Each gubernatorial election year, the Utah Priorities Project identifies which issues are most important to the state’s voters. Compiling a list of the top ten issues, the project then compares its findings to the state’s governor candidates and political party delegates. Take a look at this year’s results.
The Top Ten Issues for 2016 are:
- Healthcare
- Air Qualilty
- K-12 Education
- State Taxes and Government Spending
- Jobs and the Economy
- Water Supply and Quality
- Crime
- Partisan Politics
- Homelessness and Poverty
- The Environment
However, sometimes just as important are the issues not included in the top ten. The Utah Foundation has identified one such issue that deserves more attention. Coming in at number 20 (out of 21, only liquor laws were of lesser importance): LGBTQ rights.
A complex issue in a conservative state dominated by members of the LDS church, the polling data ironically revealed that two-thirds of Utah voters agreed with the statement, “attacking or victimizing a person because of their gender identity should be a hate crime.” It’s ironic because hate-crime bills including the LGTBQ community have consistently been shot down in the state legislature. Christopher Collard, a Utah Foundation Research Analyst, explores this issue and more of the poll’s findings in his recent blog post.
– Nicole Cowdell
