Simone Collins
From Ballotpedia
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Simone Collins (Republican Party) ran for election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to represent District 150. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Collins completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Simone Collins earned a bachelor's degree from The George Washington University in 2010 and a graduate degree from the University of Cambridge in 2016. Her career experience includes working as a business executive.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Pennsylvania House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 150
Incumbent Joseph Webster defeated Simone Collins in the general election for Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 150 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Joseph Webster (D) | 58.7 | 22,359 |
 | Simone Collins (R)  | 41.0 | 15,624 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 87 | ||
| Total votes: 38,070 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 150
Incumbent Joseph Webster advanced from the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 150 on April 23, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Joseph Webster | 99.2 | 6,050 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.8 | 49 | ||
| Total votes: 6,099 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 150
Simone Collins advanced from the Republican primary for Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 150 on April 23, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Simone Collins | 98.7 | 3,844 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.3 | 50 | ||
| Total votes: 3,894 | |||
| = 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 finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Collins in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released December 25, 2023 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Simone Collins completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Collins' 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 proud wife and parent of three—soon four!—kids living in Audubon, PA. All our kids were born in PA and we could not imagine a better place to raise a family. We’re such huge fans of the state that we are encouraging every family we know to move here (here’s a document we made on that front: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tq9rY1TCs49XHckWtzOowYz_xHXFnRpOZq8r0lE5JSQ/edit?usp=sharing
For work, I run a travel management business with my husband Malcolm. Together, we also write books (so far we’ve written five bestselling books: The Pragmatist’s Guide series) and do nonprofit work, which includes education innovation (CollinsInstitute.org) and family advocacy (Pronatalist.org). We have become internationally known for our advocacy for a soft landing on demographic collapse.
Having grown up around San Francisco in California, I started my life as a staunch Democrat, but after watching their policies slowly destroy my childhood community, I am committed to do everything to prevent the same fate befaling my own children and my chosen community.
- There is a huge opportunity in PA to increase the quality and efficiency of government services while simultaneously lowering costs and inspiring investment and business growth in the state. How can this be achieved? By systematically automating (with the help of tech and AI) government services. Doing so can massively improve our experience as PA citizens while lowering our taxes and putting the state on the map for its innovation in governance (thereby drawing in investment).
- PA’s school system can be made the best in the United States if we empower local schools and educators to innovate and thrive. We can do this by enabling maximum school choice—meaning a student’s tax-supported education dollars should follow them wherever they go, whether they attend public school, private school, or a home-based education. Doing so will make all education better by fostering competition and encouraging educators and schools to learn from those models that produce the best outcomes.
- I see family and local community as playing a core role in people’s mental, financial, and social flourishing. I therefore believe strongly in all policies that support families—not just kids and not just parents, but also extended family members, family elders, and neighbors. Rather than support policy that atomizes family and community members into isolation, I advocate for policy that defends and reinforces family ties such as tax credits for family member caregivers, caregiver training programs, development of community programs like babysitting co-ops, and more.
I am uniquely passionate about:
1. Leveraging tech and AI to improve and expand government services while increasing transparency and eliminating redundant bureaucracy (and therefore reducing expenses and citizens’ tax burdens).
2. Supporting school choice (I believe tax dollars allocated for education should follow the student, whether they choose public school, private school, or homeschool).
My ultimate hero is my husband, Malcolm Collins. He takes personal responsibility for the wellbeing of not only his friends, family, and community, but also for humanity on the whole, which is something quite rare in this modern age of personal victimhood and name-calling.
Malcolm demonstrates inhuman amounts of honor, dedication, enthusiasm, and drive.
Policy Paradox by Deborah Stone was a cornerstone book in shaping my perspectives on policy, however anyone who wants to understand my husband’s and my life and political philosophies should read our books, The Pragmatist’s Guide series, or check out our podcast, Based Camp. We are very clear and transparent about our beliefs.
Transparency, initiative, and results orientation.
I am driven, persistent, transparent, and willing to figure things out as I go along. I am also not in this to get re-elected over and over, meaning my time and resources will actually go toward serving local residents rather than playing political games and working to stay in office.
Elected officials first and foremost must serve their communities by actually making things happen—and “investigations,” “committees,” commissions, proclamations, and other wheel-spinning activities don’t count.
I want to be known for encouraging human flourishing—in particular by fostering and protecting community, pluralism, and cultural sovereignty.
