Steve Kuzmich

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Steve Kuzmich

Independent

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

Texas A & M University, 1991

Law

Baylor Law School, 1994

Personal

Birthplace

New York, N.Y.

Religion

Christian

Profession

Lawyer

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Campaign YouTube

Personal Facebook

Steve Kuzmich (independent) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Texas' 24th Congressional District. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

Kuzmich completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Steve Kuzmich was born in New York, New York. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University in 1991 and a J.D. from Baylor Law School in 1994. Kuzmich’s career experience includes working as a lawyer.

Elections

2020

See also: Texas' 24th Congressional District election, 2020

Texas' 24th Congressional District election, 2020 (March 3 Republican primary)

Texas' 24th Congressional District election, 2020 (March 3 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Texas District 24

Beth Van Duyne defeated Candace Valenzuela, Darren Hamilton, Steve Kuzmich, and Mark Bauer in the general election for U.S. House Texas District 24 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Beth Van Duyne (R)	48.8	167,910
		Candace Valenzuela (D)	47.5	163,326
		Darren Hamilton (L)	1.6	5,647
		Steve Kuzmich (Independent)	1.2	4,229
		Mark Bauer (Independent)	0.8	2,909

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 344,021
= 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.

Watch the Candidate Conversation for this race!

Democratic primary runoff election

Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Texas District 24

Candace Valenzuela defeated Kim Olson in the Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Texas District 24 on July 14, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Candace Valenzuela	60.4	20,003
		Kim Olson	39.6	13,131

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 33,134
= 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 primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 24

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 24 on March 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Kim Olson	41.0	24,442
✔		Candace Valenzuela	30.4	18,078
		Jan McDowell	10.0	5,965
	Submit photo	Crystal Fletcher (Unofficially withdrew)	5.7	3,386
		Richard Fleming	5.1	3,010
		Sam Vega	4.5	2,677
		John Biggan	3.4	1,996

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 59,554
= 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

• William Carl Fisher (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 24

Beth Van Duyne defeated David Fegan, Desi Maes, Sunny Chaparala, and Jeron Liverman in the Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 24 on March 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Beth Van Duyne	64.3	32,067
		David Fegan	20.7	10,295
		Desi Maes	5.8	2,867
		Sunny Chaparala	5.6	2,808
		Jeron Liverman	3.6	1,809

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 49,846
= 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

• Deanna Maria Metzger (R)

Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for U.S. House Texas District 24

Darren Hamilton advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. House Texas District 24 on March 21, 2020.

		Candidate
✔		Darren Hamilton (L)

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified.
= 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

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Steve Kuzmich completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kuzmich's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I have lived in north Texas since grade school and raised a family here. I care deeply about our community and Country. Like many, I am dissatisfied with our political leaders and the dysfunction of our government.

I am running for Congress because the American political system is broken, our Country is hurting and our Country is in danger. Elected officials need to represent us, not the far right and the far left of their own parties. I am the candidate for reasonably minded voters who want to put Country over party. I am the candidate for voters who want a candidate that is fiscally conservative and socially moderate.

I have a proven track record as a problem solver and reasonable person who will listen and can see both sides of issues. While I do have strong beliefs, I am willing to work together with people who have different beliefs to work towards common sense solutions. Always keeping in mind that our most important beliefs are the beliefs that unite us as Americans: freedom, democracy, free markets, shared sacrifice, human rights, respect for three equal branches of government and the rule of law.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• I am fiscally conservative and socially moderate.
• I believe that we must always put our Country and our values over the extreme political parties.
• I believe in taking care of business, tackling big problems and finding solutions.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am passionate about making government work and solving problems. We have to expect government to take care of these big issues:

We need a national bipartisan bill to repair our neglected roads, bridges and airports. This is my favorite starting issue where we can all work together. Everyone sees our decaying roads and we all want funding to improve the roads in our congressional districts. If we can find agreement here, we can build upon that accomplishment.

We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform that is tough on border security while supporting generous legal immigration and treating our immigrant communities with respect by giving them certainty on where they stand. Any plan should provide a path to citizenship for our DACA kids and better treatment of countries that share our values.

We need to control spending, balance our federal budget and begin the process of reducing our national debt. We need a government that budgets as opposed to funding by continuing spending resolutions that often threaten to shut government down.

I believe that we can protect the Second Amendment and do more to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.

I have a detailed health insurance plan that uses the free market and government to provide catastrophic coverage, health savings accounts and cost reductions.

