Luis Villarreal

Luis Villarreal earned an associate degree in computer engineering from Salt Lake Community College in 2022 and a certificate in full-stack web development from the University of Utah in 2023. His career experience includes working as an associate software engineer, technical support specialist, and repair technician.[1][2]

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

I am a working-class candidate rooted in the community I seek to represent. My background is outside of corporate and political elite circles, and my campaign is focused on everyday people who are often ignored in policymaking. I emphasize direct engagement with voters, grassroots organizing, and building trust through presence and accountability rather than relying on large donors or political insiders.My campaign prioritizes labor rights, strong unions, and economic policies that support working families. I advocate for fair wages, safe working conditions, and policies that allow workers to organize without intimidation. I support an economy that rewards work, not exploitation, and believe public policy should reduce inequality while strengthening local economies and job security.I am running a grassroots, small-donor campaign focused on people-powered politics. I do not rely on corporate PAC money and instead emphasize volunteer organizing, voter outreach, and community involvement. My campaign strategy centers on transparency, accessibility, and ensuring that constituents—not special interests—have the strongest voice in government.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am personally passionate about labor and workplace protections, economic fairness, and policies that improve quality of life for working families. This includes strengthening unions, raising wages, expanding access to affordable healthcare, and protecting workers from exploitation. I am also committed to immigration reform that prioritizes human dignity and due process, as well as public investment in housing, infrastructure, and education. I believe public policy should be shaped by the needs of everyday people and focused on long-term community stability rather than short-term political or corporate interests.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Progressive Victory

