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Austin Simcox
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Austin Simcox (United Utah Party) ran for election to the Utah House of Representatives to represent District 63. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Simcox completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Simcox was born in Columbus, Ohio. He earned a bachelor's degree in teaching social science from Brigham Young University in 2018. His career experience includes working as a public school teacher and as a after school program coordinator.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Utah House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Utah House of Representatives District 63
Incumbent Adam Robertson defeated Jenna Rakuita and Austin Simcox in the general election for Utah House of Representatives District 63 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Adam Robertson (R) | 61.0 | 4,731 |
| Jenna Rakuita (D) | 31.5 | 2,443 | ||
 | Austin Simcox (United Utah Party)  | 7.6 | 588 | |
| Total votes: 7,762 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Democratic convention
Democratic convention for Utah House of Representatives District 63
Jenna Rakuita advanced from the Democratic convention for Utah House of Representatives District 63 on April 25, 2020.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | Jenna Rakuita (D) | |
| ||||
| = 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 Utah House of Representatives District 63
Incumbent Adam Robertson advanced from the Republican convention for Utah House of Representatives District 63 on April 25, 2020.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Adam Robertson (R) |
| ||||
| = 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
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released March 31, 2020 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Austin Simcox completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Simcox's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am a public school teacher and an after school program coordinator. I am running because the Utah Legislature has lost touch with our voice. They have voted to raise the tax on food, prevented thousands from accessing affordable healthcare, diverted money away from education, and made it harder for citizens to legislate by tightening restrictions on the initiative and referendum processes. I want representatives who make listening their top priority; I am running to be that representative. As a teacher, I know how to listen. I spend my career discerning the needs of my students, listening to what is said and what goes unsaid, and then working with them to find solutions. Those skills will translate into my service as your representative. Together, we can make government work better for all of us.
- Education
- Healthcare
- Structural Change
I am most passionate about education policy. Utah has consistently ranked dead last nationally in per-pupil funding for over 20 years now. This year, after education advocacy groups negotiated a historic 6% increase, the Utah Legislature is warning schools to trim down their budgets and prepare for a 2-10% decrease in funding! The Legislature tried cutting education funding in its disastrous tax reform package last year and continues to look for ways to maneuver around the income tax earmark, which guarantees that all income tax revenue in Utah goes to education. It's not a question of not having the money; in 2019, Utah ran a $100 million budget surplus and Utah has a little less than a billion dollars in its rainy day fund. It's a question of priorities. As a legislator, I will make sustainable education funding my top priority. The amount of funding isn't the only issue in Utah's education system, but increasing it would go a long way to helping us address other needs. We need to invest more, but we also need to invest smarter. We need fundamental changes to the way education is funded in Utah so that we can ensure both short- and long-term progress for our schools and our students. I'm ready to have those conversations.
I look up to my students. Not all the time of course, but often they make me feel like the student! They teach me daily what matters and what doesn't. They demonstrate what true friendship and love looks like and how to accept people for who they are. Their weird sense of humor goes over my head sometimes, but I appreciate that they can often find humor in seemingly hopeless situations. They are open about their thoughts and feelings more so than previous generations. They are coming of age in a world of uncertainty, yet, they keep on going. There is much about our youth to be admired.
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. In his magnum opus, Zinn points out that it is often the forgotten and ordinary people who move the wheels of history. The deck is stacked against the common folk and we cannot have true progress as a society until we recognize that fact. Yet, there are more of us than there are of them and if we unite with a shared focus, we can make society work for all of us and not just some of us.
I'm not really concerned about a personal legacy. I'm not running for office to attain any sort of recognition or accolade and I've never even considered myself a terribly ambitious person. I wouldn't be running for office if I didn't see problems that need fixing. I'm running for my students; I'm running for my community; I'm running for my friends and family; I'm running because I want the society I live in to work better for everyone. My district has a long history of electing Republicans and they often run unopposed. The incumbent I'm running against was appointed to the office and then ran unopposed. He's never had to campaign nor has he had any reason to meet with a member of his district, other than a sense of duty because of the office he holds. Democracies only work if people have choices. I'm here to provide that choice. We need more voices in government and we need younger voices in government and that's what I'm offering. I'm here to listen and I'm here to bring the people's voice to the Utah Legislature.
