Now, he’s running to represent the district, hoping to fill the seat being vacated by his father, Stewart Barlow.

“It’s been an uncomfortable process, but a really important process,” Barlow said about the campaign. “I’ve grown through the process and learned. But more than anything, it just falls back to my motivation for running and understanding that I can make a difference in my community. And … I grew up here and lived close to my grandfather, my grandparents and my parents, and I want to give my kids that opportunity. I want to give the next generation the same life that I had growing up.”

Elaborating on his motivation for running, Barlow said there are three main issues that he thinks he can make a contribution on as a legislator: affordability, education and preserving the way of life.

Affordability

Ryan Comer, Standard-Examiner

Barlow acknowledged a problem with people being priced out and the cost of living going up and said one of the biggest factors is housing affordability.

“That trickles down into our taxes, into all the other fees that we’re paying as being homeowners,” he said. “Davis County is a place of homeownership, and that’s been one of my priorities, too, is making sure we preserve and focus on homeownership, and bringing in new families into the community that can afford to move in, live here and create a life, and then also protecting the people that are already here that are being priced out.”

Barlow said his career has involved real estate. He said he spent the first couple years of his career at the Legislature and then started working in real estate. He said he got his license from Barlow Realty, a business started by his family in the district in 1949.

“So, I’ve seen it all,” he said.

He said he’s been on the planning commission of Farmington for four years, so he understands city regulations, items that need to be worked on that cities are concerned about, infrastructure, housing developments and improvements.

He said he knows where the focus can be put as a legislator on housing affordability, and the biggest thing to tackle is property taxes.

“Property taxes have grown tremendously in the last five years, let’s call it, and really have gotten beyond inflation,” he said. “So our property taxes have gone up more than the other buckets that fund our state budgets.

“So, if you look at the three main buckets: income tax, sales tax and property tax, property taxes really ramped up in the last couple of years. And my goal would be to increase the residential primary home ownership exemption that we have adopted here in Utah. I’d increase that to match that with inflation. So it’s not going to be something that happens overnight, but it would be a gradual reduction in property taxes to alleviate cost burdens that a lot of families are experiencing now with their homes.”

As a Realtor, Barlow said he’s worked “in the full spectrum.” He said he’s worked on land use with landowners and he’s worked on developments.

“I have a full spectrum from land all the way up to building a house,” he said. “And I have a lot of home building experience as well.”

He added:

“I’ve just seen all the different inputs that go into taking land and then to building houses and the different components of doing that and how long it takes and the process and am familiar with the process as being someone who’s worked in it.”

Education

Barlow said he has three kids in the public school system and his wife is a high school teacher.

He said roughly 90% of kids are in public schools and that he is supportive of other options.

“I think parents should have every say in their kids’ education,” he said. “With that being said, there are a lot of pros and cons that we see. One of them being is we’ve seen some good teachers pushed out, and we’ve seen our school sizes increase, and I’d like to work with our leaders in trying to reverse that trend.”

Barlow explained that if taxpayers are funding the public school system, the priority should be making sure tax dollars are going to students and protecting good teachers.

Barlow said if you look at three kids, public school may be good for two of them, but one of them might need something else, so he’s glad there are options, but he said “the high-level takeaway” is that protecting good teachers is important.

“We want to make sure our kids’ class sizes aren’t continually growing year over year and … we want to make sure they’re getting a good education,” he said.

Barlow suggested that the funding schools receive could be earmarked to reduce class sizes.

He said before he does anything legislatively on schools, he would want to talk to the right people, whether it be teachers or administrators, to understand the problem.

“They’re the experts,” he said.

Preserving way of life

Barlow said preserving the way of life “branches out into a lot of different things.”

He mentioned being raised in the district and said the Great Salt Lake is “dramatically different.”

“It’s like we blinked and the water’s gone,” he said. “And so Davis County is at the doorstep of that issue. The Great Salt Lake is right on our doorstep. And so preserving our way life is Great Salt Lake, air quality, a host of different things that I think are incredibly important for us as Davis County residents.”

He mentioned the potential for federal funding that he hopes goes through.

“That’s going through a bills committee right now,” he said. “Blake Moore is championing that bill and trying to push for it. So what I’m trying to get at is there’s a lot of funding that’s going to come our way to figuring out the Great Salt Lake. That’s one component. But there’s also water rights issues that we need to work on locally here in Utah. And so me running for the Legislature, I think it’s an incredible opportunity to make sure whoever runs for this position, and whoever is elected, needs to protect as much of those resources as possible and protect our district as much as possible.”

Political background

Barlow said early in his career he did internships at the Capitol, including one with Peter Knudson, and then “a couple other internship-type things that turned into a full-time role.”

He said he’s done government relations for a couple of years.

“So I understand the political process,” he said. “I understand how legislation impacts families and businesses in our community.”

He said “the legislator plays a vital role in our daily lives.”

An endorsement from a competitor

At the Davis County GOP convention in April, the three people vying for delegate support were Barlow, Lili Bitner and Adam Sorenson. Only Barlow and Bitner moved on past convention, and Sorenson has since endorsed Barlow.

Barlow said he appreciated Sorenson’s endorsement because Sorenson was an opponent and competitor who saw the race from a different perspective and was “in tune with” the different candidates.

“He reached out and wanted to endorse me, and I thought that was fantastic,” Barlow said. “I thought he ran an incredibly honest campaign, which I appreciate, and that’s what I’m trying to run as well — just an honest campaign. I haven’t changed my narrative or … my top priorities. It’s been the same before the convention, after the convention, and it’s going to be the same thing, because these are issues that I’ve picked up in kind of my grassroots efforts of talking to my neighbors and people in the district.”

Closing statement

For his closing statement, Barlow said he brings “local roots, real-world experience and a clear focus on helping more families achieve homeownership, strengthening our schools and preserving the communities that we want to live in.”

For more on Barlow and his campaign, visit https://www.votesambarlow.com/

Contact Standard-Examiner editor Ryan Comer at rcomer@standard.net.