J. Morgan Philpot is a former state representative for District 45 in the heart of Salt Lake County, and the 2010 Republican nominee for . He is a former vice-chair of the Utah Republican Party

Utah Republican Party

The Utah State Republican Party works to nominate and support the election of Republican candidates in partisan races for public office in the state of Utah...

.

Biography

Philpot has been involved in politics for much of his life. He was a White House intern in 1997 and has been active in Republican politics in Utah for a number of years. In addition to being a state and county delegate, he ran and won a seat in the Utah House of Representatives

Utah House of Representatives

The Utah House of Representatives is the lower house of the Utah State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. The House is composed of 75 representatives elected from single member constituent districts. Each district contains an average population of 35,000 people...

 in 2000. He ran again in 2002 and won another term. Just before the end of his second term, he resigned his seat and went to the Ave Maria School of Law

Ave Maria School of Law

The Ave Maria School of Law, founded in 1999, is a fully ABA accredited Roman Catholic law school, located in Naples, Florida. In the 2009-2010 academic year, there were over 375 students enrolled from a variety of states, countries, and undergraduate institutions...

 in Ann Arbor, MI.

Upon graduation, he returned to Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 where he worked for Utah Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff

Mark Shurtleff

Mark Shurtleff is the current attorney general of the state of Utah, United States, a position he has held since January 2001...

, before accepting his current position as the General Counsel and Government Affairs director for Reagan Outdoor Advertising.

Utah House of Representatives

While in office, Mr. Philpot sponsored the Carson Smith Special Needs Scholarship bill, the Prohibition of Public Funding for Abortion and the Designation of Constitution & Bill of Rights Day in Utah. He received awards from the Utah Taxpayer's Association, from "Grass Roots" which gave him top honors in 2002 (the first year they started the awards), 2003 and 2004. He also received the "Guardian of Small Business" from NFIB and the Statesmanship Citation from the Newquist group.

Utah GOP Vice-Chair career and Congressional Race

In early 2009, Philpot declared his intention to run against the incumbent vice-chair of the state Republican party. He won that race with 52% of the vote. While in office, he helped to create a Web Communications committee, which publishes a monthly newsletter and reaches out via social media.
On Jan 15, 2010, he announced his resignation as party vice-chair and his intention to run for Utah's Second Congressional District. He lost to Democrat Jim Matheson (a 10 year incumbent and son of a former Governor) by 4%.

External links

• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• http://www.utahgrassroots.org/annual/2002/index.html 2002 Grassroots rankings
• http://www.utahgrassroots.org/annual/2003/index.html 2003 Grassroots rankings
• http://www.utahgrassroots.org/annual/2004/index.html 2004 Grassroots rankings
• http://www.heartland.org/policybot/results/14496/School_Choice_Offers_Flexibility_for_an_Autistic_Child.html Article about the Carson Smith bill
• http://kvnuforthepeople.com/2009/06/14/utah-republican-party-2009-convention-election-results/ 2009 Convention results