We can keep Texas a leader in energy while using the free market and government to protect the environment.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I really make a point not to be too star struck with any politician or world figure because often it is hard to really know those people. The generation that fought in World War II as a whole, "the greatest generation" was amazing. When we look at what they did, what they sacrificed, how hard they had it, and how they risked everything for our Country we pale in comparison. When we try to measure ourselves against that generation we just look silly and should realize that we all have so much more we need to do.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Being willing to compromise, to listen and see both sides, and to try to solve problems while involving people with different opinions. Understanding that both liberals and conservatives bring good ideas and different skills to the table.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Vienna by Billy Joel

What process do you favor for redistricting?

Gerrymandering is one of the biggest problems. The parties draw district lines to hold power. It creates many safe districts where parties are guaranteed a win and few real contests, so politicians do not have to be accountable to voters, just their own parties.

Take the politics out of it as much as possible. Have citizen commissions draw the districts following fair guidelines. The group Voters Not Politicians has great ideas on how to do this on their website.

District 24 is a Gerrymandered district that was originally drawn to be a safe Republican district. After ten years of population growth it is a district that Democrats have carried in other races. The District goes all the way from South Plano/Nebraska Furniture Mart to the top of Love Field, west to the top of Fort Worth, North to Denton County and East back to Lewisville. It has a giant population lake in the center, DFW Airport. It includes parts of over 15 cities and three counties. It takes over two hours to take a lap around it by car. It makes no sense whatsoever. We have districts in Texas that are over 100 miles long including one that runs from Austin all the way to San Antonio.

We must put in place a non-political system for redistricting.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Political dysfunction/our broken two party system. The party primary process only produces far right and far left candidates.

By the time voters get to the general election in November they really do not have a choice that is suitable for the vast majority of voters in the center.

Ultimately, the candidates that are elected are unwilling to work to find solutions with the opposing party because doing so would cause them to lose in their own primary election. We see this dysfunction when we wonder why our government is unable to pass legislation to solve problems. Social media, the echo chamber, amplifies the extreme voices on the left and right. This dysfunction has no end in sight.

I have two concerns. That this gridlock and division will continue is one. The other is that one party will have a red wave or blue wave election and will get everything they want. If that happens, with either party completely in charge, America will be a very different country.

Both sitting representatives and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?

I met a DACA "kid" who had been in the country for over ten years and had obtained a degree in civil engineering. We had a long talk and I was so impressed by her. I kept thinking who in their right mind would want to try to do something to cause her to want or have to leave our Country. She is the best of the best.

I met a lady who has a relative that died from COVID-19. She was very supportive of my campaign, but I was ashamed that we had a system that works so hard to keep Independents off the ballot that it made us go door to door during a global pandemic to get signatures just to be on the ballot. She agreed. There needs to be some threshold to be on the ballot, but it could have been accomplished with online signatures, letters of support, or the paying of a filing fee.

The two political parties are so desperate to hang on to power that they do everything the can to stop anyone else from getting on the ballot.

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

What's on the ballot? U.S. President U.S. Congress U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

Who represents me? U.S. Congress State executives State legislators State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards

Newsletters

Coronavirus Weekly Updates Documenting America's Path to Recovery The Heart of the Primaries The Daily Brew The Weekly Brew The Ballot Bulletin Checks and Balances Economy and Society Hall Pass Number of the Day Robe & Gavel Union Station

External links

• Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

[show]

Texas' current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

John Cornyn (R)

Ted Cruz (R)

Representatives

District 1

Nathaniel Moran (R)

District 2

Daniel Crenshaw (R)

District 3

Keith Self (R)

District 4

Pat Fallon (R)

District 5

Lance Gooden (R)

District 6

Jake Ellzey (R)

District 7

Lizzie Fletcher (D)

District 8

Morgan Luttrell (R)

District 9

Al Green (D)

District 10

Michael McCaul (R)

District 11

August Pfluger (R)

District 12

Craig Goldman (R)

District 13

Ronny Jackson (R)

District 14

Randy Weber (R)

District 15

Monica De La Cruz (R)

District 16

Veronica Escobar (D)

District 17

Pete Sessions (R)

District 18

Vacant

District 19

Jodey Arrington (R)

District 20

Joaquin Castro (D)

District 21

Chip Roy (R)

District 22

Troy Nehls (R)

District 23

Tony Gonzales (R)

District 24

Beth Van Duyne (R)

District 25

Roger Williams (R)

District 26

Brandon Gill (R)

District 27

Michael Cloud (R)

District 28

Henry Cuellar (D)

District 29

Sylvia Garcia (D)

District 30

Jasmine Crockett (D)

District 31

John Carter (R)

District 32

Julie Johnson (D)

District 33

Marc Veasey (D)

District 34

Vicente Gonzalez (D)

District 35

Greg Casar (D)

District 36

Brian Babin (R)

District 37

Lloyd Doggett (D)

District 38

Wesley Hunt (R)

Republican Party (27)

Democratic Party (12)

Vacancies (1)