Christopher Herrod

Christopher N. Herrod (born August 31, 1965) is a real estate developer from Provo, and was a Republican member of the Utah House of Representatives representing the 62nd district from 2007-2012. He is currently running for the Utah State Senate District 16 seat against incumbent Curt Bramble, who has held that office for 16 years.
Herrod is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), serving as Utah state leader.

Born in Chicago, Herrod has a B.A. in International Relations and Family Living (1990), and a Master's degree in Organizational Behavior (1992), both from Brigham Young University. He spent 1992-1993 as an Assistant Professor at Kharkov State University; in 1995-1996, he served as an instructor and advisor at Utah Valley State College's Kiev affiliate, the Kiev College of Hotel Management. From 1997-1998, he was international marketing director of Neways. After a brief stint at Merck (1998–99), Herrod went into real estate development, as owner/manager of Keystone Developers and Pangaea Development. He has also served as adjunct faculty in international business at Utah Valley University.

Elections

In 2007, incumbent State Representative Jeff Alexander decided to resign from his seat to take a part-time volunteer job in Governor Jon Huntsman Jr.'s economic development office. For the Republican nomination, Provo Republican delegates narrowed the field to two candidates: John Curtis and Chris Herrod. No candidate reached the 60% threshold to avoid an appointment. Governor Jon Huntsman wasn't the person who appoints a candidate, the party leader does. Utah Republican Party Chairwoman Enid Greene decided to appoint Chris Herrod to the seat, even though he didn't reach the 60% threshold and that he got fewer delegate votes than Curtis.

In 2008, he defeated Democrat Claralyn Hill, a Provo attorney, 59%-41%. In 2010, he won re-election with 69% of the vote.

Herrod is currently seeking to be elected as the next Utah State Senator from Utah's State Senate District 16. He strongly believes in self-imposed term limits and has concluded that too much power can be accumulated by one individual, which is not good for the legislative process.

Committee assignments

For the 2009-2010 session, he was assigned to the House Public Utilities and Technology Committee; and to the House Workforce Services and Community and Economic Development Committee, of which he was Vice Chair.

In January 2012, was one of several candidates to announce that he would run for the U.S. Senate election in Utah and would challenge incumbent Orrin Hatch for the Republican nomination. He said "I absolutely hate the direction that we are going in as a nation. I hate socialism." It was Hatch's first primary competition since his election in 1976. Hatch won the primary election easily; Herrod did not make it to the primary.

During his teenage years he travelled to Vienna, Hungary, and then-divided Berlin. He is a Mormon, and did his missionary service in Sweden. He is married to Alia, whom he met while in the Ukraine; they have four children (Katya, Niles, Dale, and Reagan). Herrod is a scoutmaster, and an active fencer. In March 2010 he self-published a 186-page book called, The Forgotten Immigrant - How Tolerating Illegal Immigration Hurts Immigrants, under the imprint Live Free Publishing, LLC.