Jon Huntsman, Jr. - Political Views

Political Views

Huntsman has been described by the Huffington Post as "a conservative technocrat-optimist with moderate positions who was willing to work substantively with President Barack Obama" and identifies himself as a center-right conservative.

As governor, Huntsman listed economic development, health-care reform, education, and energy security as his top priorities. He oversaw tax cuts and advocated reorganizing the way that services were distributed so that the government would not become overwhelmed by the state's fast growing population. He also proposed a plan to reform health-care, mainly through the private sector, by using tax breaks and negotiation to keep prices down. In 2007, when asked about a healthcare mandate, Huntsman said, "I'm comfortable with a requirement – you can call it whatever you want, but at some point we're going to have to get serious about how we deal with this issue".

According to Haley Barbour, former Governor of Mississippi:

Jon Huntsman and I served together, and while we don't agree on some issues, there's no question that he's a conservative. He's way to the right of Barack Obama for goodness sake. But yeah, I consider Jon a conservative. As I said, we have some issues that I think are important that we have different views on. But he was in the Reagan administration, elected governor of a very conservative state—elected and re-elected by the way. So if you're asking me if Jon Huntsman is qualified to the Republican nominee for President of the United States, the answer is, of course he is.