Thomas McNeill

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Thomas McNeill

United Utah Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2020

Education

Ph.D

Brigham Young University, 1993

Personal

Birthplace

Dallas, Texas

Profession

Computer programmer

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Thomas McNeill (United Utah Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Utah's 3rd Congressional District. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

McNeill completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Thomas McNeill was born in Dallas, Texas. He earned a Ph.D. from Brigham Young University in 1993. McNeill's career experience includes working as a computer programmer.

Elections

2020

See also: Utah's 3rd Congressional District election, 2020

General election

General election for U.S. House Utah District 3

The following candidates ran in the general election for U.S. House Utah District 3 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Curtis (R)	68.7	246,674
		Devin Thorpe (D)	26.8	96,067
		Daniel Clyde Cummings (Constitution Party)	2.5	8,889
		Thomas McNeill (United Utah Party)	2.0	7,040
		Trey Robinson (Independent) (Write-in)	0.1	250
		Jeremy Friedbaum (Independent) (Write-in)	0.0	7

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 358,927
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Russel Fugal (Independent)

Democratic convention

Democratic convention for U.S. House Utah District 3

Devin Thorpe defeated Jared Lyle Anderson and Trey Robinson in the Democratic convention for U.S. House Utah District 3 on April 25, 2020.

		Candidate
		Jared Lyle Anderson (D)
		Trey Robinson (D)
✔		Devin Thorpe (D)

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican convention

Republican convention for U.S. House Utah District 3

Incumbent John Curtis defeated Timothy Noel Aalders in the Republican convention for U.S. House Utah District 3 on April 25, 2020.

		Candidate
✔		John Curtis (R)
		Timothy Noel Aalders (R)

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Thomas McNeill completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by McNeill's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Brigham Young University. I took a break from my undergraduate studies to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico. I founded my own newspaper software company while still an undergraduate. I was also one of the founders of a software company in Provo. McNeill has worked for several software-related companies in Utah. I currently live in Orem. I am running for Congress because I have seen that extreme partisanship and division are preventing Congress from confronting serious issues that face the nation.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• It is not reasonable to simply accept the dysfunctional status quo. We must demand that Congress actually make progress on the serious challenges that confront the nation.
• Working together, we can solve the problems that confront us.
• A member of Congress should be a public servant, not a partisan warrior.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Putting Social Security on a sound financial footing.

Enacting nonpartisan healthcare reform that will endure for more than one administration and provide predictability for families and businesses.

Working toward a reasonable, lasting compromise on immigration.

Providing police departments the tools and training they need to prevent the excessive use of force.

Reducing the budget deficit.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to Gerald Ford because of his pardon of Richard Nixon. Whether it was ultimately the right thing to do or not, Ford believed that it was necessary to help the nation heal and move on. He did it even though he knew that it would not be a popular move, and it is probably why he lost his bid for re-election. I respect Ford because he did what he believed to be right and necessary in spite of the consequences for himself.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

The most important principles for an elected official are honesty and integrity. They are the minimum qualifications for office. An office-holder must be willing to put in the hard intellectual work required to hear all sides of an issue and come up with policy that is fair and that balances competing interests. An elected official should be careful to consider the needs of constituents that cannot afford lobbying campaigns. Policy should not be determined by who makes the largest campaign contributions.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I strive to do what is right regardless of my own personal interest. Nothing makes me more angry than seeing someone powerful take advantage of someone who is defenseless. I strive to work out compromises rather than impose my own will.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

A member of the House must uphold the Constitution, work hard to understand all sides of issues under consideration, and do his or her best to balance competing interests in a fair way.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The first historical event that I can remember was the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. I was 9 years old at the time.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job was working for my family's newspaper company. We had three small weekly newspapers and a couple of other publications, plus a small commercial printing operation. I started by sweeping floors and throwing in type. Over time I also did printed on the letterpress, performed other production tasks, proofread ad and story copy, typeset, pasted up advertisements, pasted up pages, took football and other pictures, and spent many, many hours in the darkroom shooting and developing the full-page negatives that eventually became the pages of the newspaper. I started when I was about 12 and worked at the newspaper summers and afternoons after school until I graduated from high school.

What is your favorite book? Why?

The Lord of the Rings is my favorite book. Tolkien spent decades developing the "history" of Middle Earth, which provides the background to the Lord of the Rings. This makes the novel much richer and more complex than most others. The language is a pleasure to read. Finally, the novel is mostly about ordinary people who confront seemingly insurmountable odds, but persevere nonetheless, and maintain their humanity and basic goodness in spite of many temptations to be less than they can be. In the end, the good guys come out one top! How can you beat all that? In the end, after about 1,800 pages, my only complaint is that it is too short.

What process do you favor for redistricting?

The redistricting process should be bipartisan. Districts should be compact (not all spread out) and should not divide cities and counties unnecessarily. At the same time, districts should ideally be as competitive as possible. So-called "safe" districts which provide an almost-guaranteed win for one party or another reduce the responsiveness of government. Members elected from such districts often seem to end up acting as if they represented only the primary voters of their party, and not the entire district.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Putting Social Security on a sound financial footing. Working out enduring healthcare policy expressed as legislation. Coming to a reasonable, lasting compromise on immigration. Reducing the budget deficit, especially after all the deficit spending surrounding the pandemic. Preventing the excessive use of force by police.

If you are not a current representative, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?

I would like to be a member of the House Oversight Committee. Someone who is not a member of either major party would be perfect for the job of overseeing the executive branch. I would not be either a cheerleader for or an antagonist of the administration, but would provide meaningful oversight.

Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?

Terms in the House should be four years.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

Term limits for members of the House and Senate would be beneficial. While some effective members would have to step down while still effective, it would prevent others from because too cozy with lobbyists and too focused on their own power at the expense of those that they should be serving.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2020 Elections

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External links

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Footnotes

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Utah's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

John Curtis (R)

Mike Lee (R)

Representatives

District 1

Blake Moore (R)

District 2

Celeste Maloy (R)

District 3

Mike Kennedy (R)

District 4

Burgess Owens (R)

Republican Party (6)