Danielle Davidson: Utahns deserve to have Jen Plumb in the Legislature

My name is Dani, and I am a person in long-term recovery.

In 10 years of active addiction, paramedics, a 7-11 clerk and a fellow addict all administered naloxone, a life-saving opioid overdose reversal drug, to me to save my life. And none of them would have had access to the medicine that saved my life without Dr. Jen Plumb’s tireless advocacy.

In 1996, when Plumb lost her brother Andy to an opioid overdose, she was galvanized to action. She started med school, became an ER doctor, and an advocate. In the 26 years since, her advocacy through Utah Naloxone, a nonprofit organization that provides the overdose reversal drug for free to anyone who wants to carry it, has saved more than 7,500 lives.

I am a mother, a sister, a daughter, a softball coach and as a career I have devoted my life to helping people out of addiction. And I too, have had the opportunity to save a life by administering naloxone to a person in an opioid overdose.

Plumb understands this fight. She has helped thousands of struggling individuals out of the hopeless life that I myself once lived. And with the Legislature preparing to appropriate millions of dollars in opioid settlement funds out into Utah, I know that she has the experience, judgment and advocacy skills to make sure that this money goes into the spaces where it can make the biggest difference to those who need it most.

I know this because without ever serving an elected day in the Legislature, Plumb has passed 14 pieces of legislation through Utah’s notoriously clogged Capitol Hill. Keyed-in viewers of the Legislature might note: That’s more than her opponent has passed in four years serving as one of Utah’s precious few Democratic senators.

Plumb deserves your vote in the upcoming Senate District 9 primary.

Utahns, you deserve Jen in the Legislature. She is a fighter, a believer in Utah and the promise of our kids, a successful advocate for marginalized communities, whether they be struggling with substances or the unhoused or transgender children, like her own daughter.

If your ballot landed in your mailbox last week, be proud to cast it with the bubble filled in “Jen Plumb, Senate District 9.” Fighter, believer in me, and lifesaver. Add your support along with mine and thousands of others who are here because she made sure we are valued and alive — for our future Utah state senator.

Danielle Davidson, Salt Lake City, is an administrator at The Haven, a substance use treatment center.