Meet the candidate: Caroline Gleich, running for US Senate

As Election Day nears, KSL NewsRadio is interviewing candidates to get their stance on today’s issues. Keep an eye on our election coverage as we continue to speak to the 2024 General Election candidates.

SALT LAKE CITY — Caroline Gleich is running as a Democrat to represent Utah in the U.S. Senate. She graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology. She describes herself as a small business owner, professional ski mountaineer, and an activist for environmental and social justice issues. In this capacity, she has raised money, testified before the U.S. Congress, and according to her webpage “worked on state-level environmental policy” during Utah Gov. Gary Herbert’s terms.

Gleich spoke with KSL At Night hosts Greg Skordas and Taylor Morgan on Oct. 16, 2024. A partial transcript of that interview, as well as the complete podcast, are below.

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This interview has been modified for brevity and clarity.

HOST TAYLOR MORGAN: You have spent a lot of time advocating for issues that are really important to you in our nation’s capital. What was it that drove you to go from advocating to getting in the race yourself?

GUEST CAROLINE GLEICH:  It was really based on what Utah needed, and I felt like it’s a call to service. There was a time where I [thought] ‘I’m gonna wait until I’m older and retired and I have more wealth accumulated so that I can afford to run for office.’ But I think it’s really clear that Utah and America need people to step up now.

HOST GREG SKORDAS: We’re having record temperatures here in Utah and huge storms on the East Coast. It doesn’t seem like we’re taking it as seriously maybe, as we should. What would be your plan with respect to our natural resources and climate?

Caroline Gleich on natural resources, climate

GLEICH:  It’s really clear that we have got to accelerate our transition to clean renewable energy while supporting our legacy energy-producing communities across the state. And the data is really clear on how to do that —  it’s reducing pollution at scale. And we have the technology and we have the innovation. We just need the political will to get that clean renewable energy on the grid.

Doing so will create jobs, lower our utility costs, it will clean our air and it will save lives. … We die two years earlier because of the poor air quality, and it’s linked to a variety of different poor health outcomes, from asthma to cardiovascular disease. There’s even evidence that our air quality is linked to increased rates of Alzheimer’s dementia, and I think one of the worst that I’ve heard is a 16% increased rate of miscarriage in the Salt Lake Valley when we have these poor air quality episodes.

MORGAN:  One of the things that I’ve noticed about your campaign is how you have uniquely connected the issue of IVF and related issues to the larger abortion question. Tell us about that issue and what you would hope to accomplish in Congress.

GLEICH: We’ve seen one in five OB-GYNs consider leaving states like Utah. It’s making it more challenging for people to to get preventative screening. If they do have complications during pregnancy, abortion is healthcare. If you have a miscarriage and you need a DNC, it’s an abortion. It is necessary life-saving health care, and I just don’t think the government should be interfering in these, these personal and private decisions.

MORGAN:  What can we do moving forward to get more people in housing? 

GLEICH:  In the last six years that my opponent’s been in Congress, the average cost of a single-family home in Utah has gone up by $200,000. Federal minimum wage has stayed stagnant at $7.25 an hour. So I would support expanding first-time homebuyer tax incentives. And I would support increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour. 

Please listen to the podcast below for the entire interview.

 

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