With Curt Bramble retiring at the end of the year, the seat is now open for new representation. Because this district covers multiple counties, only state delegates vote in this race at the state convention.
Keven Stratton – Republican Nominee
Keven was born and raised on a fruit farm and comes from a family of educators, farmers, and entrepreneurs. Both of his parents are public educators. He received his Bachelors in Finance from BYU and will be married for 40 years in June. Keven is the founder of a law firm and a Senior Partner. His various businesses employ over 250 people.
In May he will reach 12 years as a state representative. He is so grateful for the great opportunity to serve but believes in term limits. When asked what he was most proud of, he said it was the things he didn’t do. He didn’t turn away from our great heritage and helped with significant increases in education funding and tax cuts. Keven said we are the most fiscally fit state. We take care of our financial duties first as a state.
Keven has also worked on the most comprehensive legislative infrastructure to care for our public lands. He has been able to work with federal agencies to great good policy. This allows the land to be the best version of itself. Keven said that 67% of the state is controlled / managed by his federal counterparts. This affects how we fund education. He wants to keep the land both healthy and accessible.
Keven has also been working on local land issues such as Bridal Veil Falls monument and Utah Lake. He said that his grandfather, as head of the chamber of commerce, also worked on issues with Utah Lake. He has been working with Senator Bramble to create a timeline for Utah Lake, which came out this recent session. Several studies have already been done but they are somewhat siloed. Several different plans are currently being looked at by an independent assessment. When asked which plan he preferred moving forward he said that he didn’t want to bias the outcome. He wants to keep working on this issue if elected to the state senate.
Keven said that there are some real challenges with federal overreach and natural resources. There are 40 separate pieces of litigation currently going on. Keven is trying to look ahead 30 years and see where things will be. They were able to put a very comprehensive plan into code to care for the land and be wise stewards. You need continual course correction and an understanding where we have been with these lands.
Keven also wants to keep working on other issues such as having a healthy workplace for government employees, caring for kids, especially those with special needs, illegal immigration, and continuing to care for our natural resources and our relationship with the federal government. He also wants to keep working on bills for his constituents.
Keven said that this is probably the most competitive state race and it reflects well on the quality of people in Utah County. You need to bring people together and partisan solutions don’t produce the best stable outcomes. We need to engage the diversity we have, based on sound constitutional principles, to reach the best solutions.
Brad Daw – Lost at convention
Brad Daw has been a software engineer for the last 30 years. He currently works for Adobe, writing software and mentoring others. Brad graduated from BYU in Electrical Engineering and received his Master in Computer Engineering from San Jose State University. He was also a state house representative for 14 years.
Brad said that he has always had a bent for public service. He said that public service is a lot like being an artist where you are always creating something new. He wants to bring a fresh perspective to the party. Brad is only going through the convention route.
One of the difficult issues that Brad took on while in the house is payday lending. He said payday lenders keep people in a vicious fee cycle that they can never pay back. Brad said that there are less than half the payday lender store fronts than there used to be.
Another issue that Brad took on is medical cannabis before it was legalized, looking at the best research available. Brad also started conversations about banning transgender surgeries for minors. He said that puberty blocks cause permanent change and have side effects of lower bone mass and lower IQ.
Brad would like to work on making healthcare more accessible to people, especially when it comes to mental health. Brad even suggests looking into psychedelics more and how effective they can be for some mental health issues. He said that we need to do more research on them.
Brad said that he has a reputation of being more accessible and has been responsive via email and phone calls and also holds town halls. Brad currently volunteers with a program called Elder
Quest, teaching civics, at UVU.
Dan Hemmert – Withdrawn
Dan Hemmert previously served as a state senator from 2016 to 2021. But due to redistricting he is now in a different senate district. Dan graduated from BYU with an undergraduate in economics and later got his MBA and law degree from the same school. Dan is the owner of Red Hanger Cleaners, which has 12 locations.
While in the senate, Dan quickly got into leadership and in 2019 became the Majority Whip. Dan ran a bill to create a Public Health and Economic Emergency Committee and ended up chairing it at the start of Covid. The goal was to balance public health and economic goals.He left the senate in 2021 after Governor Cox asked him to head the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. There he helped create economic policy during the Covid-19, balancing public health and economic opportunity. He changed the office name, replacing Development with Opportunity, and created new programs, even post pandemic, to improve economic opportunity in the state. After 18 months, two legislative sessions, he accomplished what he needed to and worked his way out of that job. Since then, he has returned to Red Hanger and been working as a lobbyist.
When asked why he is running again, he said that he still believes that government matters and you should lift where you stand. He said that wants to help maintain Utah as the #1 state for economic mobility. When asked if Utah had that status because of so many people being part of the same religious community, Dan answered that it is definitely a factor but isn’t everything. There is a strong LDS, Jewish, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, etc community in Utah.
Dan said that he tried to help the state move away from picking economic winners and losers while working for the governor. A rising tide lifts all boats. He then talked about primary and secondary tier businesses. A dry cleaners is a secondary business as it is all local and they play a supporting role to Utah businesses that export to the wider world. When those companies are doing well, people have additional spending power for services like dry cleaners. The state needs to ensure that those primary businesses stay healthy. Hill Air Force Base is a great example that brings a lot of money into the state. Financial services are also great as they have the highest average salaries but you need to be diversified. Dan said that Utah is the 3rd most diversified economy in the state.
Dan wants to look 10 and 20 years down the road and make sure the state has the best economic policies and education investment. Utah needs to stay the best place for opportunity and economic mobility. This needs to be balanced with quality of life. Dan said that one thing that has the biggest impact on quality of life is traffic. We need to make sure we aren’t falling farther behind. We need better East/West connectors, especially in northern Utah County as cities like Eagle Mountain, and Saratoga Springs continue to grow. He doesn’t have specific proposals but wants to let UDOT figure it out. Dan hopes that people give him another opportunity to serve.