Nathaniel Woodward

A seventh generation resident of my small rural community who has seen the hometown of my youth suffer under a political system controlled by corporations and the wealthiest individuals. I intend to serve my district by focusing on issues and solutions from the ground up, reversing the Washington perspective that all answers flow from it. It is our individual communities that know what is best for their people and it is they who should be empowered to advise Congress on the right course of action. By working closely with mayors, city councils, county leaders, and other involved citizens I intend to lead by listening to them, respecting their perspectives, and then proposing courses of action that require everyone's participation to accomplish. Utah deserves a candidate who expects as much from each and every voter as he does of himself, who tells you how it is, and who wouldn't demand anything of you that he wasn't willing to do himself. If you want a candidate who is going to do all the work for you, repeat worn-out national "pop-culture" political talking points, and spends their time in Washington going with the flow creating more of the same, then I'm not the one for you. Utah needs someone who is subversive to the system in place, who intends to disrupt how politics are done, and won't put up with the hyper-partisan nonsense that corporate media poisons our citizens with. If you want change, I'm your candidate.

• PEOPLE FIRST. The political process is broken, it is designed to distract us from the real issues that effect us individually and as a community. In Utah all you hear from our elected leaders is the repeated narrative spun by partisan media instead of any discussion or proposed solutions to issues that we actually see. You will not hear me discuss topics like the border, involvement in foreign wars, or the second amendment until we have a working solution to why thousands of Utah children go home from school to empty refrigerators, why our sentencing laws do not advocate or protect adults with disabilities who have been sexually exploited, or why our working class is forced to bear the risk of employment.
• ENERGY. One power plant job equates to at least seven other support and collateral ones, which means that the closure of even one power plant is a death sentence to an entire community. Neither party is willing to work together although there are real solutions to address both climate and economic issues. By investing in carbon capture technology we can eliminate CO2 emissions from our power plants and benefit from the harvest of another valuable natural resources. If we are willing to work together, we have a solution that protects our climate, secures our current jobs, and creates even more. In Congress I will be relentless in proposing these kinds of solutions and holding those who don't listen accountable.
• EDUCATION. I strongly believe that we have a misunderstanding of the purpose of an education. Education should primarily be for the development of our minds and our abilities to solve problems, not perform a specific job. I didn’t necessarily need to have learned about mortgages or credit while in high school because I was taught the scientific method in biology, and the order of operations in algebra. Today, when I come up against a problem I use the tools I learned in school and know that I can figure out a solution. By finding ways to merge trade and traditional academic courses we will begin educating one of the most capable generations in history, taking the best aspects of each course and learning to apply it in other situations.

Energy, Employment, and Education. Every major issue we face as a nation cannot be addressed with a simple head-on approach as these issues are complicated and require a mixture of creativity and good old-fashioned hard work. We must be willing to test new ideas while having the grace to not only forgive failure, but to view a loss as a valuable learning opportunity that has made us stronger. If we want more affordable and cleaner energy we must be willing to invest in education, if we want those energy workers to thrive then we need to ensure our labor laws protect them physically and financially, and if we want our students to have the best educational opportunities we must be willing to make our tax system more just and equitable.

I find inspiration close to home, mostly through reading about my family on the Family Search app on my phone. My father is the kindest, most thoughtful man I have ever known, my mother was pure magic incarnate with an imagination that could not be contained, my Grandpa Woodward was a captain in the marines and high school coach, my Great Grandma Gardner was a lifelong social studies teacher who in her youth was flapper who took a solo trip to France and watched the Spirit of St. Louis land in Paris.
Each of them are examples of everything I hope to be - kind, creative, strong, adventurous.

No single or few works should be able to encompass even a fraction of who we are or what we believe, however, there are several books and movies that have resonated with me on a philosophical and practical level. To understand our court system I recommend the book "One Man's Freedom", for foreign affairs and immigration "Outcasts United" by Warren St. John, to understand the human spirit "Helmet for my Pillow" by Robert Lecki, for how to approach obstacles I recommend reading any of the Thrawn Star Wars novels by Timothy Zahn, to understand growth and introspection "The Sandman" by Neil Gaiman and Dirk Maggs, to get inspired "The Fossil Hunter" by Shelley Emling, and to inspire your imagination the Dune series by Frank Herbert. There are so many movies that have inspired me and provoked long spells of introspection, but to keep the list brief I would recommend watching Interstellar, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Pacific (HBO miniseries), Your Inner Fish, Doctors Diaries (PBS series), and Record of Ragnarök (Netflix anime series).

