Utah

John ‘Frugal’ Dougall is running for Congress to make the GOP the party of ideas again

Published

2 years ago

May 18, 2024

John ‘Frugal’ Dougall is running for Congress to make the GOP the party of ideas again

State Auditor John Dougall thinks the best place for a congressman to serve Utah is in the weeds.

After two decades of working to lighten Utah’s tax load and shed light on government waste, Dougall says he wants to bring his penchant for problem-solving to the nation’s Capitol representing the state’s 3rd Congressional District.

But selling constituents on the importance of welfare reform and budget reduction is a problem to solve all on its own.

As a former state lawmaker and tech entrepreneur, with graduate degrees in electrical engineering and business from Brigham Young University, Dougall said he believes the Republican Party of late has been less interested in outcomes than political point-scoring.

“The Republican Party used to be the party of big ideas,” Dougall said. “We have nothing but infighting, squabbling, performative politics.”

Dougall was ready for retirement from public service following his 10 years in the Utah House of Representatives and 11 years overseeing the state auditor’s office, he said. But he said the absence of “any real budget hawks back in D.C.” drew Dougall to Rep. John Curtis’ soon-to-be-open seat.

“I’ve got a unique skill set when it comes to these issues,” Dougall said. “And I think the financial matters, the debt, the out of control spending, the dysfunction in Washington, D.C., this is one of the top national crises.”

Creative solutions to the nation’s biggest money problems

For those who don’t feel the same sense of urgency about the country’s balance sheets, Dougall has a thought experiment.

Imagine a Utah household making $100,000 a year and spending $130,000 with the help of a credit card. The monthly minimum credit card payment would exceed most Utahns’ biggest budget item, their mortgage, Dougall said, making it harder to pay for essential needs and leaving the family at the mercy of steep interest rates.

In fiscal year 2024, Dougall pointed out, the United States is expected to pay more on interest payments to service the national debt than on national defense — a sober milestone that comes on the heels of federal debt surpassing $34.5 trillion for the first time, increasing by a rate of roughly $1 trillion every 100 days.

Dougall has incorporated an interactive “Balance the Federal Budget” tool into his campaign website to help voters visualize the problem. The feature is similar to the property value and public education tracking tools that he developed as auditor to help Utahns follow their tax dollars and access government information.

The country’s biggest problem has “no single silver bullet” solution, Dougall said, but “we can’t just keep doing the same thing because we’re going to get the same results. We’ve got to try and be more innovative, we’ve got to try and push big ideas to try and solve these very, very difficult problems.”

For Social Security — the retirement benefit program that drives more than one-fifth of federal spending — Dougall proposes a shift to state sponsored retirement trust funds modeled after 529 college savings plans.

This would allow workers to opt out of Social Security benefits, which are projected to be cut by 20% in a decade. Workers would then be able to invest that portion of their payroll tax into a state sponsored investment fund “to get them a better, more secure retirement” while giving Democrats the government oversight they demand to protect all workers, Dougall said.

Such a massive overhaul of Social Security would have to be phased in, with different age cohorts being allowed to allocate more or less of their payroll tax, Dougall said.

When it comes to government-provided health care for the elderly, however, Dougall said an overhaul doesn’t go far enough.

“I don’t want the federal government running Medicare better,” Dougall said. “I want to get the federal government out of health care.”

Enabling competition with government provided health care, facilitating direct care models and reimbursing procedures the same regardless of location would result in hundreds of billions of dollars in savings, Dougall said.

“It won’t balance the budget, but it’s a big step in the right direction,” Dougall said. “And it can put patients more in control of their health care so they can get better quality care.”

Subsidized health care programs for low income Americans, like Medicaid, also need to be stripped of federal involvement, Dougall said, with funds and oversight being handed over to the states, instead of the “split-funded” system currently in place that creates a “mismatch of accountability” that incentivizes states to grow Medicaid rolls, Dougall said.

Block-granting Medicaid funding to the states and expanding work requirements for “able-bodied individuals” would result in another $100 billion in annual savings, Dougall said — far short of the $1.7 trillion deficit in 2023, but one of the many trade offs needed to make federal spending look more like a responsible home budget.

The government watchdog candidate

Dougall has more time in government than any of his four opponents in the Republican Party primary election. The crowded field of five also includes Roosevelt Mayor JR Bird, Sky Zone CEO Case Lawrence, commercial litigator Stewart Peay and state Sen. Mike Kennedy.

Dougall took over the state auditor’s office in 2013 after ousting a longtime incumbent in a primary election. As auditor, Dougall held officials accountable and reviewed the state’s COVID-19 expenditures, database security and implemented programs to make government financial information available for “essentially every state and local entity in Utah.”

