Aidan Mortensen, KOAL News

Castle Country Radio had the opportunity to sit down with an incumbent member of the Utah State Legislature for District 67 Christine Watkins. Watkins, who is running for reelection, sat down with us to discuss her platform, key issues she wants to focus on, as well as the importance of term limits in Congress.

Opening up the interview, Watkins discussed the four key issues she is running her campaign on, those being rural economic development, public education, keeping the oil and gas industries alive in rural Utah and agriculture.

Starting with rural economic development Watkins stated,” In our area specifically we are struggling with economic development, and we’ve been working hard to find the money to update our infrastructure so that bigger manufacturing companies can come in. I ran a bill last session that changed the wording in the law that will allow biofuel refineries to be built anywhere in Utah. And it was one of my bills that passed through the legislature 100% unanimous.” Watkins continued,” So what we’re trying to do is keep our power plants going, we’re trying to keep our oil and gas companies in the Uintah Basin going and of course, we’re trying to add more manufacturing.”

On the topic of public education, Watkins said,” I believe public education is vital to our economy because we need people who are well educated. Now we’ve had some changes with public education. We’re allowing people to make a choice as to what they want. Times have really changed so for some people, public education as it is doesn’t really fit for their children, and so we have allowed them to have that choice.”

Another key platform item for Watkins is keeping the coal and oil industries alive in Utah,” It’s part of our economy, the good part of our economy. And we have people who are working in the power plants and the coal mines and working with oil and gas that are good paying jobs with benefits that are keeping our families here. Plus especially with our coal, it gives us the dispatchable energy that we really need.”

The final major issue for Watkins is agriculture,” I always tell people I’m not a cowgirl, I’m a farmgirl… I grew up on a farm so I grew up appreciating hard work and appreciating what we got from the farms. I had the Utah Farm Bureau come to me to run the bill on the right to farm. Because we have a lot of people who don’t think we have a right to do that. And so we have to stand up and say,” You cannot come and stop this type of production.”

Next, we discussed Watkins’ previous experiences and how they aided her in the legislature,” I became the Emery Education Association President, and we would go up to the legislature to lobby for teachers because that’s who pays the salary for teachers. We had a lot of training in arbitration and collaboration, all these things that can really help you work with people.”

The campaign slogan for Watkins is “We Are Rural Utah” and we asked her to explain what that means to her and what it means for her to be representing rural Utah,” We are rural Utah, and we’re proud of it and we love what we do.” said Watkins,” It’s special to me because if we want to force an issue or see a change, it takes all of us working together. And so to me, it means we’re proud, it means we’re smart, and we can get things done.”

Term limits have been a major topic of discussion in the political world, and recently Watkins signed the term limits on Congress pledge,” That’s one of the issues I have with the federal government, it begins to feel like a lifelong appointment. I think if we set up a fair term limit and then there’s turnover, we bring in fresh ideas and fresh perspectives from back home.”

To close our interview, we asked Watkins for any final words she had for the voters,” I’m doing what I’ve always promised, which is working hard for my constituents. I have three counties I’m over right now, and I’m listening to people, talking to people and working hard to meet the expectations and the needs and wants of my constituents.”