There is definitely no single answer to this question! As a history teacher I of course enjoy historical reads (I'm making my way through Les Miserables right now), but my favorite genres are sci-fi and dystopian fiction. A recent favorite I discovered is the Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. It explores a far-off planet with competing nation-states where there is no concept of gender. It makes the reader think about the role that gender and violence play in our own society. I like sci-fi and dystopian fiction because they lead us to reflect on the world around us and how it can be improved. There's a lot of good in the world, but there's also a lot that can go wrong. Sci-fi and dystopian fiction force us to address that and often bring up complex social issues in a digestible way.
At its heart, representative democracy is supposed to look like the people it serves. How can you effectively represent someone you know nothing about and can't relate to? This is why it's important that our Legislature looks like and lives like the people it serves. Experience in government and politics can certainly be helpful to effective governance, but so can other life experiences. We should encourage a variety of experiences in our Legislature because the people they serve have also lived a variety of experiences. Additionally, we need younger voices in the Legislature! Almost 90% of the people in my district are under the age of 30. It makes sense that someone under the age of 30 should represent them!
Absolutely! I'm running to build bridges, not burn them. Just like the people they represent, legislators come to the table with a variety of perspectives, opinions, and experiences. Those differences, if respectfully handled, can (and should) lead to more empathetic and inclusive legislation. Once elected, I will build relationships with all parties represented in the Legislature and will not use party affiliation as an excuse to support or oppose specific legislation.
I would love a place on the education committee. Of the current committee members, less than half come from a public education background. We need the voices of people who have taught in the classroom to advocate for the needs of students and teachers.
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
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 4, 2020.
Current members of the Utah House of Representatives
Leadership
Speaker of the House:Mike Schultz
Majority Leader:Casey Snider
Minority Leader:Angela Romero
Representatives
District 1
Thomas Peterson (R)
District 2
Mike Petersen (R)
District 3
Jason Thompson (R)
District 4
Tiara Auxier (R)
District 5
Casey Snider (R)
District 6
Matt Gwynn (R)
District 7
Ryan Wilcox (R)
District 8
Jason Kyle (R)
District 9
Jake Sawyer (R)
District 10
Jill Koford (R)
District 11
Katy Hall (R)
District 12
Mike Schultz (R)
District 13
Karen Peterson (R)
District 14
District 15
Ariel Defay (R)
District 16
Trevor Lee (R)
District 17
Stewart Barlow (R)
District 18
Paul Cutler (R)
District 19
Raymond Ward (R)
District 20
Melissa Ballard (R)
District 21
Sandra Hollins (D)
District 22
District 23
Hoang Nguyen (D)
District 24
Grant Miller (D)
District 25
Angela Romero (D)
District 26
Matt MacPherson (R)
District 27
Anthony Loubet (R)
District 28
Nicholeen Peck (R)
District 29
Bridger Bolinder (R)
District 30
Jake Fitisemanu (D)
District 31
Verona Mauga (D)
District 32
Sahara Hayes (D)
District 33
Doug Owens (D)
District 34
Carol Moss (D)
District 35
District 36
Jim Dunnigan (R)
District 37
Ashlee Matthews (D)
District 38
Cheryl Acton (R)
District 39
Ken Ivory (R)
District 40
Andrew Stoddard (D)
District 41
Gay Lynn Bennion (D)
District 42
Clint Okerlund (R)
District 43
Steven Eliason (R)
District 44
Jordan Teuscher (R)
District 45
Tracy Miller (R)
District 46
Cal Roberts (R)
District 47
Mark Strong (R)
District 48
Doug Fiefia (R)
District 49
Candice Pierucci (R)
District 50
District 51
Leah Hansen (R)
District 52
Cory Maloy (R)
District 53
District 54
Kristen Chevrier (R)
District 55
Jon Hawkins (R)
District 56
Val Peterson (R)
District 57
Nelson Abbott (R)
District 58
District 59
Mike Kohler (R)
District 60
Tyler Clancy (R)
District 61
Lisa Shepherd (R)
District 62
Norman Thurston (R)
District 63
Stephen Whyte (R)
District 64
Jefferson Burton (R)
District 65
Doug Welton (R)
District 66
Troy Shelley (R)
District 67
District 68
Scott Chew (R)
District 69
Logan Monson (R)
District 70
Carl Albrecht (R)
District 71
Rex Shipp (R)
District 72
Joseph Elison (R)
District 73
Colin Jack (R)
District 74
Neil Walter (R)
District 75
Walt Brooks (R)
Republican Party (61)
Democratic Party (14)
