Rep.-elect Burgess Owens (R-Utah-04)

Date of birth: Aug. 2, 1951
Residence: Draper, Utah
Occupation: CEO, Second Chance 4 Youth
Education: B.S., University of Miami
Family: six children

Rep.-elect Burgess Owens, a retired NFL safety, successfully returned Utah’s 4th Congressional District to Republican hands, unseating Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams, who had ousted Republican Rep. Mia Love in 2018.

Owens, who played football for the University of Miami, was the 13th player drafted in the first round of the NFL draft in 1973. His professional football career lasted a decade. He played for the New York Jets for the majority of his time in the NFL before being traded to the Oakland Raiders. He was part of the 1980 Raiders team that won Super Bowl XV. Owens retired from the NFL in 1983.

Since then, Owens has worked in various corporate roles at Motorola and WordPerfect and founded Second Chance 4 Youth, a nonprofit mentoring program that aims to help incarcerated young people reenter society.

Owens announced in November 2019 that he planned to run for Congress and was the clear winner in the June GOP primary, in which he defeated three competitors. Owens received an endorsement from President Trump following the primary victory. He also delivered a speech at the Republican National Committee about his upbringing in the South during segregation and how he overcame failings in his business career early on.

– Morgan Chalfant