Dougall also emphasized transparency during his 10-year tenure as a state lawmaker which immediately preceded his time as a state auditor. He contributed to the public meeting notice website and pushed to repeal the state’s vehicle inspection program, which required added bureaucracy with little benefits to show for it, he said.

In 2005, Dougall was a member of the Tax Reform Task Force that led to the passage of Utah’s biggest restructuring of the tax-code in decades, which included a 5% single-rate income tax.

These policy wins were the result of focusing on how to get a solution across the finish line without worrying about “who gets the credit” or “the next election cycle,” Dougall said — an attitude he plans to bring to the contentious halls of Congress.

“I will work with anybody who’s willing to fight out-of-control spending, to try and rein in the federal government, to try and balance the budget,” Dougall said. “I’ll work with anybody, I don’t care who they are, because that’s what it’s going to take.”

Dougall’s other priorities include securing the southern border and ensuring American energy dominance. He also believes the U.S. should continue to provide “targeted assistance” to Ukraine to stop Russia’s advance and prevent a bigger war in Europe.

Dougall — John ‘Frugal’ Dougall on the ballot — will face his four primary opponents on June 25. The Republican who wins the primary will face off against Democratic candidate Glenn Wright on Nov. 5.

Correction: An earlier version said Dougall has spent 10 years as state auditor and that he was co-chair of the Tax Reform Task Force. He has been state auditor for 11 years and was a member of the task force, but not co-chair.

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Utah

22-year-old arrested in Utah in connection to Las Vegas double-homicide

Published

2 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

22-year-old arrested in Utah in connection to Las Vegas double-homicide

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Officials have identified a 22-year-old man as the suspect in a Las Vegas homicide case that killed two people in a Southern Highlands neighborhood.

Detectives say 22-year-old Ziaire Ham was the suspect in the case. According to officials, Ham was located on Tuesday, March 3, by the Ogden City Police Department and the Utah Highway Patrol.

Ham was taken into custody and booked into the Weber County Jail. Las Vegas authorities said he will be charged with open murder with the use of a deadly weapon and will be extradited back to the valley.

MORE ON FOX5: LVMPD corrections officer arrested on multiple felony charges

The shooting occurred Monday night at the 11000 block of Victoria Medici Street, near Starr Ave and Dean Martin Drive.

According to police, officers were conducting a vehicle stop in the area when they heard gunfire. After searching nearby neighborhoods they found a car with bullet impacts with a woman and a toddler inside suffering from gunshot wounds.

The pair were transported to hospital where they later died. The Clark County Coroner’s Office identified them as Danaijha Robinson, 20, and 1-year-old Nhalani Hiner.

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Utah

Utah nonprofit creates events, experiences for disadvantaged children

Published

14 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Utah nonprofit creates events, experiences for disadvantaged children

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A simple moment watching a child laugh changed everything for Ivan Gonzalez.

Eight years ago, Gonzalez was working at the Ronald McDonald House when he had an idea to throw a birthday carnival for the kids staying there.

“Let’s do a carnival, birthday carnival for the kids,” he said.

MORE | Pay It Forward

What happened during that event stuck with him.

“There I was watching this kid play whack-a-mole, just having a blast, laughing,” Gonzalez said. “And then I see his mom kind of with happy tears because he’s enjoying himself.”

That moment led to something bigger.

Gonzalez realized the experience shouldn’t stop with just one event or just one group of kids.

“I said, wait, we can do this not just for kids in the hospital,” he said with excitement.

So he started a nonprofit called Best Seat in the House, which creates events and experiences for children who often face difficult circumstances.

“We provide events and experiences for disadvantaged kids,” Gonzalez said.

The organization serves children battling cancer and other medical conditions, refugee children, kids living in poverty, those in foster care and children with special needs.

“These kids grow up too fast,” Gonzalez said.

For Gonzalez, the mission is deeply personal.

“I grew up very poor,” he said.

He remembers the people who stepped in for his family when they needed it most.

“The local church, we weren’t even a part of it,” he described. “My parents couldn’t afford Christmas gifts and I still remember the gifts they gave me. They didn’t even know me.”

Today, he hopes to create that same feeling for other children through his nonprofit.

“Kids live in poverty and they don’t know where the next meal is coming from, let alone going to a play or to a game,” Gonzalez said.

But for Gonzalez, the reward isn’t the events themselves, it’s the joy they create.

“You can give me a billion dollars, all the money in the world,” he says as tears roll down his face. “I won’t trade these opportunitieskids just enjoying life.”

