Meet the Utah Trump supporter running for congress in 2020 — who can't stand Mitt Romney

‘Donald Trump is a junkyard dog, and we’re okay with that’

Mary Burkett is in a pickle.

The 67-year-old conservative from Utah is a supporter of Donald Trump – but she wishes either he or the Republicans on Capitol Hill would finally do something about the nation’s ever-increasing debt.

What’s more, she can’t stand her current senator, Mitt Romney. She thinks Utah is missing out on having a representative in Washington who can support the president’s agenda, while focusing on the debt.

So, she’s running for congress.

Burkett likes that Trump ‘doesn’t take crap’ (Courtesy of Mary Burkett)

Burkett says she spends most of her afternoons working on the campaign, visiting rural counties to discuss her candidacy and important issues with local residents.

The Utah native is spearheading all aspects of the campaign, from outreach to digital strategy, while working full-time in recruitment for a home services company.

“I was a single mother with six children, no money, no marketable skills,” she said in a recent interview with The Independent. “Starting from scratch and going to college, it took me a little over three years, but I graduated with a bachelor’s degree and worked my way out of poverty … so this doesn’t seem that hectic to me.”

Burkett is running for congress in Utah’s second congressional district against incumbent Chris Stewart, as well as another Republican candidate, Tyrone Jensen, and Democratic candidate Larry Livingston. Stewart, who is in his fourth term, was one of just 65 House Republicans who joined the Democrats in passing a budget that raised the nation’s debt ceiling.

The congressman’s vote frustrated Burkett, despite the president encouraging Republicans to support the two-year deal.

Burkett has made the debt – which just recently passed $23 trillion (£17.8 trillion) – a central focus of her campaign, and says the issue is resounding with Utahns across the state.

She says her efforts “took off” a few weeks ago after posting an open letter to Mitt Romney in which she accused the senator of “adding fuel to a destructive fire that burns at the very foundations of our beloved Republic”.

When it comes to the presidential election, Burkett says she’s almost definitely voting once again for Trump. She likes that he “doesn’t take crap”, and says that, while she understands some of the criticism surrounding his approach to politics, for the most part, she’s been “pleasantly surprised” by his governance.

“Here’s what America did, and I have so many people agree with me: Donald Trump is a junkyard dog, and we’re okay with that,” she says. “We’ve tried electing people who are dignified and have decorum, they care about all of the formalities and protocol, they didn’t do – with the exception of Reagan – very much what they said they were going to do.”

Trump speaks at a campaign rally in New Mexico (AP)

“Donald Trump seems very focused on doing what he said he was going to do,” she adds.

Her top issue in 2016 was the economy. In 2020, it’s the debt. And even though the president appears to be failing to deliver his campaign promise of eliminating the national debt within eight years, Burkett gives him a pass – for now.

She says that what Trump needs to make good on those vows are elected leaders like her, who would make it their mission to send legislation to his desk that radically chips away at the debt.

“Here in Utah, we grow up being taught that debt is bondage,” she says. “We don’t want to be in bondage to anybody.”

“It doesn’t really matter if we make progress elsewhere if our spending is out of control – and it is,” she adds.

For now, Burkett is trying to line up her delegates and focusing on building momentum for her campaign ahead of the state primaries in June 2020. That means paying more attention to her own campaign trail than the presidential election.

But she’s still concerned about the future of the country writ large, and economic security for the next generation – issues that ultimately involve whoever becomes commander-in-chief in 2020.

“I see what China is doing to prepare for their future,” she says. “They hold enough of our debt that when they’re ready, they can pull the financial rug out from underneath us. I’m disappointed that the president hasn’t taken much lead on this, but I also know that it is congress who controls the money.

“I’m hoping we can get the house and Senate back in 2020 so we can start tackling this because I think the president will sign the bill – we just gotta get it passed.”

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