It is not complicated. Washington answers to the people and the people have a responsibility to elect leaders who understand that. Right now we have a Congress full of elected officials who only answer to a political party or corporate sponsor and we the people are not holding them accountable, instead we continue to elect candidates who only give us more of the same old song and dance we've been getting for decades now. Elected officials need to have the courage to stand up to their own party, putting the people first. Every single congressional representative from Utah begins their platforms or bios by stating how they represent "conservative" values, but a true leader represents the values of more than just a fraction of our state and doesn't rely on this kind of meaningless pandering to win your vote. Politically, I am not a moderate and I will never apologize or try to temper that fact, but what sets me apart is that I am not running to represent just me and my views, I am running for you and your family and your town and your way of life. Period. You come before my pride, you come before my party, and you come before any agenda that was not designed by and for your wellbeing and prosperity. A leader leads and I will not be following any agenda but that of my people.

I'm a learner and a problem solver, dedicated to improving myself with every interaction I have and being willing to actually trying to solve our problems.

To represent the health, security, prosperity, and wellbeing of every person within Utah CD2. Our representative must put people before party in every instance without exception and has the responsibility to wield any influence or power they may have in furtherance of that.

When I leave office I want to have fundamentally changed what the voters expect and demand of their representative. That every person elected to Congress from CD2 is committed exclusively to the people, stands up to their own party when interests conflict, and is willing to leave the place better than how they found it.

I was six years old the first time I remember my parents asking us kids to keep quite as they watched the news. I snuck up against their bedroom door so I could peak around the corner to see what they were watching and saw images of broke roads and collapsed buildings. That day a large earthquake had stuck the San Fernando area of California and dozens of people had been killed. The world was such a large place as a kid, especially before the internet, so seeing live images of a disaster like this was not common and had a significant impact on me. I remember it inspiring in me a desire to help, in any way a 6 year old boy from rural eastern Utah could and it's an event I think back to often as I work in my own life to do what I can in any way I am able when disaster strikes.

When I was twelve I was hired as a tour-guide at the prehistoric museum in my little town. It was the best job I've every had. I spent half each weekday during my summer walking tourists through the displays and getting to talk about fossils, my favorite subject to this day. In a time before widespread internet use, when the world was an impossibly big place, everyday I got to meet folks from all over the world, hear their stories and find a connection to them through our mutual love of dinosaurs. To this day I firmly believe that every adult should introduce themselves with their name and what their favorite fossil is. I had this job for four summers and now that I sit on the board of that same museum I have the privilege of wandering that incredible building often, still filled with the same wonder and awe that occupied my 12-year-old mine.

I don't have a single favorite book, however, the book I have reread most is The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. Musashi teaches several lessons on the importance of making each decision meaningful and has been indescribably helpful to me in everything from handling stress at work to processing grief.

Sir John Falstaff. Loyal, real, ready for a fight.

Comfort Eagle by Cake.

Compartmentalization. From not taking work home with me to having the social awareness for when a topic is appropriate to discuss in certain settings (politics at the dinner table for example). Occasionally I struggle being in the moment when there are a million and one other pressing tasks.

It has the potential to be an incredibly diverse cauldron of experiences, brainpower, and ideas due to it's size and functions. Unlike the Senate which acts as an equalizer for rural voices and smaller states, the House is even better situated to represent them as its much larger size consists of elected representatives who can better listen to, advocate for, and express the sentiments of nearly all of the thousands of subcultures that make our nation great. The House has the structure to best represent that voices of all Americans, now if only the people would elect candidates who represent them and not their party.

Not necessarily. There are numerous ways a person can serve their community that does not involve politics or government and it is those type of citizens that have the best perspective on what our communities need and how they actually function. Experience in government is beneficial as far as going into office understanding the bureaucracy and functions of certain departments and potentially having the insight on how to best manage them. However, I believe that any advantage of holding office prior to representing your community in the US House will fall short of the advantages that come from having actually lived a life fully as a regular citizen and the perspectives that come from representing people who's lives you have first-hand experience in living.

The media continuing to distract us from the real issues in our communities and working to fortify this fake divide among regular Americans into Blue vs. Red factions. We need to unite as a people and commit to ignoring the endless streams of corporate political propaganda that is controlling what so many of us believe and think, then through our unity remind the nation that we the people have much more in common than what we are being led to understand. If you truly believe that the biggest threats to our country are the members of an opposing political faction, then you are a victim of this poisoned mindset and I plead with you to break free of being spoon fed what to believe. I promise that your neighbor with the Biden sign in their yard or your uncle with the MAGA hat on have so much more in common than what they've been told to they do and if we commit to take the time to have neighborly conversations about local issues we will again begin to unite against the actual threats to our way of life, the oligarchs who become more and more wealthy through the chaos and division they sow.

