Forward, progress.

Hi, I'm Joseph Hansen. I'm a scientist, software engineer, and patent law consultant, with a love for education and a long line of family members who have served in the military, at NASA, and in their communities. I'm running to stand up for fairness, to strive for a strong and accessible economy, and to sacrifice for a better government.

I’m running as a Democrat in the Utah House District 65, which covers Payson, Santaquin, and the western parts of Salem and Elk Ridge.

ABOUT ME

I’m a patriotic, friendly person, and I’m running for Utah House District 65, serving the Payson-Santaquin area.

All over America, I’ve found I love the people. My parents met in the Air Force, Dad having graduated from the Air Force Academy and Mom graduating from the University of Virginia. Many family members have served our country, including in the military, my grandpa at NASA, and my grandma’s siblings in World War II.

I’ve lived in and visited so many places. The States I really call home are Indiana, Maryland, and now Utah. After graduating high school near Washington DC in Maryland, I lived in Utah, including graduating from Brigham Young University.

I returned to Maryland and worked for five years at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), on defense and space contracts and research, including air and missile defense. During these years, I completed a Masters degree at Johns Hopkins University.

My wife, Carolina, was born in Bolivia and raised in the Netherlands and Spain. She moved to the United States as a foreign exchange student and stayed in Utah, graduating from LDS Business College, Brigham Young University, and Western Governors University. She works in hospital administration and previously worked in translation, at a foreign embassy, as a medical assistant, and teaching languages.

We moved back to Utah more than three years ago where I joined Qualtrics as a software developer. Now, I work as a consultant, focusing on software legal issues.

TOP 4 PRIORITIES

SOLVE ISSUES

  • We must focus on getting things done

  • We must not get distracted on issues that don’t improve life for Utahns, especially on issues that engender hate and division. We don’t have time for those, and growing hate in society for personal or political gain is reprehensible

  • Solving this starts with changing leadership and committing to cooperate and do our job. New leadership with integrity and dedication will stop a rising culture of “the party of ‘no’”, where divisiveness has been growing and good ideas have been stymied

DEMOCRACY

  • We must hold extremists accountable for the severe gerrymandering

  • A 1-party system does not work

  • Support democracy, checks and balances, the separation of church and state and religious freedom, and the rule of law

  • Liberty and good society are opposed to the idea of kings and dictators; the rule of law is above all, not the rule of a person

  • Support for those principles is non-negotiable, country above party

  • Solving this starts with defeating the legislators who created some of the worst gerrymandering in the country despite the people’s vote against it and some who supported the January 6 insurrection

Economy

  • We must invest in the common good, like our cities, roads, healthcare, energy, and schools—this improves life, liberty, and society for everyone, and the effect grows over time

  • Since just 1950, the effective tax rate for the top .01% of richest Americans decreased from 70% to below 20%, while the rate for the rest of the top 1% decreased from 40% to 25% (these are multi-billionaires)

  • Investment was forced to decrease, but not enough for a balanced budget—the debt has increased, too!

  • The best way to make America great again is to increase taxes on the very wealthy and invest in the common good, fix the debt, and build the future

  • Solving this starts with investing in change with great returns, such as environmental or infrastructure projects that result in new jobs and improvements in health, pollution, transportation, and business activity

EDUCATION

  • In the modern world, education and critical thinking are more important than ever

  • Public intelligence and education outcomes in key subjects are lacking and getting worse

  • Solving this starts with improving teacher pay and quality and giving more trust to educators, including supporting more educators in government positions