Edwin J. Simcox was born in LaPorte, Indiana. He graduated from Indiana University with an A.B. degree in Government and Economics in 1967, and a J.D. degree from Indiana University Law School in 1971. Ed and his wife, Sandra, are the proud parents of three grown sons and currently resides in Fishers, Indiana.
From 1986 to 2010, Ed served as president of the Indiana Energy Association, an Indiana trade association, and as of 2011, was named president emeritus.
Ed’s experience in law and government includes serving as Secretary of the Highway Commission, Secretary of the Indiana Public Service Commission (now the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission), legal deputy of the office of the Reporter of the Indiana Supreme Court, and eight years as Indiana’s Secretary of State. He is also a partner in the Indianapolis law firm of Jones and Simcox, specializing in administrative practice before regulatory agencies.
During his two terms of office as Secretary of State, he undertook the revision and reform of the Indiana law dealing with election recount procedures and candidate vacancies, securities fraud enforcement, and chaired a year-long study committee which produced a complete set of revisions and modernization of Indiana’s for-profit corporate law.
During his college years, Ed served as Executive Director of the Indiana State Young Republican Federation. He has also served in various capacities on the campaigns of Governor Ed Whitcomb, Senator Richard Lugar, Senator Dan Coats, and Governor Mike Pence.
In 1972, Ed was elected as Secretary of the Indiana Republican State Committee and was reelected to that post for two subsequent terms.
Other party positions and responsibilities undertaken by Ed include chairing the GOP statewide voter registration drive and serving as permanent chairman of the GOP state convention for 13 years. He co-chaired the 1980 Republican state platform committee, and was a parliamentarian of the 1992 Republican state convention.
On a national level, he was elected for five years as a delegate to the GOP national conventions, served on the Rules Committee of the 1980 national convention, and was a member of the national electoral college for the 2016 Presidential election.
In January of 2013, he served as master of ceremonies for the inaugural ceremony for Governor Mike Pence and Lt. Governor Sue Ellspermann.
Ed has been awarded the highest honor a citizen can receive from Indiana’s governor, The Sagamore of the Wabash Award, by seven governors.
In August of 2006, Ed was awarded the Allen C. Steere Award by the Government Affairs Society of Indiana.
In 2014, the Indiana Energy Association Board of Directors renamed the IEA Distinguished Service Award the Edwin J. Simcox Distinguished Service Award.