SALT LAKE CITY — As the Utah legislative session comes to a close Friday night, one of the most visible changes to come out of the session is a new state flag. 

Sen. Dan McCay (R-Riverton) played an important role in getting S.B. 31 into law. Both the Senate and House voted in favor of a new state flag on Thursday. It now awaits the signature of the governor. 

McCay joined Inside Sources with guest hosts Taylor Morgan and Marty Carpenter on Friday to discuss what this means for the state.

McCay is asked about the journey he has been on with this issue.

“If you would’ve told me, 12 years ago, when I first got involved as a newly elected representative that I would be the flag guy for the state of Utah,” he said. “I probably would have laughed out of the room.”

A few years ago, McCay says he visited Mount Rushmore that has the flags of all 50 states. He then traveled to Colorado and Texas their flags were everywhere.

And then he came home. 

“There was nothing for Utah,” he said.

New state flag gives state a brand

He said that if you were to go to Amazon and search ‘Utah gear’, nothing would have the state flag on it. However, if you searched Texas gear, he says most everything would have the state flag on it.

He says Utah doesn’t have a brand of its own. He further states that when people go to places such as Disneyland, they are often wearing Utah Jazz or University of Utah gear.

At that point, he started to notice the deficiencies that existed. He says getting the entire state onboard with a single brand was the hard part.

“And then it was this process, and how do you get a brand that 3.4 million people can agree on is going to work for them,” McCay said. “That, my friend, is exhausting.” 

Read more:

• Does Utah need a new state flag?

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