When she was in high school, Candice Pierucci loved studying history and American government so much that she asked her state representative if she could shadow him during the legislative session.
Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, suggested she intern for him instead and Pierucci arranged her class schedule so she could go up to the Capitol for the hands-on experience in her senior year.
“I would say that was the real game changer for me,” she said. “I was able to see state policy being implemented and really how much more effective the state government is compared to the federal government.”
Since then, Pierucci has completed other internships, served as a leader in student political organizations, helped with political campaigns, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, worked for U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart and had a stint as development director at the Sutherland Institute, a conservative public policy think tank in Salt Lake City.
Then in fall 2019, a seat in the Utah House of Representatives came open when the officeholder, John Knotwell, R-Herriman, stepped down because of work demands. The vacancy was in District 52, where Pierucci, a Republican, had served her internship under Wimmer.
Pierucci, who had just completed a master’s degree, decided to run in the special election for the office. She was 27 and her son was then 6 months old.
“I definitely did not think I would run at such a young age,” she said. “I thought maybe one day after my family was all grown up, I might consider jumping in. Both my husband and I felt like it was the right thing to do. The timing was right.”
So Pierucci jumped in and made a splash.
She defeated four other candidates in an October 2019 vote by Salt Lake County Republican delegates and was appointed the next month to the seat by Gov. Gary Herbert. Pierucci became at the time the youngest lawmaker to serve in the Utah Legislature.
Rep. Tyler Clancy, R-Provo, who is 25 and won election in November, claimed the distinction of being the youngest member of the Legislature but Pierucci remains the youngest woman to have served.
Pierucci, now 30, won re-election in 2020 and again in 2022, when redistricting had changed the boundaries of legislative districts. Her district is now District 49.
Her son is now four and she and her husband, Andy, who is a Riverton City Council member, are expecting their second child in August.
Politics and policy-making
Pierucci, who grew up in Herriman, earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and government with an emphasis in American government from Utah Valley University and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Utah.
As an undergrad, Pierucci was president of UVU’s College Republicans and the vice chair of the Utah Federation of College Republicans. She canvassed for Mitt Romney on the East Coast and in Nevada when he ran for president.
Early in her college years, Pierucci did an internship for Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, in Washington, D.C., and “absolutely loved it.”
“I like politics but even more than that I like the policy-making side of things and the research and trying to find solutions,” she said.
Rob Axson, who supervised Lee’s interns at the time, said Pierucci stood out with her quick smile, sincere interest in the work and willingness to do what was needed in the moment.
“I have literally seen a couple hundred wonderful Utahns and talented college students come through,” Axson said. “There’s a bunch of really good ones and only a couple come to mind readily and she’s among those because of how good she was.”
Pierucci conducted tours of the Capitol for constituents, served as the first contact in the front office for callers and visitors and helped with correspondence — tasks that she performed “as well as we could ever hope an intern would do,” Axson said.
Apart from that, she was talented in research and analysis and was quickly entrusted with that work, he said.
“I’m certainly not surprised that she was willing to put her name forward and be elected at such a young age and equally so, not surprised in the least that she’s been very quickly as effective as she is,” Axson said.
Pierucci has worked as a UVU government internship recruiting assistant and a high impact/government internship coordinator. She went to work for Stewart after graduation as his community relations director before moving to Sutherland Institute, where she handled events and then became the development director. She left the think tank job after her appointment to the Legislature.
Education, taxes and national security
Pierucci lists her biggest priorities as education, lower taxes, national security, mindfulness in how Utah engages in an international economy, domestic violence prevention and maternal mental health.
Among the legislation she sponsored this year is House Bill 215, which gives pay raises to teachers while also funding scholarships for private schools and home-schooling.
“I worked on it over interim,” Pierucci, who is chair of the House Education Committee, said. “I really do think we do an even better job empowering parents in tailoring their kids’ educational experience.”
Other successful bills Pierucci sponsored prohibit restricted foreign entities, such as China, and their proxy companies from making any land purchases in Utah; create the Domestic Violence Data Task Force; and prohibit using restraints on inmates during the third trimester of pregnancy, labor and childbirth unless there are compelling grounds to believe they present a serious risk of harm to themselves, the infant or a staff member.
Pierucci also was a co-sponsor of House Bill 54, which makes removal of the state sales tax on groceries contingent on voters approving a constitutional amendment to broaden the use of income tax revenue beyond public education and children with disabilities.
“As a young mom with a young family, I really do think affordability is important and part of that is our tax policy,” she said. “I and my other colleagues have worked to cut taxes and try to find ways where we make it more of a reality for young families in Utah to prosper and essentially get out of their way.”
A disappointment this session was the failure of transparency legislation she sponsored, Pierucci said. House Billl 366, which would have required legislators and state elected officials to disclose when a foreign government or entity pays for a trip for them or gives them a gift, died in committee.
“It’s best practice that we have a disclosure process,” Pierucci, who plans to run the bill again next year, said. “We should be documenting when we receive gifts or trips from foreign government.”
Rep. Kera Birkeland, R-Morgan, said Pierucci is extremely intelligent and very easy to get along, as well as strong without being abrasive. She also said Pierucci will go to bat for colleagues if she thinks their policy is a good one.
“If she disagrees, the way she does it is not confrontational,” Birkeland said. “It’s very methodical as far as ‘Here’s my purpose for believing this. Here’s my reasoning for doing that.’ It’s hard to be unhappy with someone who just has a reason and a purpose for her actions.”
Encouraging GOP women to run
For her master’s thesis, Pierucci did an overview of Republican women serving in state legislature and what could be done to get more of them involved in politics. She has put that research to work.
Two years ago, Pierucci helped start the Republican Women Lead Political Action Committee (www.republicanwomelead), which works to recruit and train more GOP women to run for election.
She also has launched the Conservative Millennial PAC in an effort to get younger conservatives seek public office.
“You want a legislative body that’s reflective of our population,” Pierucci said. “You want people in there who are trying to balance the budget, that understand the pinch right now in buying groceries and gas. I’m really excited to see the future of the legislative body as a whole but particularly getting more young Republicans engaged in running for office and more Republican women in office.”
Because of her experience working for Wimmer, Pierucci always tries to bring a high school student up to the Hill every session, in addition to a college intern.
“It was such a cool opportunity for me to actually get a front row seat to the legislative process,” she said.
Students who watch the national news are seeing conflict and hyper-partisan politics but Utah is not as divided, Pierucci said. Even though there is a conservative supermajority, she estimates more than 85% of bills are bipartisan.
“Of course, we differ on how to approach governing and representing our constituents but I would say for the most part, we try to maintain some civility and decorum as we work through those tough issues,” Pierucci said.
She added, “I think it’d be great if we could give more kids the opportunity and help them see a different side of politics.”
