Editor’s note: The Deseret News has invited congressional candidates for the closely contested party primaries to visit with its editorial board. This story is one in a series of candidate previews on issues.
Michael Farrell describes himself as a progressive. He sees himself as a “new deal Democrat,” positioning him between his socialist-Democrat and moderate-Democrat opponents in Utah’s 1st District congressional primary race. A Teddy Roosevelt-style progressivism, he said.
Though he defends policies often tied to democratic socialism — like single-payer healthcare, stronger unions, expanded social programs and a wealth tax.
In a political upset last month, Farrell and other candidates finished behind democratic socialist Liban Mohamed, who became the Democratic Party’s nominee coming out of the state convention for Utah’s newly redrawn 1st Congressional District. Mohamed received 51.18% of the votes at Utah’s Democratic Party Convention.
But Farrell will still appear on the June primary ballot with his fellow candidates, Mohamed, state Sen. Nate Blouin and former Salt Lake County mayor and U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams. Farrell, Blouin and McAdams all qualified for the primary through signature gathering.
The candidate who wins the June primary will go up against Republican Riley Owen in the November general election.
Last week, Farrell sat down with the Deseret News and KSL editorial boards to discuss his priorities if elected to the new 1st District, which covers Salt Lake City and much of Salt Lake County. Democrats like Farrell believe they have a real opportunity to challenge the state’s GOP leadership and increase their federal influence, after a judge struck down Utah’s congressional map and selected a new map with a heavily-Democratic district.
With 15 years of experience as a tax attorney, Farrell said he wants to apply his expertise in interpreting the law to help create new laws.
“That’s where the power to change lives for the better is,” he said.
On healthcare
Farrell said he always knew he wanted to get into public office someday, but his family’s experience with the U.S. healthcare system really drove his desire to enter the political arena.
Born and raised in California, Farrell was attending UCLA when his single mother got sick.
“She had no money. She was a waitress. She got sick, missed a couple of days of work, got fired, lost her insurance, and she wasn’t getting any better, so we took her to the hospital. ... And she left with a $150,000 bill and a terminal diagnosis, and was given six months to live.”
At 21, he was left with catastrophic expenses.
Farrell now advocates for a single-payer healthcare system, and that it shouldn’t be a “radical” idea for the government to provide healthcare access nationwide.
“I understand there’s ugly in single payer healthcare systems,” but, he said. “We have a lot more ugly in the system that we have.”
A 2024 healthcare tracker by the Peterson Center on Healthcare found that even though more than 90% of Americans have some form of health insurance, medical debt is a common problem.
Nearly 1 in 12 adults owes some form of healthcare debt, per the tracker, and about 14 million Americans owe more than $1,000, while about 3 million people owe more than $10,000.
“A health decision should not be a financial decision,” he said. “Taking the profit motive out of it, I think, would just help people.”
On immigration
The first issue he will take on in Congress, according to his campaign website, is abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He told the editorial board that ICE is “poisoning” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Though he rejected open borders and said Democrats need to “get a handle on that issue” so that the GOP can no longer “demonize” it against them. “I want to neuter that issue from being used as like a talking point,” he said.
He accused both parties of failing to seriously reform immigration policy.
“I don’t think that we need to deport someone who’s been here for 20 years because they didn’t file paperwork 20 years ago,” he said, noting that the path to citizenship is an unsure one, filled with expenses. He said he’s worked pro bono for people seeking U.S. citizenship.
Farrell said he doesn’t believe the “myth” that the Biden administration was “letting hordes of migrants in through the southern border.”
A Pew Research Survey reported that in 2023, the number of unauthorized immigrants entering the country hit a record high of 14 million, following two years of growth.
“There are too many undocumented persons in this country to just deport them all,” Farrell said. “It doesn’t help anyone to just force them to live in the shadows for the rest of their lives, or to just deport, you know, random mothers and fathers or 5-year-old children.”
On Trump
Farrell accused President Donald Trump of having committed multiple impeachable offenses since entering his second term in office last year.
He’s “certain” that the Democrats, if they become the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, will vote to impeach Trump, despite what happens in Utah’s 1st District race.
One impeachable offense he alleged Trump committed was corruption and personal enrichment as commander in chief.
Farrell said he supports impeaching Trump while simultaneously cautioning congressional Democrats not to make it their sole priority, or they risk losing the 2028 presidential election.
“If folks donate millions of dollars and knock on doors and elect all these Democrats, and all we do is impeach Donald Trump and he’s not removed from office, nobody’s going to show up in 2028 because what is the point? We haven’t done anything. We haven’t shown that we’re actually going to do anything to help.”