ELECTIONS, POLITICS, & GOVERNMENT
‘Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’: Utah Democrats focusing on ‘basics’ this session
Jan 22, 2025, 2:01 PM
Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, talks to members of the media during the first day of the 2025 legislative session in the Senate Minority Caucus room at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — The legislative session is in full swing and Utah Senate Democrats are going back to “basics.”
Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, spoke to Inside Sources about this year’s focus.
“We’re going back to basics,” Escamilla said. “We want life and liberty and pursuit of happiness for all Utahns. So, all of our bills and fiscal requests fit within those categories.”
For “life,” Escamilla said the caucus is committed to focusing on those who have been left behind. For example, Escamilla said they want to protect life in Utah’s public lands and monuments.
“From a recreational perspective: that, for many of us is maybe the main reason why we love public lands. But for our Native American communities and Indigenous communities, this means everything for them.”
The caucus also aims to promote life through reforming food security, mental health and behavioral health.
As for “liberty,” Escamilla said constitutional freedoms are “critical.”
“We, as Democrats, feel strongly to be utilizing what we have in statute to protect intrusion of the federal government.”
She said they’d focus on privacy, autonomy and criminal justice reform.
For the “pursuit of happiness,” Escamilla wants to work on economic equity.
“We want to just pause maybe on the tax breaks for a minute and make sure that we’re funding and investing in early childhood education, childcare (and) people with disabilities.”
Getting work done as a Democrat in Utah
Although Democrats are a superminority in Utah, Escamilla said there’s always an effort to find common ground.
She pointed to the efforts to remove the tax on Social Security and provide school meals for children.
“Republicans may have a different approach but we want the same (things).”
Escamilla said it was a matter of humanizing each other.
“These are issues that matter to most of our constituents across the spectrum,” she said. “… We may just have a different way of getting there.”
Related: Utah Republican legislative leaders share goals for 2025 session
