Austen Schwend

Austen Schwend is a fresh conservative who wants to revive the spirit of the founding fathers. He is a husband, father, engineer, business owner, and farmer. He and his wife Hana have 3 young children under the age of 7. Austen owns and runs an engineering/manufacturing business doing contract engineering, waterjet cutting, welding and fabrication. In his lifetime, he has also worked as a mechanic, waiter, cook, Blacksburg Transit bus driver, electrician, ditch digger, R&D engineer, quality engineer, and project manager.

Taxation is completely out of control. Government uses a "divide and conquer" strategy with taxation. They nickel and dime you in ways that have little to no transparency. In the end, you have no idea how much you pay or for what. Additionally, hidden taxes are added in the forms of regulations, safety requirements, inflation, etc. Taxation is also used to control you and your vote in favor of establishment candidates.

Several states would be freedom loving states if it weren't for one major population center. Virginia is teetering on this knife's edge of becoming a blue state. The federally funded powerhouse of Northern Virginia and much of the populated east coast of VA uses their population and resources to try to control our district. While I want them to govern themselves locally however they wish, I am not okay with them telling us how to live.

You won't find a stronger supporter of Gun Rights. It is my belief that the 2nd Amendment protects more than just firearms. The core purpose of the 2nd Amendment is to make it so the people can stand up as the final check to tyranny and confidently declare that the "consent of the governed" has been revoked.

We don't actually know the true cost of anything anymore. In some areas like health care, we've avoided talking about the cost of health care. This is evident in how politicians have shifted completely to talk about the cost of "health insurance" instead. I don't want to retreat from the root cause problem, which is the high cost of actual health care.

Like any government program, everything related to education has expanded greatly. The goal of education should be to get children ready for a career as quickly as possible. But it seems like the goal of education has slowly turned into keeping kids in school for as many years as possible. Our schools have also been changed into being considered more like daycares than education centers, which makes it difficult for our teachers to teach. Additionally, private schools and homeschooling has grown in popularity as a clear indicator of the increasing failures of our school systems. Education is critically important.

There are many functions of government that I think shouldn't exist. It would be my job as your Delegate to make sure that the ones that do exist are working for you and the people of my district. Many government departments have gotten so bloated with tasks outside of their original scope of work that they don't perform the original scope of work efficiently anymore. Part of my mission will be to do what I can to make them more efficient and to increase transparency in the spending of the state.

The response to COVID was proof that tyranny is here. It is my opinion that any public servant who didn't actively fight to preserve your liberty during COVID should be voted out. I want to add more protections for liberty in case COVID ever happens again.

Article 4, section 16 of the Virginia Constitution says that the General Assembly shall not appropriate any public funds for any sectarian society. Sectarian is defined in the 1828 Webster dictionary as any philosophy which holds sentiments different from those of other people. It is my belief that the left has MULTIPLE sectarian and even religious beliefs that should fit within the limitations of this section. The left uses public funds to create their beliefs, develop their sectarian texts, develop their rituals, establish their community of zealots, then spread their message to innocent young minds and beyond. Through this one section of existing law, it might be possible to stop all public funds going to any of these leftist activist groups or for any public entity for their purposes.

Overwhelmingly, people feel like their vote doesn't matter. The worst part is that they're right. While in session, politicians in VA vote on ~7 important issues per day. There is no person in the world smart enough to vote on 7 issues per day. Likewise, the people can't hold politicians accountable for bad laws when there are 1,000 bills sent to the governor's desk per year. This is why the founders wanted limited government with every step of government focusing on different priorities and responsibilities. It is also close to impossible to repeal bad laws. I want to consider proposing a bill that makes all laws expire after 20 years. Every generation should have a say in their laws. Every generation needs to learn the arguments for every issue.

Vehicles have become one of the most highly regulated consumer item in existence and a massive expense to maintain with a shrinking group of mechanics available to maintain them. It is said that approximately $6,000 of a new car's price is from government requirements. They declared war on diesel vehicles during the Obama years when they bailed out GM and pushed the Chevy Volt as the thing that would save the world. The current delegate has bragged about preventing a company like Ariel from selling road cars that are made right here in VA. There are a LOT of opportunities for an automotive revolution here in Virginia.

You should always know what your government is up to. Unfortunately, with the number of laws passing through Richmond, that is a full time job by itself. I will do everything I can to keep you up to date on what is going on in Richmond and how the Federal government is influencing your locality and Virginia as a whole. I plan to do a video explaining every vote I make. I've also started a "37th House of Delegates District - Virginia" Facebook page to create a public forum where we can discuss issues directly related to the district so you can all hold me publicly accountable. I expect constant challenges and welcome them.

I believe life begins at conception.