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.
Nate Blouin believes the government should play a larger role in Americans’ lives.
A self-described progressive Democrat, he told the Deseret News and KSL Editorial boards on Tuesday that while he isn’t a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, he aligns politically with prominent figures who are part of the democratic socialist movement, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC).
As a Utah state senator, Blouin said his greatest achievement was moving the needle for Democrats in a Republican-led state. Now running for Utah’s 1st Congressional District in the Democratic primary, Blouin said if he won and found himself working alongside Utah’s GOP-majority congressional delegation, he would “fight fire with fire.”
Compromise, he said, has weakened Democrats’ leverage in the state. He criticized his fellow Utah Democrats for being too moderate, too accommodating to the GOP majority, and too afraid to advocate aggressively for progressive policies.
Democrats 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.
In a political upset last month, Liban Mohamed became the Democratic Party’s nominee coming out of the convention for Utah’s newly created 1st Congressional District, gaining 51.18% of the votes at Utah’s Democratic Party Convention.
Mohamed, Blouin, former Rep. Ben McAdams and candidate Michael Farrell 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.
But Blouin said he believes the real race is between him and McAdams.
“I’m advocating for policies that would expand the scope of government that would allow people to get more resources who need it from the government,” Blouin said, mentioning universal healthcare, more subsidized housing, and even suggesting eminent domain to potentially acquire agricultural water rights for Great Salt Lake preservation efforts.
He rejected the former President Ronald Reagan’s famous line, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help,’” instead aligning himself with Mamdani’s recent criticism of the quote, when he said, “I disagree. I think nine more terrifying words are actually, ‘I worked all day and can’t feed my family.’”
Taxing the rich
Blouin said his top priority is “unrigging the system.”
He criticized capitalism, arguing that it allows the wealthiest in the country to hoard their money rather than reinvest it in society through government programs, a belief he shares with his endorser, Vermont Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Like Ocasio-Cortez, Blouin said he doesn’t believe self-made billionaires exist: “There’s only so much money someone can earn, and at some point that money is made off of our system, off of our infrastructure, off of working people who are getting screwed over or who aren’t getting paid the wages they deserve.”
When asked how he felt the contributions wealthy Americans make in places like Salt Lake City, including charitable giving, job creation, community investment and scholarship programs, Blouin said billionaires should be taxed more heavily instead of deciding themselves where money goes.
Blouin argued that government, not rich individuals, should decide how to spend money to help those in need.
“I would like to double some people’s tax rates,” he said. “I’m not talking about raising taxes on everyone, I think the vast majority do pay their fair share, but there’s an upper echelon where they are not ... there’s these loopholes, all these loopholes that people are exploiting, and you know, it may look like their rates are high, but they’re not.”
Blouin was not sure at what income level he would like to see taxes raised, saying maybe for those making over $1 million, but also mentioning those who make several hundred thousand dollars a year.
Managing controversy
Last week, Blouin went live with controversial online streamer Hasan Piker on Twitch.
A self-described Marxist, Piker has made comments suggesting Americans deserved the 9/11 attacks. Piker minimized the sexual assaults that took place during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel, saying it didn’t change his perspective on the matter, and gave praise to Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that openly promotes the killing of LGBTQ people.
Blouin acknowledged that some of Piker’s comments make him uncomfortable, but said it’s worth setting those aside for the opportunity to be platformed by Piker, who has more than 3.1 million followers.
“I think we need to be engaging with people who have a platform that can reach people who are otherwise, like disaffected and not engaging in the system, because I think when more people get engaged in the system, we get better outcomes,” he said. ”That does not mean that I agree with his comments and everything, but you know, I do agree with his perspectives on many things. But, like myself, he has said controversial things.”
Ahead of the Utah Democratic Convention last month, social media posts written by Blouin more than a decade ago were made public. In them, he labeled Latter-day Saints as “a bunch of bigoted (expletive)” and said the church was “DEFINITELY just a front for the largest US drug cartel.” The New Hampshire native also said church members were the worst part about living in Utah and that members were “quite oppressive and narrow-minded.”
Blouin publicly apologized after the comments were revealed.
On Tuesday, he said that if elected he would prioritize all of his constituents, including Latter-day Saints.
“I think there’s a very real place where religion can play a very positive role in people’s lives. And at that point in my life, I was frustrated because I felt like I had no path forward. I failed out of college, didn’t have good jobs, had a car that was barely running, felt like I’d lost my opportunity,” he said. “About the same time I got back into Salt Lake Community College and moved forward, those comments stopped appearing because I felt like I wasn’t taking my anger out at a group or at a religion or anything like that, and so that’s really been able to inform my perspective on things.”
Blouin and his Democratic opponents will soon go head-to-head in a debate hosted by the Utah Debate Commission on May 27 at 6 p.m.
The Democratic and Republican primaries are on June 23, with ballots being mailed to most voters several weeks before.