BYU-Idaho student announces run for state Senate

Jacob Householder.| Courtesy Jacob Householder.
REXBURG — A Brigham Young University–Idaho student has announced his candidacy in the District 34 Senate race.
Last week, Jacob Householder announced at the Madison County Courthouse that he’s hoping to take over the seat Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, currently holds. Hill is retiring from his position in the Senate.
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Householder will be running against Rep. Doug Ricks, R-Rexburg. The freshmen representative announced earlier this year that he would be leaving the House to run for Hill’s seat.
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“I think people should vote for candidates that are good, wise and honest. I’m doing the best I can to develop each of these three qualities,” Householder told EastIdahoNews.com. “If the people feel I haven’t become good, wise and honest, they shouldn’t vote for me. But if they feel I have, I hope they will help me secure this seat in the Senate.”
Householder is from Mesa, Arizona. He moved to Idaho in 2014 and is currently a senior Financial Economics major at BYU-Idaho. According to his website, he’s the oldest of seven children and lives in Rexburg with his younger brother and sister.
His goal is to make politics simple for the common citizen by helping them be educated and informed.
“Today’s political machine, at any level of government, is overwhelming to the average citizen,” Householder said. “When people see problems, but don’t thoroughly understand the political process, they have little hope that there’s any way to fix it.”
Right now, Householder’s the Director of Outreach for the Columbus Center for Constitutional Studies. The center is a non-partisan, educational non-profit dedicated to spreading the principles of successful government outlined by America’s Founding Fathers, according to its website.
Householder helped with the founding and development of Rexburg’s Madison Liberty Institute and its Spark Freedom and BrushFires projects for student and civic engagement.
“I want to keep making videos, teaching in the community, and start using podcasts to help simplify the big picture of politics for the people of Idaho,” Householder said. “Regardless of what happens with this campaign, I’m very excited for the hope, clarity and understanding that I know Idahoan’s will gain from our message.”
He said his past experiences convinced him that the principles of successful government taught by the Founding Fathers deserve to always be promoted.
“That makes my job really easy because rather than evaluating the net benefit of every single legislative proposal, I can simply turn to the Idaho Constitution to see if the people have assigned that responsibility to our state government,” Householder explained. “If they haven’t, then it doesn’t matter how good the program or law would be, it’s unconstitutional and shouldn’t be supported.”
Householder is looking forward to meeting people throughout his campaign as he hopes to represent District 34.
“There’s nothing that gets me more excited than spending time in the community sharing what I’ve learned and seeing people find hope. It’s a deeply emotional experience for me,” Householder said. “I know what it’s like to live without hope. That fear and panic defined a massive portion of my life. I live for those moments when I can share with others the reasons that I have so much hope.”
The primary election will be held May 19. The general election is Nov. 3.
Source: eastidahonews.com