The first nontrivial historical event that I remember was the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm, which killed 25 and destroyed 3469 homes and apartments. I remember the smoke from the fires and the local friends who stayed at our house after evacuating from homes in harm’s way. This was my first time learning how crucial local community support networks can be.
My first full-time job was as a social media manager at HubPages, an online content platform that helped people make money from content they wrote and published online. In this role, I worked my way up to a position which had me overseeing a community of over 20,000 freelance writers, helping them not just reach their online goals, but find a supplementary home within our network of content creators (as many who joined felt socially, economically, and geographically isolated). By the time I left three years and one month later to start a business of my own, I had been promoted to Director of Marketing.
While I’m technically a co-author (more like an editor, really), The Pragmatist’s Guide series, by my husband (who is the impetus behind the books and the source of all their big ideas) are my favorite books by far. They present first-principles and intellectually novel approaches to some of mankind’s biggest themes—ranging from relationships to religion and governance.
On the fiction front, I love Iain Banks’ Culture series, but high-minded sci-fi aside, I’m a sucker for the cozy mystery genre, such as the Hannah Swensen Mysteries book series.
On the fiction front, I love Iain Banks’ Culture series, but high-minded sci-fi aside, I’m a sucker for the cozy mystery genre, such as the Hannah Swensen Mysteries book series.
If I could be a fictional character, I’d be Indiana Jones. I love his principled bravery and willingness to get his hands dirty—plus put his reputation and life on the line—to fight for the things he believes in.
A song that’s constantly stuck in my head (I walked down the aisle to my wedding to this song) is “Baba Yetu” by Christopher Tin. It’s the theme song to Sid Meier's Civilization IV (a video game oriented around literally building civilizations). The song features a choir singing the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili and is meant to show how wondrous mankind’s accomplishments have been.
When “Baba Yetu” isn’t in my head, it’s “Buy Dirt” by Jordan Davis and Luke Bryan.
When “Baba Yetu” isn’t in my head, it’s “Buy Dirt” by Jordan Davis and Luke Bryan.
I constantly struggle with and bump up against bureaucracy and bureaucratic bloat—not because I can’t make it work for me (my track record clearly demonstrates that I can), but because I see the waste and corruption it generates, not to mention the people it hurts.
A governor and state legislature should work in consort to make life better for those in the state.
Posturing and virtue signaling should play no role in this. Blocking measures from an opposing party just because it was their idea or pet issue—or moving forward measures and initiatives an opposing party would never let pass just to make a show of things—should play no role in this.
Posturing and virtue signaling should play no role in this. Blocking measures from an opposing party just because it was their idea or pet issue—or moving forward measures and initiatives an opposing party would never let pass just to make a show of things—should play no role in this.
The greatest challenge we face as a state over the next decade: Evading stagnation and obsolescence.
Pennsylvania has the potential to be a hot spot for new industry and a top destination for families to raise their kids. If the state fails to realize this potential, it may enter a vicious cycle of decline from which it will never recover given industry trends and demographic collapse (which geographically consolidate wealth and flourishing).
Pennsylvania has the potential to be a hot spot for new industry and a top destination for families to raise their kids. If the state fails to realize this potential, it may enter a vicious cycle of decline from which it will never recover given industry trends and demographic collapse (which geographically consolidate wealth and flourishing).
I strongly believe that term limits should be per appointed office (meaning someone should only be able to hold a specific position for a limited number of terms). The longer someone holds a specific position, the more likely they are to become stagnant, complacent, and hyperfocused on holding their position (rather than shaking things up and solving serious problems).
Legislators benefit significantly from having relationships with each other, especially if they are pragmatic relationships oriented around problem solving and built on transparency.
I am a fan of Winston Churchill and Otto Von Bismarck, however both were a little too moody and dramatic for my taste. I would like to be equally bold, but perhaps, uh, a little more stable.
While I am interested in running for a different political office in the future, mostly because I want to serve my country and I believe that elected officials become less effective after holding the same role for too long, I am far more interested in helping my husband run for office when he is ready.
I won’t recount any personal story that was shared with me in confidence in an attempt to score political points. Personal stories are for individuals to choose to share, not me, thus them being “personal”. However, if you want to know what I think about people in general, there’s something special about residents in our neighborhood and the surrounding area that is singular and something we constantly remark upon. Every time my husband and I are out with our kids, we see people out, about, and working or relaxing together in a way that I joke feels right out from a cozy mystery genre book. People here care about and interact with their neighbors and wider community in a way you just don’t see in other parts of the USA and we are dead set on protecting and kindling the awesome friend, family, church, professional, and recreational communities here.
