The 2024 election cycle left some University of Utah students feeling “surprised” and “blindsided” by Donald Trump’s early win. However, as local election results come in, it’s left newly-elected politicians like Hoang Nguyen feeling “pretty dang cool.”

Nguyen will represent District 23 in the Utah State House of Representatives, a region of Salt Lake City stretching just south of Rice-Eccles Stadium through the Yalecrest and Sugarhouse neighborhoods. The 2024 election was Nguyen’s first dive into politics.

“My first real jump into politics was registering to vote when I became a citizen,” Nguyen said. “I never thought I would be a politician all these years later.”

Nguyen is the first Vietnamese-American elected to the Utah State Legislature. She is also the first refugee elected. Her family sought asylum in U.S. in the wake of the Vietnam War.

Alongside being a newly elected representative, Nguyen operates a variety of family business ventures. These include several restaurants and cannabis growing, processing and selling.  She spoke about her campaign and legislative priorities in a quiet corner of Sapa, one of her family’s restaurants.

“The reason I ran was because people who come from my background rarely ever have a seat at the table,” Nguyen said. “I’ve been lucky enough to have [one].”

Nguyen’s perception of the legislature was formed through her experience lobbying the legislature for more equitable policies for business owners.

“The majority makeup of [the legislature] does not represent the different values, different ethnicities, different lived experiences that we have here in Utah,” Nguyen said.

Meanwhile, Nguyen’s business philosophy centers around supporting internal employee growth.

“Much like my businesses, [my campaign] never used consultants, we never used outside marketing firms,” Nguyen said. “It’s all in-house.”

She said both her local, new graduate campaign manager and her field director were “immediately poached” post-election for roles in the non-profit and political sectors. Overall, Nguyen sees herself as “bridging the gap” between older politicians and a younger generation of voters not yet ready to lead. 

What’s Next

Now, after a winning campaign, Nguyen is looking to the job at hand. As a mother of two, Nguyen ran her campaign on environmental and education issues.

“If we have a healthy … well-financed public education system, we as a community are better off,” she said.

Nguyen also emphasized the role of public education in upwards mobility and expressed distaste for current Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz’s proposed 10% budget cuts to higher education.

“We are one of the most underfunded public education [systems] per pupil,” Nguyen said. “What I’d like to see there is undoing some of the stuff over the last few years. Funding being taken away from education, the vouchers … [I’m] trying to undo some of the harm it’s done.”

Nguyen seeks to join House committees on Business and Labor, Natural Resources and Environmental Issues and Public Appropriations. Nguyen hopes her status as a business owner and employer will aid in forging compromises with Republican lawmakers on topics such as preserving the Great Salt Lake and promoting equity across Utah.

However, Nguyen also said some aspects of her platform may be an uphill battle. As a Democrat in the Republican super-majority House, it’s “all about political climate and timing.”

This is especially true with regards to bills passed in the last legislative session like H.B 261, which closed several resource centers on campus. As a beneficiary of DEI scholarships while pursuing her own education, Nguyen said she would support bills reversing DEI restrictions. But, she also said undoing such policies would be difficult.

Still, as a U alumni, she hopes to “work with the U as a partner” and more about policies that may help the student body in the upcoming months.

“Having earned my degree at the U, I think we have a very unique gem with the U of U being such a strong higher-ed university,” Nguyen said. “How do we translate that to improving the lives of people all across the valley? All across the state? That’s not necessarily for me to know the answer to. It’s for me to be that vehicle to advocate.”

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