Yes. As annoying as the seemingly endless election cycles are, two years is more than adequate time for a voting population to assess whether the person they elected is up to the task to which they were entrusted.

Elected office needs to stop being a career path and return to being a temporary responsibility. Every elected office should have a term limit associated that is commensurate the particular role. I believe that four terms (eight years) for a member of the House and two terms (12 years) for the Senate are more than an adequate amount of time for any concerned citizen who sought the office to accomplish what they set out to do. Anyone who spends more than that amount of time in an elected role has a misunderstanding of the purpose of Congress and needs to find a way to use their skills in an actual career that helps our society function.

No. We need to stop idolizing politicians and start focusing our praise on the ideas, work, and accomplishments they facilitated that helped people. A public servants legacy in the history books should consist how many lives they improved and how much stronger they made us as a people.

I often think about my Grandpa Ross Norton, a World War II veteran who returned home following Iwo Jima and began a long career in the energy industry as a proud lifelong union man (UMWA). The industry he, and so many of my family and friends, dedicated their lives to is now nearly entirely gone from my community, largely due to the two major parties refusal to work together.
I strongly believe that we need to address climate change, but we must do so responsibly and realistically. If we are going to pass regulations that will cause an industry to decline, we must first put into place safeguards that ensure that the people, the actual real-life people affected, are protected. One power plant job equates to at least seven other support and collateral ones, which means that the closure of even one power plant is a death sentence to an entire community, it’s history, roots, and residents. For example, the Huntington and Hunter power plants employ approximately 320 people, which translates to an additional 2,240 jobs and with the average family size in Utah being 3.5 this means that these two power plants directly and indirectly provide the income that supports 8,960 people. What is more frustrating is that there are viable solutions to address both the climate and economic issues, but it requires the cooperation of both political parties to achieve it. By investing in carbon recapture technology we will not only eliminate CO2 emissions from our power plants, we will also benefit from the harvest of another valuable natural resources. If we are willing to invest a little money and commit to bipartisan cooperation, we have a solution that protects our climate and not only secures our current jobs - but creates even more. We need an elected leader who not only has the courage to stand up to his own party when their well-intentioned policies are harming the folks who make up the backbone of our nation, but comes armed with actual solutions that benefit the people.

Have you heard about the lawyers’ word processor?
No matter what font you select, everything comes out in fine print.

It is absolutely necessary. Somehow we started elected the kids who took their ball and went home when they didn't get their way on the playground. Our strength as a nation comes from the unity we achieve despite any differences we may have, or rather, because of them. An opposing idea should not spark fear or hatred in anyone, it should excite us as we now have the opportunity to test our own thoughts, strengthen them, adjust them when facts require, and come out of the debate better than ever. We should encourage diverse ideas, have extraordinary amounts of grace for those who have the courage to test them and fail, and celebrate any amount of progress we can make, just as long as it is forward and helps the people. We need to be satisfied with small victories and willing to compromise with others who have come to the bargaining table in good faith and with a genuine care for the folks they represent.

I believe a primary responsibility of a Representative is to understand the needs, experiences, and goals of the communities in their district and then to facilitate the transmission of those things into the legislation they create and vote on. By looking at how a county or town handles it's revenue we get a more intimate education on the value of a tax dollar spent, where waste occurs, how to increase efficiency, and what areas are in need of an adjustment. When considering ways to raise revenue I intend to rely heavily on those real-world examples and work towards a system that taxes appropriately and equitably.

The House should focus nearly their entire investigative powers on auditing the departments they fund and ensuring that tax dollars are being as effectively spent as possible. The House has demonstrated that it can feign outrage over asinine topics like a president's sons laptop, so could you imagine how much we could benefit the actual American people if they focused that outrage towards entrenched bureaucracies that are failing to be fully accountable for the precious tax dollars they spend?

To date: The United Mine Workers of America, The Utah Women's Democratic Club. Several more are pending.

Energy and Commerce, Natural Resources, and Education.

This is also somewhat simple, every single government agency, the military included, but me able to pass an audit. This is not the case and we are doing absolutely nothing about it. The solution can be as simple as passing legislation that automatically cuts funding for an agency if they are unable to provide a full accounting of their expenditures. Tax payer funds are sacred, they represent a portion of the life of the person who paid it, time from our very existence that we exchange in order to have the nation we love, as such they should be treated with incredible care and thought. When the largest line item on our national budget, military spending, can't even come close to passing an audit and nothing is done as a result, our elected officials are failing to uphold the special nature of our taxes.