Luis Villarreal grew up in West Valley City, the son of Mexican immigrants and a father who spent 25 years in the construction trades. But, as Villarreal tells it, the 26-year-old always knew he would run for office.
A self-described Democratic Socialist, Villarreal says he is hands down the most liberal candidate in a growing field of Democrats running for Utah’s new Salt Lake County congressional seat.
Villarreal says both political parties have become captured by corporate interests and he is committed to focusing on policies that help working men and women and organized labor.
“I’m a working-class person who’s pretty invested in politics, and I think I could get people behind my campaign and truly focus on changing the world and trying to make the place better,” he said in an interview.
Villarreal said he was introduced to political activism early on. His parents, who he says were undocumented immigrants from Mexico for much of his life but now legal residents, took him to Obama rallies at a young age and he has participated in rallies, protests and community organizing for much of his life.
Villarreal followed his father into the construction trades while putting himself through school to be a software engineer.
While Villarreal says he believes progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have “picked up energy by focusing on things everybody wants,” he wants to work for pragmatic, workable solutions for working families.
On housing, he said he would like to see a “public option,” where governments can buy dilapidated homes and rehabilitate them using union labor, then sell them for the cost of the project, revitalizing cities, creating jobs and increasing housing inventory.
He would like to see the United States become a global leader in green energy production, which he said includes solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear power, benefitting the environment and the manufacturing sector.
And, if elected, he wants to fight for universal healthcare — whether that is through a single-payer plan or expanding Medicare to make it an option for everyone.
As the child of immigrants, he believes abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the “moderate position.”
“I want to create more pathways towards citizenship and work visas, because as we expand our economy … we’re going to need more workers,” he said. “We’re going to need more people. We’re going to need to expand and grow as this country always has.”
In the wake of a court ruling that created a new congressional map with a Salt Lake County district that favors Democrats by as many as 17 percentage points, Utah Democrats have flooded to the race. Villarreal is the seventh candidate to have declared for the race.
The others include:
• State Sen. Kathleen Riebe;
• Former Congress member and former Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams;
• State Sen. Nate Blouin;
• Former Salt Lake City council member and former state Sen. Derek Kitchen;
• Salt Lake City council member Eva Lopez Chavez;
• Tech sector government affairs representative Liban Mohamed.