Dan McClellan's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
Inferred Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, but Vote Smart inferred this issue based on the candidate's public record, including statements, voting record, and special interest group endorsements.
Unknown Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, or we could not infer an answer for this candidate despite exhaustive research of their public record.
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Other or Expanded Principles & Legislative Priorities are entered exactly as candidates submit them. Vote Smart does not edit for misspelled words, punctuation or grammar.
Dan McClellan has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2020 Political Courage Test.
Utah State Legislative Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support legalizing abortion when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| Increasing access to sex education, contraception, and healthcare reduces unwanted pregnancies and thus the occurrence of abortion. It is a much more efficient and effective route than criminalization, which does not appreciably reduce abortion and makes it much more dangerous. Criminalization is more about identity politics and culture wars than it is about reducing the occurrence of abortions. | |||
| No | a) In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions? | ||
| Yes | b) In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Our legislatures have for too long prioritized the interests of our countries wealthiest and most powerful, to the detriment of our marginalized and most vulnerable. Our middle class was built on a high top marginal tax rate, and income inequality and wage stagnation has only skyrocketed following the shift towards pandering to the wealthiest Americans. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a limit on campaign contributions to state candidates? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| No | d) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support automatic voter registration? | ||
| Until photo identification can be made freely and easily available to everyone, voter ID requirements are a means for voter suppression. The same is true of the complexities associated with registering to vote. There is no legitimate reason to create obstacles to voting. | |||
| No | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| No | b) Should an individual under 18 accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the use of private prisons in Utah? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support making the use of a handheld cell phone while driving a primary offense? | ||
| No | g) Do you support prohibiting any individual under the age of 18 from using a tanning bed? | ||
| h) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | b) Do you support lowering state income taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | c) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | d) Do you support requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test in order to receive benefits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage of Utah? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring employers to provide paid family leave? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19? | ||
| h) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| No | a) Do you support adopting federal education standards in Utah? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing teacher salaries AND/OR benefits in Utah? | ||
| Yes | d) Should immigrants unlawfully present in the United States who graduate from Utah high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| Yes | e) Should substitute teachers be required to undergo sensitivity training? | ||
| Charter schools should be eligible for state funding provided they meet the same standards and accountabilities public schools meet. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing state funding for clean drinking water initiatives? | ||
| d) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | a) Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| No | c) Should teachers be allowed to bring guns into the classroom after passing gun safety training? | ||
| No | d) Should a license be required for gun ownership? | ||
| The private sale loophole is low-hanging legislative fruit. It is overwhelmingly supported by Utahns and by Americans broadly. The fact that a small minority of extremists exercises so much influence over legislation is a damning indictment of our legislature's pandering to special interests. | |||
| Yes | a) Should the state government increase funding for treatment facilities to combat opioid abuse? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support Medicaid expansion through Utah's health care programs? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support legislation that grants citizens the right to choose to die through euthanasia? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support eliminating religious exemptions for vaccinations? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19? | ||
| g) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Utah's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Utah's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support greater efforts by Utah state government in closing the pay gap between men and women? | ||
| d) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Because our legislature is inhabited by so many employed in real estate investment and development, our state has long prioritized development over infrastructure, and the result is that our roads, our public transportation, and other aspects of our infrastructure are lagging behind in many locations. This preferential treatment needs to stop. | |||
| Healthcare is my top legislative priority, and I include under that heading not just working towards greater access to affordable and effective healthcare to all, but improving our air and putting an end to excuses regarding our legislature's powerlessness to address air quality, and addressing our opioid and suicide epidemics with data-driven policymaking. |
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