• Office Sought: Representative, Utah (1)
• Web site: http://www.bowenforcongress.com/Home.aspx
• E-mail address: morgan@bowenforcongress.com

Like many Utah residents who seek political office, Morgan Emory Bowen is hoping to win over voters with his heritage as a descendant of Mormon pioneers who settled the state. It is a subtle reminder intended to show voters that he shares many of the same conservative values that they do, even though he is a Democrat.

He's also spent much of his life outside of Utah after his father moved his family to California when he was in elementary school. Bowen didn't move to the Beehive State until 2002 when he was assigned to teach seminary school for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Logan, Utah, home to Utah State University. He had previously been a seminary teacher in Arizona and served a two-year mission for the church in Montana and Wyoming.

However, most of Bowen's youth was spent in California. At 17, he became student body president at Merced College. That experience and interning for U.S. Rep. Richard Lehman, D-Wash., sparked his interest in politics. At 21, he ran an unsuccessful campaign for County Board of Supervisors in Merced, Calif.

After losing that election, Bowen went into the business world. He would eventually spend 15 years as CEO of an agricultural consulting firm. However, he never gave up on politics and continued to serve as a consultant on political campaigns before working for the Mormon Church.

Bowen and his wife, Kristen Matheson, have six children.