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I am running for office to raise my voice and encourage others to raise theirs. It's time for the people of Utah's 4th Congressional District to have a voice again.

And, you better believe I'll hold real — in-person — town halls where I'll listen to the voices I'm supposed to represent. I'm not sure how one can claim to represent people and then not ever find the time to actually stand in the same room with them.

I am under no illusion that everyone will love all my policy positions. I expect disagreement, and I respect those with different opinions. That's a big part of living in a society and making decisions that affect us all.

What I have less patience for, though, is elected officials remaining effectively silent on important issues. For example, three of President Trump's egregious actions are particularly baffling to me: his unconstitutional travel ban targeting people based on religion, his Trumpcare debacle and his decision to go back on America's word regarding the Paris Climate Accord.

There will always be disagreement about a president's policies. But in these three cases, it's quite clear that those in support have taken a stand against the residents of Utah's 4th Congressional District.

I prefer to stand with the 19 scholars of Mormonism who came out against Trump's Muslim ban and with the multiple judges around the country who have found it unconstitutional.

I prefer to stand with the majority of Americans and every major health professionals organization in the country when they say that Trumpcare will be devastating to the American health care system. I am appalled that a piece of public policy can be opposed by all of the following groups and still get through Congress: the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Hospital Association, the Federation of American Hospitals, the American Psychiatric Association, the American College of Physicians, the National Nurses United, the National Physicians Alliance, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the AARP.

Finally, regarding the Paris Climate Accord, I prefer to stand with my friends and neighbors who have a hard time breathing due to all the poison we pump into the air. I prefer to stand with the representatives of 300 major U.S. companies who added their names to an open letter to the president asking him to honor America's agreement and maintain our tradition of being a world leader. As we learned last week, these pleas fell on deaf ears.

I prefer to stand with Mitt Romney, Pope Francis, Elon Musk, Disney CEO Bob Iger, Exxon CEO Darren Woods, even Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, all of whom have publicly opposed Trump's decision to break America's word.

I prefer to stand with the 190 other nations who are on board with the Paris Accord. Instead, we're joining the ranks of Syria and Nicaragua as the only countries being left behind in the 21st century economy.

You can count on me to not remain silent in the face of such devastatingly terrible public policy. I will stand up for Utah values. I will raise my voice, and I will listen when my friends and neighbors raise theirs.

The words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are particularly poignant right now in my congressional district: "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

We hired our current Representative to stand up for us — to be our friend in Congress. Her silence is as extremist as the politics it enables.

We will remember this silence come election day in November of 2018, but we can't wait until then to raise our voices. Please join my campaign today and help us remind Utah what it feels like to be heard.

Darlene McDonald is running for Congress in Utah's 4th District. She works as a technical analyst at a large tech company in Lehi.