Paden Campaign

Campaign for Taylor Paden – Utah State Senate District 13

We are currently running Taylor Paden, a long-time DSA member, for the State Senate seat in District 13. As a DSA-led and -run campaign, we are working solely on volunteer labor from our general membership. This campaign was deliberated and decided upon by our membership, including the platform. The text of the resolutions that were used to agree upon this campaign and to make it a priority are included below.

There are many ways to get involved in this campaign:

  • Ongoing Canvassing Effort
  • Membership Engagement/Listwork
  • Media and Communications
  • Fundraising

Check out Taylor Paden’s website for more information or join our Discord server to start the conversation!

Resolution to Endorse Taylor Paden for Utah Senate District 13

Whereas, 

  • Electoralism:
    • Electoral campaigns present an opportunity to engage with communities unfamiliar to DSA, have organizing conversations, and bring them into DSA which will expand their view of politics and political action outside of elections and the two-party system.
    • SLDSA needs to expand its sphere of influence with the general population; electoralism provides an avenue to accomplish that. 
    • If we want to have socialists in office, especially socialists from Salt Lake DSA, learning how to do electoral work needs to begin. NYC DSA did electoral work for 10 years which led to the success of the Zohran campaign.
    • Electoral campaigns have been shown to “transform” DSA chapters in showing what they’re capable of and activating members.
    • Resolution 33 Unite Labor & the Left to Run a Socialist for President and Build the Party passed at the 2025 DSA convention which has the goal of “running a national slate of down-ballot candidates in the 2026 and 2027 elections on a common pro-labor platform.”
  • District 13:
    • The incumbent state senator from District 13, Nate Blouin, is running for Congressional District 1 which will make his seat available.
      • Note: Due to the special session held in December of 2025 there is a possibility that Nate Blouin starts his re-election campaign for District 13 and then drops out in March to pursue Congressional District 1. We are trying to get in touch with Nate Blouin to see what he plans on doing regarding District 13.
    • District 13 was won heavily by a progressive in the last election in 2022 (Nate Blouin – Democrat received 71.8% of the vote with 22,311 votes), meaning it could be a friendly district for a democratic socialist candidate. 
    • Due to SLDSA not having any experience running electoral campaigns, District 13 is a more winnable race compared to Congressional District 1 for the following reasons:
      • Less signatures are required to get on the Democratic Primary ballot
        • State senate races require 2,000 signatures. A federal House race requires 7,000. 
      • A lower budget
        • For a state senate race of this size the estimated budget, according to Milo (DSA National Electoral Organizer), would be around $130,000 ($80,000 for the primary and $50,000 for the general). 
        • For Congressional District 1 it would most likely be more than $1,000,000. 
      • Volunteers
        • In order to get the petition signatures required for Congressional District 1 (7,000 signatures) we would need to drastically outperform what more experience and much larger chapters have done (e.g. Boston DSA in 2025 could not get an average of 20 DSA members to weekend canvassing shifts).
        • People are more motivated to give of their time and money to campaigns that are winnable. Winning Congressional District 1 is nearly impossible whereas District 13 is winnable (although still very difficult). Because District 13 is winnable we are more likely to get more chapter members to volunteer and donate money along with the general public being more likely to volunteer and donate money. 
    • Taylor Paden is a cadre member of Salt Lake DSA and an active member of CWA 7765.
    • As a member of CWA 7765, as opposed to a non-CWA 7765 candidate, Taylor is more likely to get the endorsement from CWA 7765 which would be a big boost for credibility and volunteers from CWA 7765. 

Therefore,

  • Be it resolved that Salt Lake DSA endorses Taylor Paden for the State Senate District 13 race.
    • Endorsing Taylor Paden for the State Senate District 13 race means:
      • Salt Lake DSA members will actively participate in the campaign in the following ways:
        • Canvassing 
        • Phonebanking
        • Fundraising
        • Social media
        • Merch design
        • Planning public events
      • Taylor’s campaign will be a Salt Lake DSA led campaign. Meaning that Salt Lake DSA members will hold positions on the campaign committee (Note: It is not a requirement that every position is held by a Salt Lake DSA member):
        • Campaign manager
        • Chairs
        • Treasurer
        • Communications director
        • Field director
        • Coordinators 
        • Leads
        • Kitchen cabinet (“an informal group of advisors to a political leader”)
      • A DSA campaign committee titled District 13 Campaign Committee will be formed that will coordinate action between the chapter and Taylor’s campaign.
        • Although Salt Lake DSA will be an integral part of Taylor Paden’s campaign they will be separate entities (e.g. Taylor’s campaign will have their own bank account). 
        • The District 13 Campaign Committee will report to the Steering Committee at each of their bi-weekly meetings to provide updates along with updating membership at General Meetings. 
      • The State Senate District 13 race would be the main priority of Salt Lake DSA until the campaign ends.
        • This does not mean that no other work in the chapter can be done, but because of the tremendous effort that will be needed to be competitive in this race, the main focus of the chapter will be the District 13 campaign.

Cost: Because the chapter cannot donate money to political campaigns, the cost would technically be $0, but we will be doing fundraising with the goal of tens of thousands of dollars and ideally more than $100,000. 

Prioritize fighting for a SLDSA led campaign in Senate District 13

Whereas SLDSA has recently endorsed member Taylor Paden for Utah Senate District 13 during a special session, which is arguably the most ambitious public campaign the chapter has ever undertaken;
Zohran’s victory has increased the interest of workers with socialist sympathies in the project of DSA and their confidence in socialist electoral campaigns;
While SLDSA has grown significantly in size, complexity, and political sophistication in recent months, it needs a concrete, specific direction in order to organize those forces in a way that affects politics in Utah;
For this reason, focusing and succeeding in D13 with a cadre DSA member on the ticket would transform our organization into a public force with experienced cadre, struggling to lead workers in the public arena, with a concrete lever to affect that change with our first socialist in office;
The rights of migrants in this country is still one of the most important fronts in the fight against Trump and therefore remains an active and serious section of our organization. Political Development has succeeded in many of the goals laid out in its priority resolution, but it is no longer a main priority of activists in SLDSA in comparison to the D13 Paden campaign.


Therefore SLDSA will replace “Towards A Politicized and Programmatic Salt Lake DSA,” as one of its two political priorities and replace it with this one, to represent the changes in the attention of SLDSA activists;
We will ensure the majority of Taylor Paden’s campaign committee will be members of SLDSA, and earn those positions by being indispensable activists fighting for our shared platform with our cadre candidate;
We will struggle to ensure that the platform of the Paden campaign, both during the campaign itself and while he’s in office, is the politics of our organization. The campaign’s platform will be subject to the democratic process of SLDSA in the Electoral Working Group and the chapter’s general meetings. Should the politics of the campaign deviate significantly, the chapter will first attempt to correct the course through good faith dialogue and political struggle, escalating to more severe action;
SLDSA will engage huge sections of our chapter, both active and inactive members, in order to make sure the campaign succeeds. The EWG and the Taylor Paden Campaign Committee will be empowered to use our lists for the purposes of phone, text, and email banking for donations and volunteers;
Vise versa, SLDSA will make sure that we engage outside volunteers on the D13 campaign and attempt to organize them into SLDSA. The EWG and the Taylor Paden Campaign Committee will incorporate SLDSA as part and parcel of the campaign, encouraging volunteers to attend events like DSA 101;
After the success of the campaign, SLDSA will facilitate the creation of a Socialist in Office Committee. Committee members will meet with Taylor Paden and future electees on a regular basis to ensure we are working towards our goals of heightening the class struggle and building the socialist movement as an organized, coherent force in Utah.

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