Opinion
Hemmert: Why I’m Voting for Emily Lockhart
While we have three names on the ballot for Utah Senate District 22, we really only have two candidates to choose from. That’s not a slight to Garrett Cammans at all; many were and still are unaware of his candidacy in this primary. Our choice is between Heidi Balderree and Emily Lockhart in the race for Utah Senate District 22. I choose Emily Lockhart.
I first met Emily in the fall of 2023 after a debate held for Lehi City Council candidates. We shared a table with a few other people toward the back of the room, and we all conferred a bit about answers from candidates throughout the evening. I found her comments to be well-reasoned, educated, and congenial,even when she disagreed with a candidate’s statements or positions.
Since then, I’ve met and spoken with Emily a few times at various stages in this primary campaign. Each time, she’s been consistent, engaged, and crystal clear about her reasons for running and what she wants to accomplish as our senator. Each time, I’ve pushed a bit more to see how she analyzes issues.
The approach I’ve seen her consistently apply to campaign issues and as a voting city planning commission member: a) doing the work to understand and scope what the issue really isinstead of what the issue is perceived to be; b) doing more focused discovery work as the issue is clarified through background work; c) forming and discussing possible solutions; d) filtering possible solutions through what I call a “values-based as constrained by legal permissibility” philosophy, e) looking closely at who and what are impacted by different possible solutions and the associated pros and cons; c) and then solidifying a position that includes an action plan/determination.Rinse and repeat. Again and again, Emily demonstrated that she has the intuitive algorithm for problem solving and coalition building that make for an outstanding and trusted elected representative.
Back to our choice. This is a choice between someone who was handed this senate seat last year by ~125 people in a special appointment process or someone who has walked the talk in friendly and unfriendly places in a true electorate-based campaign. This is a choice between someone who is asking for your vote based on ambiguous and vague position statements or someone who is asking for your vote based on being deeply immersed in issues and solutions prior to making clear position statements. This is a choice between someone who follows a political action group’s talking points and checklists or someone who understands party positions and mandates and tempers those with wisdom and commonsense.
This is a choice between someone who was bluntly handed representative responsibility and who hasn’t thrived under its mantle or someone who has well-articulated her “whys” and “whats” and understands the weight and trust of representative responsibility. For the sake of clarity, Emily is the latter in all the preceding sentences.
We have a choice to make in the race for Utah Senate District 22. I choose Emily Lockhart.
Matthew Wynn Hemmert
Lehi, Utah
