Opinion: As a mother and business owner, I endorse Becky Edwards
As a mother of four young children and owner of one of Utah’s fastest-growing companies, I am proud to support Becky Edwards for Congress. Of all the candidates on the ballot, Edwards is the only one with a proven track record and the experience required to represent the needs and values of Utahns.
I am writing (with a baby on my lap) on behalf of every Utahn in District 2, but especially women. Women deserve to have our voices heard, and our families deserve to be represented by someone who cares about the true needs of constituents.
When you support women, you also support their families and a prosperous economy for all. Let’s establish a few facts about women in Utah:
Currently, women make up more than 40% of Utah’s labor force.
Utah women are caring for the nation’s highest average number of children per family.
Moms bore the brunt of job losses in Utah during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Utah was ranked last in the nation for “women’s equality” in WalletHub’s annual report.
As our representative, Edwards served as the co-chair of the Women in the Economy Commission, a bipartisan group that included women from different business and education sectors, studying the needs of women in the Utah economy and recommending policy solutions.
She also helped develop a package of Family Economic Prosperity legislation to help women and mothers in the workplace, and sponsored several bills on child care, paid family leave, and workplace discrimination. She also sponsored bills to support access to quality, affordable child care by incentivizing businesses to create savings accounts, where both the employer and employee would contribute toward child care costs, and providing tax credits to businesses that offer paid family and medical leave to employees.
She has a long list of important legislative accomplishments, but what won my vote most is Edwards herself.
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I’ve met Becky Edwards several times during her campaign and now consider her my friend and mentor. She genuinely cares and embodies servant-leadership, as one who leads with the goal of lifting others. She knew just the comforting words to say when my grandma died. She asked many times about my new baby. Her warmth and genuine kindness are paired with her boldness and clear ability to bring people together to work through the hard conversations.
Edwards worked as a social worker for years and spent 10 years as an elected official in the Utah Legislature. During that decade, she opened her home every Saturday to her constituents. She graciously welcomed questions, ideas and criticism, too. She listened. Really listened. Then she went to work.
There’s a reason Edwards has had nearly 3,000 volunteers across the state supporting her campaign. We want better leadership. Our state — and especially women and families in Utah — will be in the best hands with Edwards representing us in Washington, D.C. I’m absolutely confident she is the proactive leader Utah needs now.
I invite you to join me in voting for Becky Edwards for Congress in the Republican primary Sept. 5, and again in the general election Nov. 21.
Crystalee Beck lives in Bountiful, Utah, with her husband and children. She is founder and owner of two local businesses, Comma Copywriters and The Mama Ladder.
