Utah Diné to take on 42-year senate veteran Hatch
PAGE-LAKE POWELL, Ariz.
Submitted |
James Singer
He is 34 years old and is likely the first Utah Diné to run for the U.S. Senate and hopes to unseat the long-time senator, Orrin Hatch.
James Singer, a Mormon democrat who grew up in Kearns, Utah, plans to challenge the seven-term Republican in the 2018 election. Singer formally filed in mid-April and has raised more than $4,200 in donations as of May 8.
Hatch, 83, said in early April that he plans to run for an eighth term. But his formal decision will not come until later this year.
“He’s been in longer than I’ve been alive,” Singer said about Hatch, whose current term ends in 2019, which will mark 42 years in the Senate. “We’ve had his ideas in the Senate for a long time and those ideas are outdated, based on the 20th century.
“He’s not taking into account the pressing issues of a changing demographics of the U.S. where a lot of minority groups are growing,” Singer continued.
“Especially for us Native people. Our populations are continuing to grow, yet problems aren’t being solved.”
Those problems, Singer says, include destitution, unemployment and systemic oppression.
“We have to step into the 21st century,” Singer explained. “We have to talk about those things head-on. We have to take those things into account.”
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