I was hoping that this race would be about issues. Unfortunately, the mayor and her campaign team have decided to misrepresent my record in the legislature in an effort to secure another four years for Michelle. This started months ago as word of mouth rumors and anonymous flyers and emails, but it has recently spread to flyers that are paid for by Michelle Kaufusi’s campaign.
Past records are important to help voters to see how each candidate approaches issues and challenges. I have an extensive voting record (well over 5,000 votes) and have countless speeches, emails, posts, and videos documenting my work in the legislature and with my constituents. This is all fair game–but let’s keep it truthful.
My voting record is public, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Transparency is crucial to a healthy democratic republic. In fact, I believe Provo could benefit from increased transparency, starting with the Mayor’s office. I served in the legislature with integrity and common sense, and that’s exactly what I’m planning to do as mayor. I am committed to strengthening the things Provo does well while improving our weak spots.
Whenever you start hearing anonymous rumors that don’t seem to fit in with your experience with a candidate, it might be worth asking yourself who benefits from spreading the information, and what stake they have in the conversation. I am committed to always being upfront and transparent about my communication. If you ever have any questions about where I stand on an issue or on my voting record, please ask me. My phone number is 801-669-6962 and my email address is marshaforprovo@gmail.com.
MISLEADING ACCUSATIONS
MISINFORMATION ❌
Marsha voted against strengthening protections for girl’s sports
TRUTH ✅
HB463 in 2023: This bill was not about protecting girl’s sports–on the House Floor, the sponsor herself said it was for age verification. This bill would require parents to upload a child’s birth certificate to the district before their child could participate in a school sport. I felt it added another layer of bureaucracy to participating in sports and the Utah High School Activities Association. Many of my colleagues agreed with me, and the bill never made it to the Senate Floor. I believe in limited government and cutting red tape, and this bill did not support either of these priorities.
MISINFORMATION ❌
Marsha sponsored legislation to block schools from seeing expunged records of job applicants convicted of serious, violent, or sexual crimes.
TRUTH ✅
HB585 2024: This bill focused on streamlining hiring processes for the Utah State Board of Education. They helped draft the bill, and it does not block schools from seeing records of job applicants convicted of serious, violent, or sexual crimes. NOTE: Utah does NOT expunge serious, violent, and sexual crimes.
MISINFORMATION ❌
Marsha didn’t vote on a tax cut that Utah families were counting on.
TRUTH ✅
HB54 in 2023: I voted yes on the tax cut and helped pass this bill in the House. I was working on passing other legislation during the concurrence vote, which just standardized language between the Senate and House versions of the bill. NOTE: While serving in the legislature, I routinely had one of the highest attendance and voting records in the House. I took my responsibilities very seriously.
MISINFORMATION ❌
Marsha voted against protecting women’s sports.
TRUTH ✅
HB11 in 2022: This bill, which I cosponsored, banned males from playing in female sports in Utah middle and high schools. If you scroll down to line 6, you can see the list of cosponsors for yourself. I voted for this legislation when it was brought to the House Floor. The bill then went to the Senate and they held it until the last few hours of the annual legislative session. They then substituted in another bill with completely different language and which did not indemnify school districts if the ban was challenged in the courts–which we knew it would be. This meant that school districts would owe thousands upon thousands of dollars for upholding state law, which would give them a strong incentive to disobey the intent of the bill. The Senate then sent it back to the House for a final approval.
In the mere minutes we had before the law-passing period of the session ended for the year, we were desperately trying to read the new language and figure out what it did. I was very opposed to leaving school districts open to devastating lawsuits, so I voted no on this version, along with many other of my Republican colleagues. The governor vetoed this version of the bill because he was also very concerned about the harm to school districts. When we brought the bill back in a special session, we fixed the language to protect the school districts and I voted yes.
Here is a screen shot of the voting in the House before the Senate changed it to make schools liable for lawsuits. You can see that I voted yes.
Here is the link to the bill that protected the schools and a screenshot of my vote.
https://le.utah.gov/Session/2022S3/bills/static/HB3001.html
MISINFORMATION ❌
Marsha voted for illegal immigrants to get free health insurance.
TRUTH ✅
SB217 in 2023 was backed by Republican leadership and was passed with only 7 no votes. It allows children under age 5 that were undocumented but otherwise qualified for CHIP to access health care. There is no federal money involved. I believe children under the age of 5 should not be punished for their parents’ actions by being denied medical care.
MISINFORMATION ❌
Marsha voted for government to fund 529 retirement plans for people from “intergenerational poverty”
TRUTH ✅
529 plans are an evidenced based savings plan for kids’ education. There are some stringent requirements and can only be used for education. This bill, HB119, passed unanimously and was signed by the governor. Provo Representative Norm Thurston sponsored it.
MISINFORMATION ❌
Voted to allow party affiliation change right before an election.
TRUTH ✅
HB197 in 2021: I voted against making it more difficult and confusing to change party affiliation. I strongly support individual rights and a person’s ability to vote for the candidate and to affiliate with the party of their choosing.