Campaign websiteVillarreal's campaign website stated the following:Policies For a Working UtahnHousing CostsThe cost of housing in America is out of control, and working families are paying the price. Everyone deserves a safe, affordable place to call home, not a market manipulated by corporate landlords and investors who treat housing like a stock instead of a human need. I’m committed to expanding the supply of real homes for real people, strengthening protections for buyers and renters, and making the path to homeownership possible again for working- and middle-class families.My Priorities:• Massively increase federal funding for housing construction projects across the U.S. to expand supply, lower prices, and create good-paying jobs.• Crack down on corporate residential real estate practices, including limiting predatory bulk-buying and speculative ownership that drives up costs for families.• End corporate landlord dominance by restricting the ability of large investment firms to own single-family homes and exploit renters.• Expand and strengthen tax credits for homebuyers making under $200,000 per year, to help working families afford a down payment and compete in the market.• Support community-owned and nonprofit housing models that keep homes permanently affordable and rooted in local neighborhoods.Workers’ RightsFor decades, giant corporations have gotten rich by squeezing every drop they can out of American workers, while fighting tooth and nail to stop those workers from organizing for a better life. Companies like Amazon spend millions trying to silence the very people who make their success possible. I’m running to flip that script. Workers deserve power. Workers deserve protection. And workers deserve an economy that works for them, not for CEOs and corporate lobbyists.My Priorities:• Make it illegal and punishable for corporations to intimidate or retaliate against workers talking about forming a union, no more union-busting, no more scare tactics, no more threats.• Create a federal pro-worker organizing agency that actively helps workers in every industry unionize, bargain strong contracts, and fight corporate abuse.• Raise the minimum wage nationwide and tie it to inflation, so a full day’s work actually pays the bills and workers stop falling behind while executives get richer.• Treat wage theft like the crime it is, with real fines, real consequences, and accountability for companies that steal from their own employees.• End the scam of worker misclassification, forcing companies to pay their fair share and give workers the benefits they’ve earned.• Crack down on outrageous executive pay in companies caught abusing or exploiting their workforce, if you violate workers’ rights, you don’t get bonuses.HealthcareOur healthcare system is a disaster by design, built to make insurance companies rich while regular people drown in bills, paperwork, and corporate bureaucracy. America spends more on healthcare administration than any country on Earth, yet working families can’t even afford to see a doctor. It’s time to end this broken system and replace it with something simple: healthcare as a human right. Medicare for All means fewer middlemen, fewer denials, and more nurses, doctors, and clinics actually helping people instead of fighting with insurance companies.My Priorities:• Pass Medicare for All to guarantee government-backed, fully covered healthcare for every single person in this country, no premiums, no deductibles, no co-pays.• Eliminate the bloated, wasteful insurance bureaucracy that drains billions from the system and replace it with a streamlined national program focused on care, not profit.• Redirect savings from administrative waste into building new hospitals, clinics, and urgent care centers, especially in working-class and rural communities.• Create hundreds of thousands of real healthcare jobs, nurses, medical techs, doctors, mental health professionals by replacing useless administrative roles with actual patient care.• Guarantee fully covered prescription medicine so no one ever has to skip medication or choose between food and insulin again.• Make healthcare a right, not a business, ensuring that every American can get the care they need without fear, debt, or fighting with corporate insurance.Immigration With DignityFor decades, big corporations and bad politicians have blamed immigrants for low wages and economic struggle, while quietly benefiting from a broken system that keeps millions of workers vulnerable and underpaid. The truth is simple: when immigrant workers have rights, every worker has power. Expanding legal pathways doesn’t just strengthen families and communities; it strengthens unions, raises wages, and builds the kind of workforce that helps America grow. We can secure our border and treat people with humanity. We can protect our country and protect workers’ rights. It’s not a contradiction, it’s common sense.My Priorities:• Expand legal immigration pathways so more workers can come to the U.S. safely, contribute openly, and join the fight for better wages and conditions.• Increase union power by protecting immigrant workers’ rights, ensuring they can organize alongside citizen workers without fear or exploitation.• Expose and confront the corporate myth that immigrants are “lowering wages”, when in reality, it’s corporate greed and a broken immigration system causing the problem.• Strengthen border security against drug trafficking and cartel activity, focusing resources on real threats instead of families seeking a better life.• Protect undocumented and documented workers from wage theft, abuse, and intimidation so corporations can’t pit workers against each other to drive wages down.• Use immigration reform as an engine for economic growth, just as America has done throughout its history, expanding our workforce, our innovation, and our future.Removing the cap on the HouseThe House of Representatives currently has a statutory cap of 435 members. I support removing this cap and expanding the number of Representatives so each member serves a much smaller number of constituents.Currently, each House seat represents roughly 800,000 people. At that scale, it is impractical for a Representative to maintain effective channels of communication and to provide meaningful, responsive representation for all constituents. The 435-seat limit is an outdated rule that now hinders genuine democratic representation and reduces accountability.My Priorities:• Increasing the number of Representatives would improve constituent access, making it easier for individuals to reach their elected officials and for Representatives to understand local needs.• A larger House would allow committees and legislative processes to benefit from more diverse local perspectives, improving policy deliberation and oversight.Palestine & Human RightsThe Palestinian people have endured decades of occupation, displacement, and systemic violence. Today, they are facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history, and the United States continues to send billions of dollars in military aid that fuels this suffering. I fully denounce the Israeli government’s ongoing actions, including the bombing of civilians, the destruction of entire communities, and policies that amount to collective punishment. These are violations of human rights, international law, and basic moral values, and America should not fund them.Calling for Palestinian freedom is not antisemitic, and it is dangerous when political leaders try to silence criticism by conflating Judaism with the actions of a government. Jewish safety and Palestinian freedom are not mutually exclusive. In fact, a just peace requires protecting both. We must oppose antisemitism everywhere, while also refusing to look away from state violence.My Priorities:• Support full Palestinian statehood and self-determination, with real sovereignty and security.• End all U.S. military funding and weapons sales to the Israeli government until human rights violations cease.• Demand an immediate, permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages and political prisoners, and the opening of humanitarian corridors.• Condemn and prevent the misuse of “antisemitism” accusations to silence legitimate criticism of government policies.• Promote a foreign policy rooted in human rights, accountability, and peace, not endless military aid and conflict.Energy & EducationAmerica should be leading the world in clean energy, building the batteries, turbines, solar panels, and next-generation tech that will power the future. Instead, we’ve let other countries out-invest us while working Americans struggle to find stable, good-paying jobs. It’s time to flip the script. By investing massively in American-made green energy manufacturing, we can create hundreds of thousands of union jobs, rebuild our industrial base, and secure our energy independence. And by pairing that with affordable, union-backed trade schools, we can give young people and working adults the chance to move into high-skill, high-wage careers that last a lifetime.My Priorities:• Supercharge investment in U.S. green energy manufacturing, from solar to wind to battery technology, to create stable union jobs and rebuild our industrial backbone.• Make America the world leader in clean-energy innovation, reducing dependence on foreign energy and cutting costs for working families.• Fund a new generation of union-backed trade schools that are affordable, accessible, and designed to train workers directly into long-term green tech careers.• Create pathways for both young adults and mid-career workers to transition into high-skill renewable energy jobs without taking on crippling debt.• Ensure all publicly funded green energy projects prioritize union labor, worker protections, and local hiring.• Build partnerships between industry, unions, and public schools to prepare the next generation for the clean-energy workforce America desperately needs.LGBTQ+ RightsEvery Utahn deserves dignity, safety, and equality, no exceptions. While politicians waste time attacking LGBTQ+ people for cheap political points, working families are struggling with real issues: low wages, impossible housing costs, unaffordable healthcare, and a system built to benefit corporations over communities. I refuse to let discrimination distract us from the economic fights that actually determine whether families can survive and thrive. Protecting LGBTQ+ rights isn’t a “culture war”—it’s about respecting people as human beings, and then getting back to the real work of fixing our broken economy.My Priorities:• Protect LGBTQ+ rights at the federal level, ensuring equal treatment in employment, housing, education, and public life.• Defend transgender Americans from political attacks, banning discrimination in healthcare, identification documents, and school policy.• Support LGBTQ+ youth by ensuring safe schools, mental health resources, and family protections, not fear or cruelty.• End political scapegoating that targets LGBTQ+ people to distract from economic issues affecting all working families.• Build a society where everyone is respected, so we can focus on the real fights—better wages, affordable homes, accessible healthcare, and a fair economy for all.— Luis Villarreal's campaign website (April 12, 2026)Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.