Caroline Gleich is attempting to reach a political summit amid a career in professional skiing and mountaineering.The Snyderville Basin resident and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by the retiring Republican Mitt Romney is vying for a spot in the upper chamber of Congress in a heavily GOP state.Gleich, 38, is a small businessperson with her work related to her athletic endeavors, such as product testing and social media. She is competing for the Senate seat against John Curtis, a Republican congressman. Democrats typically struggle in statewide elections in Utah like a U.S. Senate seat.Her experience at the federal level includes supporting in an activist role issues like infrastructure, Bears Ears National Monument and clean power. She has also testified in Congress about protecting public lands and the impacts of climate change on mountain communities.“Our state and country are headed in the wrong direction. I don’t think we can wait for the right leaders,” she said in an interview, noting the average age of senators is older than the average age of people in Utah and members of the Senate are wealthier than the typical person.Gleich said she wants to “help correct course” in the Senate. She described the bid for office as one of the “strongest U.S. Senate Democratic (campaigns) in Utah history,” as measured by fundraising, and said poll numbers are higher than Democratic Senate candidates in recent decades.The candidate said affordability “is a huge challenge” in the U.S. and a plank in her platform seeks to address the issue. She said she would support raising the federal minimum wage to at least $15 per hour, more than double the $7.25 per hour of today. Gleich said she would back the use of antitrust laws to break up monopolies, pointing to the airline and meatpacking industries, as part of the affordability plank.Housing is another issue she sees as being related to affordability. Gleich said she supports an expansion of federal tax credits for first-time home buyers. She also wants the federal government to study homelessness and what leads to people losing their places to live.Gleich described the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel in 2023 as an “act of terror.” She said the remaining hostages must be returned and humanitarian aid is needed. Gleich said she wants the U.S. to continue to aid Israel as well as Ukraine in its war against Russia. She added the U.S. needs to ensure military aid is not used in violation of international codes of war.Other planks in her platform include expanding paid parental leave, funding universal pre-kindergarten education and federal assistance in paying for school lunches.Gleich outlined what she considers to be “common sense gun reform.” She described support for universal background checks for gun buyers, red-flag laws, a ban on assault-style weapons and requirements for the safe storage of guns.She also brings an environmental plank to the contest, describing the environment and climate as being pillars of the campaign.Gleich wants subsidies to the fossil-fuel industry ultimately ended. She wants to “make polluters pay for the public health consequences of their pollution.”She wants the nation to “accelerate” the move to clean energy, describing air quality, health and economic benefits of doing so.The post Park City-area Democrat seeks political peak in U.S. Senate seat appeared first on Park Record.