Margaret Dayton is an American politician

Politics of the United States

The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States , Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.The executive branch is headed by the President...

 from Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

. A Republican

Utah Republican Party

The Utah State Republican Party works to nominate and support the election of Republican candidates in partisan races for public office in the state of Utah...

, she is a member of the Utah State Senate

Utah State Senate

The Utah State Senate is the upper house of the Utah State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. The Senate is composed of 29 elected members representing an equal number of constituent senatorial districts. Each senatorial district is composed of approximately 91,000 people...

, representing the state's 15th senate district

15th Utah Senate District

The 15th Utah Senate District is located in Utah County and includes Utah House Districts 58, 59, 60, 61, 62 and 64. The current State Senator representing the 15th district is Margaret Dayton...

 in Provo

Provo, Utah

Provo is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Utah, located about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Provo is the county seat of Utah County and lies between the cities of Orem to the north and Springville to the south...

 and Orem

Orem, Utah

Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the north-central part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is about south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Utah and...

 since 2007. Dayton also served in the State House for district 61 from 1997 to 2006.

Background

After earning her Bachelor of Science degree at Brigham Young University, she worked for several years as a Registered Nurse. She is married to Lynn T. Dayton, a retired physician.

In 1996 she was appointed by Utah governor Mike Leavitt to fill out the remaining four months of the term of Rep. Lee Ellertson in Utah House district 61, which seat she was running for already in the November 1996 elections. She defeated "Independent American" candidate Gordon Norman with 90% of the vote in the election to retain the seat.

In 2006, Dayton ousted Republican incumbent Parley G. Hellewell

Parley G. Hellewell

Parley G. Hellewell was a Republican member of the Utah State Senate from 1999 to 2006.Hellewell was born in Burley, Idaho and raised in Heyburn, Idaho. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Germany and then attended Utah Valley State College where he got a degree in business management and...

 to win the Republican nomination for the Utah Senate, and handily defeated Democrat Bethanie Newby in the November 2006 general election.

Views

Senator Dayton opposed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act by sponsoring an Opt Out bill. She opposes having a standardized education across the country. She also opposes the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program because of its international nature and the lack of state control over the curriculum, stating vehemently, "I don't want to create 'world citizens' nearly as much as I want to help cultivate American citizens". She is of the opinion that parents should have control over what is taught in schools.
Senator Dayton believes in a literal reading of the constitution, and that "The traditional family is the fundamental unit of our society". She also believes "Government should provide only those services that cannot be provided by individuals or private organizations".

The Utah Taxpayers Association rated her 100% conservative.