How can you tell when something is “a dad joke”?
It’s a parent.
It’s a parent.
I am generally against the legislature overseeing and granting emergency powers as I believe emergencies are best dealt with at a local level, with local stakeholders deciding what’s best for them.
While compromise is neither necessary nor desirable for policymaking, I do believe that transparency, collaboration, and exchange are important when it comes to making progress in governmental and political systems. I have values and policy stances on which I refuse to budge, however there’s a broad range of issues that aren’t core to my values, and I am happy to collaborate with others in ways that help them with those issues assuming they will not impede me in serving my values and top issues.
If elected one of my top priorities will be to support and reinforce existing school choice efforts championed by other hardworking legislators.
We have not sought endorsement from organizations or individuals.
In general I am highly suspicious of committees as they tend to be used as a signaling method rather than a means by which anything meaningful gets done.
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.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 150 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on December 26, 2023.
Current members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Leadership
Speaker of the House:Joanna McClinton
Majority Leader:Kerry Benninghoff
Minority Leader:Jesse Topper
Representatives
District 1
Patrick Harkins (D)
District 2
Robert Merski (D)
District 3
Ryan Bizzarro (D)
District 4
Jake Banta (R)
District 5
Eric Weaknecht (R)
District 6
Bradley Roae (R)
District 7
Parke Wentling (R)
District 8
Aaron Bernstine (R)
District 9
Marla Brown (R)
District 10
Amen Brown (D)
District 11
Marci Mustello (R)
District 12
District 13
John Lawrence (R)
District 14
Roman Kozak (R)
District 15
Joshua Kail (R)
District 16
Robert Matzie (D)
District 17
Tim Bonner (R)
District 18
K.C. Tomlinson (R)
District 19
Aerion Abney (D)
District 20
Emily Kinkead (D)
District 21
Lindsay Powell (D)
District 22
Joshua Siegel (D)
District 23
Dan Frankel (D)
District 24
La'Tasha Mayes (D)
District 25
Brandon Markosek (D)
District 26
Paul Friel (D)
District 27
Daniel Deasy (D)
District 28
Jeremy Shaffer (R)
District 29
Tim Brennan (D)
District 30
Arvind Venkat (D)
District 31
Perry Warren (D)
District 32
Joe McAndrew (D)
District 33
Mandy Steele (D)
District 34
District 35
Dan Goughnour (D)
District 36
Jessica Benham (D)
District 37
Mindy Fee (R)
District 38
John Inglis (D)
District 39
Andrew Kuzma (R)
District 40
Natalie Mihalek (R)
District 41
Brett Miller (R)
District 42
Dan Miller (D)
District 43
Keith Greiner (R)
District 44
Valerie Gaydos (R)
District 45
Anita Kulik (D)
District 46
Jason Ortitay (R)
District 47
Joe D'Orsie (R)
District 48
Timothy O'Neal (R)
District 49
District 50
Bud Cook (R)
District 51
District 52
Ryan Warner (R)
District 53
Steven Malagari (D)
District 54
Greg Scott (D)
District 55
Jill Cooper (R)
District 56
Brian Rasel (R)
District 57
Eric Nelson (R)
District 58
Eric Davanzo (R)
District 59
Leslie Rossi (R)
District 60
Abby Major (R)
District 61
Liz Hanbidge (D)
District 62
James Struzzi (R)
District 63
Josh Bashline (R)
District 64
R. James (R)
District 65
Kathy Rapp (R)
District 66
Brian Smith (R)
District 67
Martin Causer (R)
District 68
Clint Owlett (R)
District 69
Carl Metzgar (R)
District 70
Matthew Bradford (D)
District 71
Jim Rigby (R)
District 72
Frank Burns (D)
District 73
Dallas Kephart (R)
District 74
Dan Williams (D)
District 75
Mike Armanini (R)
District 76
District 77
Scott Conklin (D)
District 78
