Justin Wages
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Justin Wages (Republican Party) ran for election to the Maryland House of Delegates to represent District 3. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Wages completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Justin Wages was born in Frederick, Maryland. He earned an associate degree from Frederick Community College in 2020 and a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2022.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Maryland House of Delegates elections, 2022
General election
General election for Maryland House of Delegates District 3 (3 seats)
Incumbent Ken Kerr, Karen Simpson, and Kris Fair defeated Kathy Diener and Justin Wages in the general election for Maryland House of Delegates District 3 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Ken Kerr (D) | 24.9 | 26,270 |
| ✔ |  | Karen Simpson (D) | 24.6 | 25,945 |
| ✔ |  | Kris Fair (D)  | 24.3 | 25,602 |
| Kathy Diener (R) | 13.0 | 13,699 | ||
 | Justin Wages (R) | 12.8 | 13,535 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.4 | 429 | ||
| Total votes: 105,480 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Maryland House of Delegates District 3 (3 seats)
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for Maryland House of Delegates District 3 on July 19, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ken Kerr | 19.8 | 5,628 |
| ✔ | | Kris Fair | 19.7 | 5,598 |
| ✔ | | Karen Simpson | 15.6 | 4,450 |
 | Josh Bokee | 12.7 | 3,618 | |
| Tarolyn Thrasher | 12.3 | 3,489 | ||
| William Reid | 11.6 | 3,295 | ||
 | Stephen Slater | 8.3 | 2,364 | |
| Total votes: 28,442 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Maryland House of Delegates District 3 (3 seats)
Justin Wages and Kathy Diener advanced from the Republican primary for Maryland House of Delegates District 3 on July 19, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Justin Wages | 50.5 | 3,893 |
| ✔ | Kathy Diener | 49.5 | 3,818 | |
| Total votes: 7,711 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- John Distel (R)
- Tim Cansler (R)
Endorsements
To view Wages' endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Justin Wages completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Wages' responses.
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I am a lifelong resident of Frederick County. I graduated from Governor Thomas Johnson High School in 2017, Frederick Community College with an associate degree in Business Administration in 2020, and The University of Maryland - College Park with a bachelor's degree in Business Management in 2022.
I became interested in state and local politics over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The handling of the pandemic opened my eyes to just how much influence our state and local governments have over our day-to-day lives. I began to pay more attention to the happenings in Annapolis and decided to enter the race for state delegate soon after.
- Lowering the tax burden for our citizens. Maryland is one of the most tax-happy states in the nation. This is unfortunate for all Marylanders, but especially our single-parent households and certainly our retirees who live on a fixed income.
- Defending our police. Police officers have some of the toughest and most dangerous jobs in the world. However, the Maryland General Assembly has recently removed protections that keep our officers safe and allow them to protect our streets.
- Protecting the Second Amendment. I will fight to strengthen punishments for gun-related criminals while making it easier for law-abiding Marylanders to exercise their constitutional rights.
I am personally passionate about economic policy. Although I am critical of Governor Larry Hogan, I believe he has done a good job of putting Maryland in a good place from a budgetary standpoint and his economic policies have been a welcome change from a long and hard eight years under the O'Malley administration. Maryland's budget is not perfect, however. While it continues to rise year after year, we do have built-in budgetary surpluses and we are no longer operating off of a deficit. I believe this gives us a prime opportunity to lower the tax burden for all Maryland citizens, especially the most vulnerable among us - including single-parent households and our retirees living on a fixed income. There are many ways to tackle this issue. Maryland is the only state nationwide with both and estate and inheritance tax, which I believe is immoral. We are also one of the few states which have a tax on digital goods such as Amazon memberships and Netflix subscriptions. One of the most asinine tax policies we have, however, is the automatic fuel tax increase. Our fuel tax is linked to the Consumer Price Index (inflation) and automatically rises every July 1 pursuant to the CPI inflation rate. This is an automatic increase that does not require a vote, so there is no way to hold politicians accountable on this issue. We need to unlink the fuel tax from CPI and return it, at least, to the 2013 rate where the inflation-related increase began. I would prefer to abolish it altogether.
I got my first job at the age of 16 as a lot attendant at Shockley Honda here in Frederick. One of the employment requirements was that I had to have my driver's license since my main duty would be moving cars all over the place - around the lot, to and from autobody shops, and even between other dealerships. I started at Shockley the day after I got my license and hit the ground running. I worked as a lot attendant for just about a year until I received my first promotion - product specialist. In this role, I was tasked with teaching clients how to use their new cars and also troubleshooting technical issues for returning customers. I would teach them how to use their collision avoidance features, navigation, bluetooth, and all of the other fancy technology you see these days. The day after I turned 18, I earned my next promotion to sales professional. I enjoyed engaging with clients in an efficient, effective, and transparent manner, finding the perfect solution to match their needs with their budget. I feel that this experience will transition well to Annapolis where I will be tasked with meeting my constituents' needs while operating within our budget.
I favor an independent commission for redistricting. I believe Governor Hogan's Maryland Citizens' Redistricting Commission got it right this year, while the Maryland Legislative Redistricting Advisory Council created nothing more than unfair, partisan, gerrymandered districts.
The hours of work and rounds of public input that the Maryland Citizens' Redistricting Commission received proved that citizens want to pick their legislators, and that it should not happen the other way around. Composed of three Republicans, three Democrats, and three independents, the Commission surely represented Maryland much better than the group the legislature put together.
The hours of work and rounds of public input that the Maryland Citizens' Redistricting Commission received proved that citizens want to pick their legislators, and that it should not happen the other way around. Composed of three Republicans, three Democrats, and three independents, the Commission surely represented Maryland much better than the group the legislature put together.
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
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 15, 2022
Current members of the Maryland House of Delegates
Leadership
Speaker of the House:Joseline Peña-Melnyk
Majority Leader:David Moon
Representatives
District 1A
Jim Hinebaugh (R)
District 1B
Jason Buckel (R)
District 1C
Terry Baker (R)
District 2B
District 7B
Lauren Arikan (R)
District 9B
Courtney Watson (D)
District 11A
Cheryl Pasteur (D)
District 12B
Gary Simmons (D)
District 27A
Darrell Odom (D)
District 27B
Jeffrie Long (D)
District 27C
Mark Fisher (R)
District 29A
Matt Morgan (R)
District 29B
Brian Crosby (D)
District 29C
Todd Morgan (R)
District 30B
Seth Howard (R)
District 33A
Andrew Pruski (D)
District 33B
Stuart Schmidt (R)
District 33C
Heather Bagnall (D)
District 34B
Susan McComas (R)
District 35B
Kevin Hornberger (R)
District 37A
District 38A
Kevin Anderson (R)
District 38B
Barry Beauchamp (R)
District 38C
Wayne Hartman (R)
District 42A
Nino Mangione (R)
District 42B
Michele Guyton (D)
District 42C
Joshua Stonko (R)
District 43B
Cathi Forbes (D)
District 44A
Eric Ebersole (D)
District 47B
Deni Taveras (D)
Democratic Party (102)
Republican Party (39)
