Rebecca Dawn Lockhart (November 20, 1968 – January 17, 2015) was an American politician and Republican member of the

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 cont ...

. Lockhart represented the 64th District in

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem, Utah, Orem to the north and Springville, Utah, Springville to the south ...

. Lockhart was the first female

Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hung ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, serving until the end of 2014, when she chose not to run again.

Early life and career

Lockhart was born in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

and attended college at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

where she obtained a degree in nursing. Lockhart's husband, Stan Lockhart, served as a member of the Provo City Council and previously served as chair of the

Utah Republican Party The Utah Republican Party is the affiliate of the Republican Party in the U.S. state of Utah. It is currently the dominant party in the state, and has been for almost all of its history. It currently holds Utah's entire congressional delegation ...

. Stan Lockhart currently works as a lobbyist for

Micron The micrometre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a uni ...

/IM Flash Tech. The Lockharts lived together in

, where the couple raised their family.

Political career

Becky Lockhart served in the

for sixteen years. She announced in 2014 that she would not be seeking reelection that year, and pundits claimed that she may have been focusing her efforts on running in the

2016 Utah gubernatorial election The 2016 Utah gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2016, to elect the Governor of Utah, governor and Lieutenant Governor of Utah, lieutenant governor of Utah, concurrently with the 2016 United States presidential election, 2016 U.S. ...

. During the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions, Lockhart served on a variety of committees, including the Executive Appropriations Committee, the House Legislative Expense Oversight Committee, the Administrative Rules Review Committee, the Legislative Management Committee, and the Legislative Audit Subcommittee. She also served on the Commission on Federalism, the Education Task Force, the Subcommittee on Oversight, and the Utah Constitutional Revision Commission.

2014 sponsored legislation

Serving as Speaker of the House, Lockhart did not file any bills under her name. In 2014 Lockhart's primary legislative project wa
HB 131S03
the Public Education Modernization Act, filed under Representative Francis Gibson.

Pivotal legislation

HB 131S03
the Public Education Modernization Act, was particularly controversial. The proposed legislation called for $200–$300 million in state funds to replace textbooks with tablet computers in the state's classrooms. The bill was essentially killed in budget negotiations. Among other projects while in the state legislature, Lockhart pushed for a radar at

Provo Municipal Airport Provo Airport , formerly Provo Municipal Airport, is a public-use airport on east shore of Utah Lake on the southwestern edge of Provo, in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is a small regional airport with domestic flights mainly to destinat ...

. She also proposed a revised tax system that would greatly increase the amount of taxes levied by Utah on chewing tobacco.

HB477 Republican leadership controversy

At the close of the 2011 Utah legislative session, there was open concern expressed by one representative that, under Republican Party Leadership (who have a large majority in both houses), legislators were pressured to vote for HB477, which denied the public access to certain forms of government communication. There was vast public outcry over the bill which was hurriedly presented and passed under her, and other Republican leaders' oversight.

Death

Lockhart died at her home in Provo, Utah on January 17, 2015, from

Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) is an incurable, always fatal neurodegenerative disease belonging to the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) group. Early symptoms include memory problems, behavioral changes, poor coordination, visu ...

, "an unrecoverable and extremely rare neurodegenerative brain disease". She had begun to develop signs of the condition a few weeks before her death. The illness had led to her admission to the hospital a few days after she left office.

Tribute

In 2016, the Utah House of Representatives building on Capitol Hill was named the Rebecca D. Lockhart building. In 2017 the Rebecca D. Lockhart Arena at

Utah Valley University Utah Valley University (UVU) is a public university in Orem, Utah, United States. UVU offers master's, bachelor's, associate degrees, and certificates. Previously called Utah Valley State College, the school attained university status in July ...

was named after Lockhart.

References

External links

Campaign siteRebecca Lockhart
at

Vote Smart Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart, is an American non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected offic ...

Rebecca Lockhart
at

Ballotpedia Ballotpedia is a nonprofit and nonpartisan online political encyclopedia that covers federal, state, and local politics, elections, and public policy in the United States. The website was founded in 2007. Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Bur ...

Rebecca Lockhart
at the National Institute on Money in State Politics {{DEFAULTSORT:Lockhart, Rebecca D. 1968 births 2015 deaths Latter Day Saints from Nevada Brigham Young University alumni Deaths from Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease Neurological disease deaths in Utah Infectious disease deaths in Utah Politicians from Provo, Utah Politicians from Reno, Nevada Speakers of the Utah House of Representatives Republican Party members of the Utah House of Representatives Women state legislators in Utah American nurses American women nurses 21st-century members of the Utah Legislature 21st-century American women politicians 20th-century American women politicians Women legislative speakers Latter Day Saints from Utah 20th-century members of the Utah Legislature