At the beginning of the year, Utah Governor hopeful Thomas Wright announced that his running mate would be Congressman Rob Bishop, who is a nine-term congressman.
Also a real estate executive, Wright stated that his interest in Bishop came from his background in legislation and well as education. Bishop was in congress with former president Barack Obama, who gave his vision of education’s future with the federal government being largely in control from preschool to post graduate.
This vision was a nightmare to Bishop, who stated that all that he has spoken to in regard to the upcoming election wishes to see less federal control. Bishop believes that he and Wright are the ones that truly understand what that means. Bishop said he spent 28 years in the classroom and sees what it takes to actually have decent classroom experiences for teachers. At this point, he wishes for all to take a step back and re-evaluate to let parents know what is taking place.
Bishop also believes that, as a whole, the school system conducts too much testing and sets forth an issue of standards that are imposed too harshly, especially on younger students. He believes that for better teachers to be attracted, they must be paid more. Salary will drive those just graduating and entering the system, he said.
Bishop believes that to keep teachers, they must be treated differently. To him, teachers are also tested too frequently and are made to jump through hoops and do busy work. He wishes to restructure, reevaluate and support them differently.
With a change in topics, Bishop expressed his excitement in regard to the public lands debate, remarking that there is also much discussion about removing federal government from public lands as well. He stated that they have been successful in doing some land transfers where they make sense and reflected on a six-year journey he took to assist Park City with two parcels of land that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was not even aware that it owned.
Bishop said there will be a different administration that will be looking at land transfers in a new light. There is also an app that was developed to track land transfers and, as the Lieutenant Governor, he wants to strive to spearhead the efforts being made to accomplish such goals.
Switching again, the gubernatorial election was discussed. Bishop stated that one of the reasons that he likes and agrees to serve with Wright is that he thinks out of the box and has a lot of great ideas, as well as his business background. Wright wishes for Bishop to be a different lieutenant governor.
For Wright, Bishop will act as a lobbyist with Washington, fixing the election system and making it more rational. This means that this is a different kind of campaign with a unique pool of candidates. Bishop stated that, with COVID-19, it is difficult to meet and communicate with voters other than through paid ads and virtual outreach. This makes the campaign itself going forward a lot different than some.
Finally, when asked how the aforementioned topics tie into the plans to support rural Utah, Bishop stated that Wright’s attitude as a businessman is important and sets him apart when it comes to rural Utah. After recently visiting a neighboring rural county, Bishop stated he believes that rural areas know what they need to grow their economy and have the ideas. What the state needs to provide is not a master plan, but to go out and give some of the background efforts that are needed in order for the counties to lure jobs and maintain.
Bishop wishes to focus on housing, internet availability and transportation issues to increase jobs. He also believes that not every program needs to be run from Salt Lake City, such as the Division of Natural Resources, which deals largely with rural Utah.
Wright and Bishop said they will work hard to ensure that it is possible to find the sources for jobs. The bottom line, according to Bishop, is he believes rural Utah knows what they need and want to do, and the areas need a state government that is going to help them achieve their goals rather than give them new ones.