Meaghan Miller was a long shot to win the Utah House District 54. Although she she trails by 400 votes, Miller was pleased with the result.
Democrat Meaghan Miller was happy to win 48% of the vote in district 54. Miller explains why she thinks she was relatively successful.
“For starters, people enjoyed seeing different candidates than they’ve seen in the past. I connected with a lot of people being a mom, being a Park City resident, being younger. I think people were really excited about that. I also think Wasatch County is becoming much more moderate. I polled almost the same numbers that the 2016 democratic candidate Rudi Kohler polled. I’m so proud of that and so grateful for all the support.”
Miller said she learned a lot from the campaign and would change a few things if she could.
“Oh yes, I would do so much differently, but I need a couple of days to process everything before I start coming up with a new game plan. I’m going to run in 2020. I have a campaign worth’s of experience now. Tim’s a great opponent. He and I ran very above-board campaigns that I think were very focused on the issues. It gave voters a clear choice of who to support, who not to support and yeah I’m not done.”
Miller says that she spent about two-thirds of her time campaigning in Wasatch County. She also said that a few issues differ herself from her opponent Tim Quinn.
“He and I actually agree on a lot of things which has been really fun this campaign, but we are very different in how we see creating social equity and social justice. I’m pretty liberal especially when it comes to healthcare and helping our fellow man. My opponent looks at those issues from a different lens. I don’t want to speak for him, but he and I definitely disagreed on how to go about expanding healthcare access for our vulnerable populations. We disagree on where tax-breaks should come but it’s good that we’re able to have civil conversations about those differences”
With 53% of Utahns voting for Proposition 3, Utah will expand Medicaid. Miller said she understood Quinn’s concerns about the potential costs of expanding.
“I mean I agree with him. There’s a risk going for federal dollars but there’s also 150,000 hard-working Utahns that really need the help. So sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, take the leap of faith, and help your fellow man.”
Miller was also happy to see Proposition 4 with a narrow 1% lead to pass. Proposition 4 would create an independent redistricting committee to draw voting lines in order to prevent gerrymandering.
“One of our county council members Glenn Wright has said multiple times that there are enough residents in Summit County for Summit County to be its own district. So that would be really, really cool after they re-draw the boundaries in 2021 if Summit County became it’s own district I think a lot of people would be really happy about that.”
Even if Proposition 4 were to fail, Miller says there’s still good she could do in Utah’s House as a Democrat.
“Our state legislature is really awesome about focusing on issues. Democrats probably pass about 40% of their bills, Republicans pass about half of theirs. I may be off on the numbers, but the super-majority does not inhibit Democrats from getting productive policy in place. I still think seeing better boundaries drawn and more fair races would be really awesome.”
That’s Meaghan Miller. Miller ran as the Democrat representative for Utah’s house district 54 and trails by less than 400 votes to Incumbent Republican Tim Quinn.
