It’s time for the mid-term elections and our focus is hard on our local elections! As all focus should be. We had the opportunity to sit down with a breath of fresh air by the name of Shireen Ghorbani! Shireen is running for 2nd Congressional District in the state of Utah. This would dethrone Chris Stewart from his very gerrymandered district.

Let’s focus on that first. Shireen has been running a very grass roots campaign knocking door to door. This has been important to her so that she can get out and ask people what they are unhappy with, what they want to see, and meet the community who may not even know who they representative is. To give some perspective about how gerrymandered this district is… Shireen’s campaign has knocked on over 40,000 doors and this is from St. George to Farmington! That is how large the 2nd Congressional District in Utah is. See Map Below.

Shireen isn’t a lawyer, she hasn’t had her foot in government before. What she is, is the daughter of a farmers daughter, she has experienced the benefits of health care and medicaid, she is a mother, and a concerned citizen that saw that change needs to start happening and she acted on it by running for the 2nd Congressional District.

Shireen told us a fantastic quote that her campaign has circled around from Paul Wellstone, “We all do better, when we all do better.” She is very much about stopping the fanning of the flames of division that are dividing communities, families, and friends. Shireen gave us a list of the top 8 things that are important to her:

• Health care. This is something that most doors she has knocked on talk about.
• Mental health access.
• Air quality and holding polluters accountable.
• Opiod crisis that is ripping people apart.
• High suicide rates. Both teen and adult.
• Affordable housing in real communities.
• Land management.
• Poverty. Addressing homelessness and knowing that 1 in 5 children goes hungry every day.

We found a great question online from Ben and Jerry’s for Congressional candidates. They are asking, What would your “take back Congress” ice cream flavor be? Shireen said hers would be goat cheese honey and on the packaging it would have a beehive on the front with an eagle and the American Flag.

Want to know how Shireen stands on Question 1 and Prop 2, 3, and 4? Take a listen to this weeks episode. We wouldn’t want to tell you to vote for Shireen because we feel every voter should make an informed decision. However, we think her smile and ideas would be a breath of fresh air in politics.

Also, if you are not registered to vote yet, please click HERE.

Please take time to download the Our Voice App. It will help you through the election season to get to know your candidates.

You can follow Shireen’s campaign, volunteer, and donate on her website. You can also find her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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