. I know what it means to get a bill you didn't create and can't afford. Trump's illegal wars are driving up gas and groceries while corporations post record profits. Utah families shouldn't be priced out of their own state. I'll end the tariffs, restore ACA subsidies, reverse Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy, fight Medicaid cuts, and work to bring down the cost of housing. I've spent five years working on housing since leaving Congress, working with cities nationwide and writing legislation for walkable, affordable transit-oriented housing. I will fight for an economy that helps Utah’s working people thrive.
The Great Salt Lake is a public health emergency. Exposed lakebed releases toxic chemicals into the air above one of the fastest-growing metros in the country. We need 800,000 additional acre-feet annually, and half must come from reforming agricultural water use. The outdated "use it or lose it" doctrine forces farmers to consume full allocations or lose future rights. Federal dollars should compensate farmers and fund water monitoring. I'll block projects like the Stratos data center drawing massive water from a dying lake, as I did when I blocked the Facebook data center in Salt Lake County.
Congress's greatest tool is the power of the purse. I’ll hold agencies accountable, compel documents and testimony when officials stonewall, and protect federal employees who speak up about wrongdoing. Oversight only matters if people are willing to use it. Trump has trampled our democracy—political enemies prosecuted, ICE patrolling our streets, immigrants ripped from their families without due process—and Congress has let him. My service will always be about Utah. I'll work with anyone, but I've never been afraid to stand alone. Every day, I'll fight to protect our democracy, lower housing costs, expand health and make life easier for Utahans. It's time for a new kind of politics; one that listens, finds common ground, and delivers.
Every Utahn deserves dignity, freedom and a fair chance — including our immigrant neighbors. Immigrants strengthen Utah's businesses, communities, and culture. I oppose the proposed ICE detention center and will use every tool I have to stop it. As Mayor of Salt Lake County, I created the Office for New Americans and launched the United for Citizenship Initiative. In Congress, I voted for a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and opposed family separation. I'll fight to permanently protect Dreamers, defend asylum protections, and end policies that criminalize families seeking safety. Trump weaponized a broken system — ICE, DHS, and CBP need a complete overhaul. Using immigrants as a talking point instead of fixing anything must end now.
Democracy only works when leaders respect fair elections, independent institutions, and the will of the voters. I voted to impeach Donald Trump for abusing presidential power — knowing it could cost me my seat. I'll always stand up to Trump's corruption, oppose the weaponization of the Justice Department, and fight to keep it independent, fair, and focused on the rule of law. I'll work to end ICE's lawless, indiscriminate raids that make communities less safe, replacing fear-based enforcement with a system rooted in constitutional protections. And I'll work to restore American leadership abroad by strengthening, not weakening, our alliances so that America can again be a trusted partner and respected leader on the global stage.
Education
University of Utah, Bachelor's Degree in Strategic Communications
Campaign Website
https://www.libanforcongress.com
When elected to Congress, I will support a federal affordability package. This package will include a wide range of policies that will immediately alleviate some of the costs that regular Americans struggle to cover, such as: Medicare for All, Universal Pre-K and childcare, building more housing and preventing private equity from owning single-family housing, student loan debt relief, and rent-stabilizing measures for fast-growing economies. Living in America is more expensive than ever, and the federal government must step up to ensure its citizens' prosperity.
Saving the Great Salt Lake is such an existential, public health, and national security threat to our lives, communities, and so many of our biomes, that I have made the promise to make an appropriation for efforts in this regard the first thing I do when I get into office. But this cannot be a one-time deal, we need to make sure this funding is ongoing. With these funds, I would support enacting laws that enforce minimum lake levels, invest in dust mitigation programs, reform water laws, work to coordinate interstate water conservation, and invest to restore our biomes and wetlands.
I plan to hold the current administration accountable primarily in two ways: (1) participating in hearings and investigations over agencies and corporations through my various committee assignments; and (2) visiting federal sites and carrying out the investigational duties myself. I will call the relevant secretaries and other decision makers from agencies such as the DHS, the Pentagon, and Department of Justice–among others–to testify, make their abuses of law public, and support impeachment hearings when substantiated. I will also visit ICE detention centers and, in addition to being a bridge between those who have been detained and our communities, use my power to curb further human abuses in detention centers.
When it comes to immigration, we need to pursue a new legal framework that is shaped by our shared dignity and humanity. I completely oppose the way immigration enforcement has been executed under the Trump administration and I will seek to end the terror that is being placed over our immigrant communities. As a member or Congress, I would support abolishing ICE, restoring rights for refugees and asylum seekers, increasing the number of immigration judges, guarantee removal defense in detention proceedings, support bills that end private and mass detention systems, and work to both stop family separations while reuniting families that our government separated.
First, I would support bills such as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to strengthen our voting rights at the federal level–democracies are dependent on free and fair elections and we need to make sure that communities across the country are equitably represented. I would also work to force a vote on the current war against Iran to force our fellow members of Congress to go on the public record about their position on the war. Congress has the constitutional duty to declare war, the current GOP majority has handed that power to the executive, we must take it back and restore proper checks and balances. Lastly, we need to review the Supreme Court. I support proposing term-limits and considering expanding the court.
