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'Democrats are regular people' says state Senate candidate Nancy Huntly

A person outdoors smiling.
nancyhuntly.com

Nancy Huntly is a Democrat running against incumbent Sen. Chris Wilson for Utah Senate District 2.

Tom Williams: Thanks for listening to Utah Public Radio, National Public Radio's coverage of Election Results 2024 and Utah Public Radio. Tom Williams, with USU Political Science Professor Damon Cann. Damon, thanks for being with us. As always.

Damon Cann: Glad to be here.

Tom Williams: I believe we have on the line Senate candidate in Utah State Senate, Nancy Huntly. Nancy, are you there?

Nancy Huntly: I am, Tom.

Tom Williams: Hi! Good. Good to have you on. Democrat running for the State Senate. So, I expect we'll start seeing returns here pretty quick. Polls have closed in here in Utah, I have to make sure the lines are, you know, everybody has the chance to vote who was in line at eight o'clock as you've been talking to voters. What’s on their minds, do you think?

Nancy Huntly: A lot of things are on people's minds. I think to begin with, the Utah Foundation study talked about political dysfunction and costs of living, both as being problems, and those are things I hear about a lot. People don't like the political discord that we have now, or feeling like they're not listened to.

For the cost of living, we hear a lot about inflation right now, listening to the national results and what may be motivating voters. But the other side of that cost of living equation is the wages, the wage structure. And I hear a lot about the middle class in Utah sort of falling into the financially stressed, becoming more of the food insecure population, more of the housing insecure population. So, I think we need to think really hard about not having just a number one economy in terms of growth, but having an economy that works for all.

I heard a lot about child care. That came up over and over again from employers of lots of different sorts, from parents, from child care providers, from child care businesses. And also, I learned about, though I didn't hear about for so many voters, that the situation for people with disabilities in Utah is not great. It's substandard compared to what most states in the country are doing, and things like early intervention to educate children, give children therapy so children perhaps will not require special ed, healthcare access for people with disabilities, supports allowing more self-sufficiency. Those are things I think Utah needs to work about also.

And then the cost of housing and water are also always on people's minds, but we're doing a lot about that now we've started worrying and acting on those.

Damon Cann: So, Nancy, I wonder what your greatest hope is for what you might have been able to achieve in the messaging you've shared during the course of this campaign.

Nancy Huntly: My greatest hope is that what it was positive about the need for a little more balance and the way we bring people into our political system into decision making and more of a community focus, a working together focus.

I also hope it might convince more people that running as a Democrat, Democrats are regular people. We're not really very scary. I'm a mom, I'm a grandma, I'm a teacher, I'm a scientist. I do lots of volunteer work. So, I think I was concerned about those things. We can all talk to each other, we can all constructively work together, and we can find solutions that we can all accept and meet, meet our challenges.

Tom Williams: Well. Nancy Huntly, candidate for State Senate, thank you so much.

Nancy Huntly: Thank you, Tom. Thanks.

Tom Williams worked as a part-time UPR announcer for a few years and joined Utah Public Radio full-time in 1996. He is a proud graduate of Uintah High School in Vernal and Utah State University (B. A. in Liberal Arts and Master of Business Administration.) He grew up in a family that regularly discussed everything from opera to religion to politics. He is interested in just about everything and loves to engage people in conversation, so you could say he has found the perfect job as host “Access Utah.” He and his wife Becky, live in Logan.