Michael Melendez

Michael Melendez

Executive Vice President

michael@libertas.org

Michael is the Executive Vice President, overseeing Libertas’ policy operations, including policy analysis, government affairs, and organizational strategy.

Prior to joining Libertas he was a legislative aide for a Utah state senator and the state government affairs manager for Waterford Institute, a digital education non-profit. Michael has also managed and worked on dozens of campaigns around the country, which included directing the Trafalgar Group’s nationally recognized polling operations in 2016.

Michael Melendez's Articles

Besides over-criminalization and a massive increase in the number of people who enter the criminal justice system, funding for public defenders has been a major problem.
If true demand for any of these recreation or entertainment activities actually exists, then private providers most often will respond if given the opportunity.
What happened here in Utah other than sending Mitt Romney to Washington and that Ben McAdams may have beat Mia Love?
Runaway healthcare costs are the gift that the federal government wants to keep on giving. The gift this year for consideration? Medicaid expansion, which is on your ballot in the form of Prop 3.
With steady tax increases in Utah, it's clear that the state doesn't have a revenue problem—it has a spending problem. Here's something that can help.
If more money is truly the goal, then let’s stop kicking the K-12 education gas can down the road. Question 1 merely perpetuates a problem—and it certainly isn’t a solution.