Now he’s embarking on an even bigger adventure: running for Congress in Texas’s 25th Congressional District. “Our elected officials in Washington are refusing to work together more so than any other time in our nation’s history,” says the well-known marathon paddler and mental health care executive, touting a platform of saving and preserving Medicare benefits, streamlining and improving care for veterans, and eliminating such policies as mandatory arbitration protecting sexual predators. “We don’t have to agree on the issues to work together. Texans are wary of the behavior portrayed by the very people who are supposed to be setting a good example for our state and country. It’s time we demand people over party and get busy doing the hard work.”
Canoe & Kayak: Why run for Congress? Hansen: After wasting way too much time and effort debating with people on social media about issues, I figured it was time to put my experience in the mental health field to work and begin working on finding solutions, instead of expecting those with alternative realities to see things the way I do.
What have you learned from some of your longer paddling trips that might help you? Pick a good team that you trust. Foster a climate where your team feels comfortable pointing out when you’re wrong. Be sure that everyone has a shared goal–if a team member can’t be on board, for whatever reason, then they must go or the team will suffer. Never blame others for your mistakes. Enforce a hard and fast rule that no problem can ever be voiced without a solution, lest it be thrown into the ‘whining’ pile. Finally, whining is completely allowed, but only when coupled with whiskey.
Do you hope to continue paddling as well? As a matter of fact, I’ve already talked with Washington Canoe Club president, Andrew Soles, about joining the club and working out on the Potomac. And, of course, I’ll always do the Texas Water Safari, my hometown race.
Does this mean no further big paddling expeditions on the horizon? I’ll have to limit expeditions to a few weeks. I still have my eyes on the Vancouver Island circumnavigation speed record, which I had to abandon in 2016, due to a nerve damage injury.
The article was originally published on Canoe & Kayak
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