Dr. Hugh McTavish: Governing with the Goal of Happiness

 St. Paul, MN. — “The Declaration of Independence says that the purpose of government is to promote ‘Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.’ Surprisingly, they did not mention maximizing GDP,” said Hugh McTavish, Ph.D., during the public declaration of his candidacy for Minnesota governor. “To me, the most important of those three is happiness.”

McTavish is a scientist, entrepreneur and author of COVID Lockdown Insanity. He is running for governor of Minnesota with the Independence-Alliance, the successor to the Independence Party that elected Jesse Ventura.

“Promoting happiness should be the primary goal of government, and it will be in my administration,” he said, adding that by “happiness” he is referring to something much deeper than mere pleasure.

His platform also includes his innovative proposal, Jury Democracy, which involves having large, statistically valid juries of 500 to 2,000 randomly selected voters come to the capitol, hear arguments for and against a particular bill or proposal, deliberate on it, and then vote on that one bill or proposal.

According to McTavish, Jury Democracy would impact public debate and transform political power and how the government makes decisions.

“As governor, before I sign any important or controversial bill into law, I will submit it to a citizen jury of at least 500 people,” he added.  “If the jury approves the bill, I will sign it into law; if it rejects the bill, I will veto it. Effectively, I will not be governor—WE ALL WILL BE! I will give the power to you!”

A Ph.D. biochemist and immunologist, patent attorney, entrepreneur and author, McTavish has authored 18 refereed scientific journal articles and is the inventor of 21 U.S. patents. He has also written three books: Ending War in Our Lifetime, COVID Lockdown Insanity and Wild Plants of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Area. He has started two pharmaceutical companies off his own inventions. He lives near St. Paul, Minnesota. Now he is running for governor of Minnesota, primarily to bring the innovation of Jury Democracy to Minnesota and the world.

Besides hoping to positively impact government, McTavish entered the governor’s race because, in his words, “Everyone’s life matters.” McTavish has been outspoken about the harms of the lockdown response to COVID and how those harms vastly exceeded the benefits, sharing the science behind his claims in his thought-provoking book, COVID Lockdown Insanity (West Fork Press; ISBN-13: ‎978-1737327110).