Date October 9, 2025

Alumni Spotlight: Nate Blouin ’19 MPA

By Meg Coss

Nate Blouin, who earned his Master of Public Affairs (MPA) degree from Brown in 2019, dropped out of his freshman year of college and moved to Utah to ski. He then went on to become the youngest legislator in Utah's State Senate, defeating his opponent with 72% of the vote.

In 2009, after dropping out of college, New Hampshire-native Nate Blouin left the home of "Live Free or Die" for Utah, home to “The Greatest Snow on Earth.”

Blouin, a 2019 graduate of Brown University’s Master of Public Affairs (MPA) program, is an endurance athlete, a runner and avid skier, and chose Utah because of its access to public lands — the desert lowlands, red-rock canyons and Olympic-grade mountain peaks. When he moved to Utah in 2009, housing was affordable, jobs were available, and Blouin could, in his own words, "live the ski bum story." He worked odd jobs — delivering sandwiches, working customer service — and skied as often as possible.

In 2014, he attended Salt Lake Community College, earning an associate's degree, before going on to study writing and rhetoric at the University of Utah, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in 2017. Between skiing and earning a college degree, Blouin entered the world of politics, campaigning for Mike Weinholtz in Utah's 2016 gubernatorial race, and later for Jenny Wilson in her 2018 U.S. Senate race against Mitt Romney.

Blouin recalled that he became involved in politics after witnessing the intense partisan division that followed Donald Trump's election. "I never had much desire to get involved in politics until 2016," he said. “I wanted the opportunity to push back, especially in a state like Utah, where the debate is really centered around one side of the conversation. It was important to feel like there were good people working to change the narrative.”

After working on political campaigns for a couple of years, Blouin shifted his political focus from campaigns to policy. He was particularly concerned with environmental policies affecting Utah's public lands and air quality, as well as the state's dwindling affordable housing options.

By the time Blouin shifted his focus to policy, he was in his late twenties and highly motivated. At age 28, he was accepted into Brown University's MPA program. "The really big draw about Watson, as someone who was a little bit older, was the one-year aspect of the program. Having the ability to dedicate one full year to a program and not worry about the opportunity costs of dealing with a couple of years of additional school was huge."

The really big draw about Watson, as someone who was a little bit older, was the one-year aspect of the program. Having the ability to dedicate one full year to a program and not worry about the opportunity costs of dealing with a couple of years of additional school was huge.

Nate Blouin Class of 2019 MPA

At Watson, Blouin completed his policy project (a program feature now called the Policy in Action Project) with Generation Citizen. He worked with high school teachers in Salt Lake City, helping them increase students' civic engagement and civics education by writing letters to elected officials, studying policy issues, and developing a better understanding of how governance works. He recently spoke to a class taught by one of the teachers he worked with during this program, which he called "a full-circle moment."

After earning his MPA from Brown in 2019, Blouin returned to Utah. In 2022, he announced his candidacy for the Utah State Senate, challenging long-time incumbent Gene Davis. Blouin defeated Davis in the Democratic primary with a resounding 76% of the vote, then went on to defeat his Republican challenger in the general election with 72% of the vote. When Blouin took office, he was 33 years old, the youngest person in the Utah State Senate, yet still one year older than the median age in Utah.

“If you think about that, the youngest person in the Senate is still older than the average age of everyone in the state. That highlights a disconnect. Most people in the Senate haven't been in school for ages. They haven't dealt with student debt, renting an apartment in the current environment, raising kids today, or paying for childcare…If you don't have direct experience or you aren't proximate to people who are currently in those situations, it becomes difficult to make informed decisions. We need diversity of experience and age in government.”

Since taking office, Blouin has made affordable housing and renewable energy his top priorities, with a focus on geothermal energy.

"The state wants the 24/7 ability to produce energy at the time it's needed and to ramp up and down as the grid fluctuates, and those are the sorts of things that geothermal can do," said Blouin. “Geothermal is not something you can build everywhere. You need specific geologic characteristics, and we have all of them in Utah. That's a goal of mine: to push us in a direction that makes Utah the geothermal leader.”

Blouin has also become an outspoken critic of his colleagues in Utah's Republican supermajority, favoring direct language over decorum — a style that has earned him both fans and critics.

"If wanting a little public accountability from our state leaders makes me a punk, so be it," wrote Blouin in a 2024 op-ed in The Salt Lake Tribune. “A few more of us might be just what the state needs to guard against the excesses of an unaccountable supermajority.”

As a forthright Democrat in a Republican supermajority, Blouin doubts he will be able to pass much, if any, legislation under his name, yet he recognizes there are other levers he can pull to help change the public narrative and hold elected officials accountable.

"I have to help spread information and share the problems that we're seeing, even if I can't fix them with my own legislation. That is my direction, to help people, and to show them there is someone really pushing for accountability in their state government."