OTHER ATTACKS
While many of Michelle’s accusations have been dishonest, some of her negative campaigning touches on truth. The following list contains other legislation that her campaign has targeted me on. I hope that this additional context will help you assess the full picture surrounding my time in the Legislature. These are my votes and I stand by them.
** Marsha voted for a commission to review systemic racism in the police force–In 2019, I voted for HB 415, which “prohibits a municipality from establishing a board or committee with powers over a police chief” and establishes limitations on a municipality’s power to establish a board or committee that relates to the provision of law enforcement services.
In 2021, I voted for HB283, which was presented by the Commissioner of Public Safety, Jess Anderson, and supported by law enforcement. This bill set up a 26 member commission made up of sheriffs, police chiefs, the Department of Public Safety, 5 community members, the Attorney General’s office, prosecutors, defenders, legislators, etc. to find ways to improve community relations through data collection, increased transparency, and to address any systemic inequality or racism. I support law enforcement and worked to support their efforts in the legislature.
**Voted for 16-year-olds to be able to vote in school board elections — I voted no on this bill in 2021 and then yes in 2022. I had a very bright and involved high school student intern who effectively argued that it would get 16-17 more interested and involved in civics. She wanted to see more teens excited about being politically active.
**Voted to ban watering lawns Oct 1-April 25 HB538 passed 53-17 in the House and failed in the Senate. It was for areas in the Great Salt Lake Basin and was designed to get more water to the Great Salt Lake. If we don’t have enough water in the Great Salt Lake, we will be paying billions to mitigate the toxic dust. This will harm families, cost us economic opportunities, and poison our beautiful home.
**Voted NO on requiring schools to teach principles of individual freedom About 25% of the almost 600 bills passed each session are focused on education. This is far too many, and the constant onslaught of legislation aimed at teachers is part of the reason we have such a hard time sourcing educators. This bill, HB427 in 2023, would cost the state about half a million dollars and I felt it was unnecessary, given that the school districts I represented already did all the things this bill implied that they didn’t.
Voted to declare racism a moral and public health crisis in Utah—HJR13 in 2021 passed unanimously out of the Health and Human Services Committee and I voted for it. It was during COVID, and native Americans and Pacific Islanders were dying at exponentially higher rates than any other groups. The Committee thought that this information was important to get to the full House, and I agreed. If certain racial groups are disproportionately dying from contagious disease, I think we have a responsibility to acknowledge and address it.
**Women’s Bathrooms. HB 257 in 2024 Most of this bill was important legislation that I completely supported. I strongly support protecting safe spaces for women and girls. However, the last part of this bill would (and did) lead to policing women in the bathroom. It stated that someone could only use the bathroom that was for the gender assigned to them on their birth certificate. While this idea sounds attractive on paper, it leads to harassment for many women and girls who don’t fit the mold. Women who look more masculine have been challenged and harassed in restrooms. I would rather have a transgender woman use a women’s bathroom then have a biological woman accused of being a man in a bathroom. I also didn’t want transgender men who look like men using women’s bathrooms, and transgender women who look like women having to use men’s bathrooms. For the safety and comfort of all Utahns, that part of the bill didn’t make any sense to me, so I voted no.
**Consistently the lowest rated legislator by conservative groups, including by Libertas who rated her the least conservative republican in the entire state. These rankings are often differentiated by one or two votes. I did not vote to please lobbying groups–which Libertas definitely is. I researched bills carefully and asked myself these questions: Is it constitutional? Does it support families? How will this be paid for? Does this bill infringe on personal rights? During COVID, I got a very high rating from Libertas because of my votes for businesses remaining open and my support for personal freedoms. But in 2022, I got a low ranking because I voted against school vouchers. There were no accountability measures in the voucher bill, and my constituents were against it in a survey I sent out. It turns out millions of dollars were spent on things like travel, expensive lessons, playground equipment, etc. I thought it was nuts that Libertas supported it even though there was no accountability piece.
After the first attack on my record, I reached out to Libertas to find out more about their rating system (we collaborated a lot when I was drafting bills). The person I spoke to said that they were thinking of getting rid of the ratings because they evaluated so few bills that their rankings didn’t really represent a legislator.
**Other rankings from advocacy and special interest groups: I’ve received high scores and low scores in different years, often based on just one or two votes. I didn’t vote to please or displease special interest groups. I voted to represent my district, defend constitutional rights, support working families, advocate for our most vulnerable citizens, and protect your money.
In my time in the Legislature, I supported meaningful tax relief, expanded Utah’s regulatory sandbox to help local entrepreneurs, strengthened parental rights in education, and passed bills that streamline government and reduce red tape. Many of my bills earned broad support because they were rooted in common sense and focused on real results.
CONCLUSION
My voting record is public, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Transparency is crucial to a healthy democratic republic, and I am committed to strengthening the things Provo does well while improving our weak spots. I served in the legislature with integrity and common sense, and that’s exactly what I’m planning to do at City Hall. At the same time, this race isn’t about cherry-picked votes from the Legislature. It’s about what’s happening right here in Provo. To learn more about how I will improve our city, visit the Issues tab.