Because of his work giving back, KUTV and Mountain America Credit Union surprised Gonzalez with a Pay it Forward gift to help him continue creating those moments for kids across Utah.

For more information on supporting Best Seat in the House, click here.

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Utah

‘Don’t release him ever. Please.’ Family of slain Utah teen calls for justice at parole hearing

Published

1 day ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

‘Don’t release him ever. Please.’ Family of slain Utah teen calls for justice at parole hearing

SALT LAKE CITY — Francisco Daniel Aguilar says he’s sorry for shooting and killing his girlfriend, 16-year-old Jacqueline “Jacky” Nunez-Millan, a Piute High School sophomore, in 2023.

But just as he did when he was sentenced, he didn’t have much of an explanation on Tuesday as to why he shot her not once, but twice.

“It just kinda happened. I was mad. And I stepped out (of my truck) and started shooting,” he said. “When I saw her fall, I just kind of panicked, I just went and shot her again.”

But Jacky’s friends and family members say even before she was killed, Aguilar already had a history of violence, and they now want justice to be served.

“You don’t accidentally take a gun, you don’t accidentally grab a knife … you don’t accidentally shoot someone, those are all choices,” a tearful Rosa Nunez, Jacky’s sister, said at Tuesday’s hearing. “Keep him where he needs to be.

“Don’t release him ever. Please.”

On Jan. 7, 2023, Aguilar, who was 17 at the time, got into a fight with his girlfriend, Jacky, shot her twice and left her body near a dirt road outside of Circleville, Piute County. He was convicted as an adult of aggravated murder and sentenced to a term of 25 years to up to life in prison.

Because of Aguilar’s age at the time of the offense, board member Greg Johnson explained Tuesday that the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole is required to hold a hearing much earlier than the 25-year mark, mainly to check on Aguilar and “see how things are going.” Aguilar, now 20, is currently being held in a juvenile secure care facility and will be transferred to the Utah State Prison when he turns 25 or earlier if he has discipline violations and is kicked out of the youth facility.

According to Aguilar’s sentencing guidelines, he will likely remain in custody until at least the year 2051.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Aguilar told the board that he was feeling “stressed out” during his senior year of high school. He said he and Jacky would often have little arguments. But their bigger fight happened when he failed to get her a “promise ring” around Christmastime, he said.

On the night of the killing, the two were arguing about the promise ring and other items, Aguilar recalled. At one point, he grabbed a knife and then a gun because, he said, he wanted to “irritate” and “scare” Jacky. According to evidence presented in the preliminary hearing, Aguilar and his girlfriend had been “trying to make each other angry” when Aguilar took ammunition and a 9mm gun from his father’s room and then drove to the Black Hill area in his truck with Jacky.

Jacky’s friend, McKall Taylor, went looking for her that night and found her. But after Aguilar shot Jacky in the leg, he began shooting at Taylor, who had no choice but to run to her car to get away. Her car was hit multiple times by bullets. Aguilar then shot Jacky a second time as she lay on the ground and Taylor drove away.

On Tuesday, Taylor’s mother, Lori Taylor, read a statement to the board on her daughter’s behalf.

“My innocence and freedom was taken from me,” she said.

McKall Taylor says the “horrifying events of that night will forever play in my head,” and the sounds of Jacky screaming and the gunshots as well as the sight of Jacky falling to the ground, will never go away.

“Francisco is a murderer who has zero remorse,” her letter states.

Likewise, Rosa Nunez told the board that for her and her family, “nothing in our world has felt safe since” that night as they all “continue to relive this horrific moment.”

After shooting Jacky and driving off, Aguilar says he called his father and “told him I was sorry for not being better, for not making good choices, I told him that I loved him. I was just planning on probably shooting myself, too.”

His father told him that although what he did wasn’t right, “he’d rather see me behind bars than in a casket,” and then told his son to “be a man about it. … This is where you have to change.”

Aguilar was arrested after his tires were spiked by police.

“An apology won’t fix what I did. I’ll never be able to fix what I did. But I want to say I’m sorry,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t even know how to fix what I did. I’m hoping I’m on the right track now.”

Johnson noted that Aguilar has done well during his short time being incarcerated. But that doesn’t change the fact “the crime was horrific,” he said.

The full five-member board will now take a vote. The board could decide to schedule another parole hearing for sometime in the future or could order that Aguilar serve his entire life sentence. But even if that were to happen, Johnson says Aguilar could petition every so often for a redetermination hearing.

The board’s decision is expected in several weeks.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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