Simco looks to bring sense of hard work, helping community

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  • Scot Simco
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Growing up Scot Simco’s family gifted him with two very important attributes. He says the ability to work hard and a need to be involved in his community are traits that have stayed with him throughout his life.

“My parents have a great work ethic. My mother is from Scotland, born and raised. Scottish people are workers; they’re doers,” Simco said. “They get a task, and they finish it. But we all give back. I learned from my mom and dad seeing them helping other people. You’re not needing to take credit for it, just helping other people that need assistance. It’s just being kind to people. I learned at a young age.”

Because of that, the 56-year old restaurant manager has made most of his life in Altus about working hard for his community. “I’ve been very community active all my life. As long as I can remember, I’ve been doing stuff in our community, for our community,” Simco said. “I was on the city council for four years. I’ve been on the chamber of commerce. ACME House is a house for battered women. I was on that board, and then they elected me president of that board.”

Simco said he was also co-chair of the Imagination Station Playground when they raised more than $220,000.

But now, Simco has his sights set on another position he believes will help him continue to give back to his community. He is running for election to the Oklahoma State Representative for District 52.

“I think this is the next stepping- stone. I think this is a new area that I think I can bring my knowledge and my skill of working with others,” Simco said. “Because when you’re on the city council, the chamber of commerce, you’re on the ACME House Board, when you’re on these different boards with a whole variety of different people, it takes leadership. It takes someone with a vision to bring you all, everybody’s ideas together, to make it one idea that everybody can support and get behind. And I feel like I’m really good at that.” 

The Republican primary is set for June 30th. Simco is facing off against Gerrid Kendrix for the house seat.

“I believe I can pull people together to get more funding. We need more funding for education. The infrastructure, buildings down here, and the education; our newest building is 40 years old; the newest,” Simco said. “Most of these schools are 70, 80 years old. And most of the schools, the updates have been very, very small. I would say 90 percent of the bathrooms are not handicap accessible. Haven’t been updated since they got built just because of funding, just the way the funding works.

One of my main things is we’re going to work on how to get more funding, right away, a top priority.”

This is not the first time Simco had thoughts of running for the house seat. He gave it serious consideration more than a decade ago but felt he wasn’t ready.

“I wanted to do this for a long, long time,” Simco said. “I had an opportunity 12 years ago to do it when David Braddock ended his term. But I had a 5-year-old and 3-year-old at home, I didn’t want them to miss my presence four or five months out of the year, being in Oklahoma City.”

However, now Simco says the time is perfect for him to take that next step. “I waited till my daughter just graduated high school. My son is in 10th-grade. He has a whole lot less school activities that I’d be missing,” Simco said. “They don’t need me at home as much to babysit them as per se.”

With Charles Ortega ended his 12-year stint as the house representative, Simco feels it’s time for him to instill his brand of politics into the system.

Simco says he knows it is a challenge stepping out of the business world and deeper into the pool of politics. But it’s a challenge he wants to take on.

“It’s very risky as a business person to be in politics,” Simco said. “You lose people over little things to you, but it’s a big thing to them. So, it’s very difficult. But we love it here, and we feel like we can make a big difference. We feel like we can make a difference for Southwest Oklahoma.” 

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