Wright says he’s thrown any notion of cruising through his final year on the council out the window. Between the campaign for Congress and council duties, he expects to be busy through election day.
He plans to visit cities in Congressional District 3, including in Summit County, Wasatch County and especially Utah County. In May, he’s heading to the Uintah Basin, the future site of an electric vehicle manufacturing plant.
“Number one issue I'm going to talk about is going to be climate change, and how it's going to affect the state and the nation,” Wright says, adding that that extends to “the water crisis we're going through now.”
Wright says he prioritizes action on climate change because scientists project the current 22-year drought will worsen and the west will grow hotter and drier. He cites 50-year projections that if the current trend continues, wildfires will keep worsening and Wasatch snowpacks will disappear, which means far less water and no skiing.
To halt that, he says the U.S. and the rest of the world must unite to become carbon neutral. Compared to Rep. John Curtis, the Republican incumbent in District 3 who formed the Conservative Climate Caucus in D.C., Wright says he’d take a more aggressive approach to achieve carbon neutrality.
“He talks a good story in terms of being concerned about climate change,” Wright says. “He's tried to bring some of his Republican cohorts along with them, but they really haven't accomplished anything.”
Wright says he’d advocate for carbon fee and dividend policy, which Curtis doesn’t support.
“I think that is an approach we can take to trying to solve the climate crisis,” he says. “I was actually on a Zoom call with him a few weeks ago. He said the reason he wouldn't support it at this time is because there's not adequate support from both parties in Congress for it. I mean, do we want to be followers? Do you want a follower or do you want a leader in Congress?”
He also expects the war in Europe to continue into his term, and said he’d support the U.S. and NATO increasing military support to Ukraine. He says the war has emphasized the world’s need for more secure and affordable energy, and to reduce dependence on Russian oil and gas.
Right now, Wright’s campaigning and raising money through his website, wright4cd3.com. He says he won’t let the campaign interfere with county council duties, which was a condition for running for office that he told the Utah Democratic Party up front.
Wright is the first Summit County Democrat to run for Congress since Donna McAleer from the Snyderville Basin did so in 2012 and 2014.
