My name is Taylor Knuth and I am running to be your next mayor of Ogden City.

On Jan. 9, I made this announcement on the lawn of the Marshall N. White Community Center. For me and many people I know, this center is special. It’s a place that speaks to the values that have made Ogden unique. And it’s a place named in honor of a man who lost his life in pursuit of sharing these values with the rest of our city — that man was Detective Marshall N. White.

This center, and the community that has thrived there over the last 60 years, has built a better life for countless individuals who call this beautiful city home.

And Ogden was the city that built me.

Let me tell you a little about myself. I grew up poor — very poor. The kind of poor that limits a young kid from dreaming about his future because the present is just so hard. My dad was relatively absent from my life. My mom would often work long hours or two jobs to support me and my three sisters. This impoverished reality taught me the value of hard work and discipline and I got my first job working as a paperboy for the Standard-Examiner at the age of 12. It’s also the reason I spent so much time in a community center of my very own, just like the Marshall White Center.

My community center was the place where I could dream, where I could lay a foundation for my future self to build on and where I could truly thrive.

After graduating high school, I decided to build my own life and family in Ogden City. Like generations of my family before me, I decided to put down roots here, and what I quickly learned is Ogden is the place where despite who you are, what you are going through and where you came from, your dreams can become reality. Everyone belongs in Ogden City, and I believe that in my core. It’s a city where the barista at the local coffee shop knows my name and my coffee order. Where my barber knows exactly how I like my haircut. And where I fell in love with my best friend, got married and eventually restored one of Ogden’s iconic Victorian homes downtown.

For 12 years now, I have worked to build a more inclusive, sustainable and engaged city. From distributing 60,000 masks to vulnerable populations during a global pandemic, to joining hundreds of others to call on our elected leaders to “Do Right by Marshall White,” to raising millions of dollars for charities in Ogden to continue their critical services in our city.

These are the experiences that I will remember for the rest of my life, but experiences that I alone could not have accomplished without the bold and courageous leadership of so many other Ogdenites who stood by my side along the way. Our campaign for mayor is not about me as an individual — it’s about we as a community.

It is this very power of community that has compelled me to jump into this race, because I believe that our next mayor needs to be of, by and for the community — and that’s exactly who I am.

I’m running for mayor to ensure our city gets back to the basics: cultivating a vibrant community, focusing on creating meaningful human connections and building good character in our city. For me, it’s the little things just as much as it is the big ones, like restoring a community center. Something as simple as bringing back sturdy park benches, restoring our cracked sidewalks and showing up to Ogden’s fundraisers, arts and sporting events, and community activities. It’s the things that not only provide essential services to residents and visitors of our city but that also create an Ogden City where everyone, regardless of their background or identity, belongs and thrives.

House by house, block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood, so many Ogdenites have expressed a desire to participate in government and they are eager to be engaged. We just need our government to listen. We know that our city works best when the community is at the center of it — when the front doors of our municipal building are unlocked and open to all.

Our next mayor needs to know the names of the barbers and bartenders, the police officers and the postal workers, the service members and the schoolteachers, and they should be just as comfortable on the front porch as they are behind a pulpit. One of our community and never above us.

As the future mayor of Ogden City, I can promise you that the values of community, connection and character that I have written about today will always guide the vision I have to build the city of the future once again.

Once again, I’m Taylor Knuth and I am running to be your next mayor. I look forward to earning your vote.

Taylor Knuth is a candidate for Ogden City mayor. Professionally, Taylor works as a deputy director in the Department of Economic Development in Salt Lake City. Taylor holds an undergraduate degree from Weber State University, a master’s degree from Southern Utah University and is currently working on a Ph.D. from the University of Utah. Taylor is a resident of Ogden.

Newsletter