Jesse Topper (R)
District 79
Louis Schmitt (R)
District 80
Scott Barger (R)
District 81
Richard Irvin (R)
District 82
Paul Takac (D)
District 83
Jamie Flick (R)
District 84
Joe Hamm (R)
District 85
David Rowe (R)
District 86
Perry Stambaugh (R)
District 87
Thomas Kutz (R)
District 88
Sheryl Delozier (R)
District 89
Rob Kauffman (R)
District 90
Chad Reichard (R)
District 91
Dan Moul (R)
District 92
Marc Anderson (R)
District 93
Mike Jones (R)
District 94
Wendy Fink (R)
District 95
Carol Hill-Evans (D)
District 96
Nikki Rivera (D)
District 97
Steven Mentzer (R)
District 98
Tom Jones (R)
District 99
David Zimmerman (R)
District 100
Bryan Cutler (R)
District 101
John Schlegel (R)
District 102
Russell Diamond (R)
District 103
Nate Davidson (D)
District 104
Dave Madsen (D)
District 105
Justin Fleming (D)
District 106
Thomas Mehaffie (R)
District 107
Joanne Stehr (R)
District 108
Michael Stender (R)
District 109
Robert Leadbeter (R)
District 110
Tina Pickett (R)
District 111
Jonathan Fritz (R)
District 112
Kyle Mullins (D)
District 113
Kyle Donahue (D)
District 114
District 115
Maureen Madden (D)
District 116
Dane Watro (R)
District 117
Jamie Walsh (R)
District 118
James Haddock (D)
District 119
Alec Ryncavage (R)
District 120
Brenda Pugh (R)
District 121
Eddie Pashinski (D)
District 122
Doyle Heffley (R)
District 123
Tim Twardzik (R)
District 124
Jamie Barton (R)
District 125
Joe Kerwin (R)
District 126
Jacklyn Rusnock (D)
District 127
Manuel Guzman (D)
District 128
Mark Gillen (R)
District 129
District 130
David Maloney (R)
District 131
Milou Mackenzie (R)
District 132
District 133
Jeanne McNeill (D)
District 134
Peter Schweyer (D)
District 135
Steve Samuelson (D)
District 136
Robert Freeman (D)
District 137
Joe Emrick (R)
District 138
Ann Flood (R)
District 139
Jeff Olsommer (R)
District 140
Jim Prokopiak (D)
District 141
Tina Davis (D)
District 142
Joseph Hogan (R)
District 143
Shelby Labs (R)
District 144
Brian Munroe (D)
District 145
Craig Staats (R)
District 146
Joseph Ciresi (D)
District 147
Donna Scheuren (R)
District 148
Mary Daley (D)
District 149
Tim Briggs (D)
District 150
Joseph Webster (D)
District 151
Melissa Cerrato (D)
District 152
Nancy Guenst (D)
District 153
Ben Sanchez (D)
District 154
Napoleon Nelson (D)
District 155
District 156
District 157
District 158
Christina Sappey (D)
District 159
Carol Kazeem (D)
District 160
Craig Williams (R)
District 161
Leanne Krueger (D)
District 162
David Delloso (D)
District 163
Heather Boyd (D)
District 164
Gina Curry (D)
District 165
Jennifer O'Mara (D)
District 166
Gregory Vitali (D)
District 167
Kristine Howard (D)
District 168
Lisa Borowski (D)
District 169
Kate Klunk (R)
District 170
Martina White (R)
District 171
District 172
Sean Dougherty (D)
District 173
District 174
Ed Neilson (D)
District 175
Mary Isaacson (D)
District 176
Jack Rader (R)
District 177
District 178
Kristin Marcell (R)
District 179
Jason Dawkins (D)
District 180
Jose Giral (D)
District 181
Malcolm Kenyatta (D)
District 182
Benjamin Waxman (D)
District 183
Zachary Mako (R)
District 184
District 185
Regina Young (D)
District 186
Jordan Harris (D)
District 187
Gary Day (R)
District 188
Rick Krajewski (D)
District 189
Tarah Probst (D)
District 190
Roni Green (D)
District 191
Joanna McClinton (D)
District 192
Morgan Cephas (D)
District 193
Torren Ecker (R)
District 194
Tarik Khan (D)
District 195
Keith Harris (D)
District 196
Seth Grove (R)
District 197
Danilo Burgos (D)
District 198
Darisha Parker (D)
District 199
Barbara Gleim (R)
District 200
Christopher Rabb (D)
District 201
Andre Carroll (D)
District 202
Jared Solomon (D)
District 203
Anthony Bellmon (D)
Democratic Party (102)
Republican Party (101)
