Power Couple
Utah politicians reflect on their lives together in office and out
by Autumn Thatcher (MSC '15)
Josie Valdez (’83) and Mark Archuleta Wheatley (’84) both attended Westminster as nontraditional students. Both came to campus to create opportunity for themselves through education. Along the way, they found each other and embarked on nearly 40 years of life together. Their journey started with meeting on campus, where they later got married. It saw them actively engage in politics—from rallies to running for office. Theirs is a story that speaks to the power of firsts and to finding the silver lining even when it feels impossible to do so. In 2024, Mark retired from the Utah House of Representatives. Here, the couple reflects on their lives in the political spotlight and why Westminster continues to be the spark that ignited a life of activism together.
Finding Westminster—and Each Other
Josie: I was in my thirties and looking for an opportunity to go back to college. I chose
Westminster because of its life-learning program, where you get credits for life experience;
it gave me a push forward so that I could get my degree in a shorter period of time.
Most of the students in my class were much younger, but we all connected. That degree
opened the door so that I moved from a worker to a manager to a director—and then
boosted my career. I credit Westminster for my entire career and advancement in both
the corporate world and the political world—as well as the social world.
Mark and I met over 40 years ago. I was a student, and his sister introduced us. He became a student at Westminster, and our love life progressed. We were madly in love. Thirty-nine years ago, after we graduated, we got married in the garden at Westminster: at Nunemaker Place with Emigration Creek flowing in the background.
Mark: We had family attending from all over. Josie’s from Texas, so her family was in from Texas. And I had family come in from New Mexico and Wyoming. It was a lot of fun.
When I met Josie, she was very involved—she’s the true politician. We tend to agree on a lot of the issues that are going on. I mean, we don’t always agree on how to address those issues, but we are like-minded. Josie is very outgoing, and I’m more of an introvert, but we complement each other very well.
As a student, I was working, studying, and trying to survive.
Entering the Political Arena
Josie: Mark and I have always been involved in the social issue of equality—for the Latino and Hispanic community. That’s how we became politically involved: supporting issues and addressing problems of equal access to education and employment. We were always supporting other people who were running for office. A group of Latinos formed a political interest group and said that we needed to get involved. We needed to have a seat at the table so that people were not talking for us, but we were talking for ourselves. Mark and I really bought into that concept: that we needed to be politically elected, to be an office holder.
Mark: A friend of ours was running for the legislature, and he wanted me to be part of his campaign committee and take care of the books. He came over to talk to me about it and was saying that we want to have a candidate in every single one of our county offices and in as many offices as we can. Josie looked at me and said, “Why don’t you run?” It was the last day to register to run for office; the office closed at 5:00, and it was 4:30.
Josie: They took off, got in the car, ran to the City-County Building, and barely made it to register to run as a candidate. That’s how Mark's career started. He ran for a county office. It was his first endeavor and foray into the political arena. He did not win, but he got his name known. The next time around, he ran again. We learned a lot from that first campaign.
Reflecting on Twenty Years of Representation
Mark: I was elected to the Utah House of Representatives in 2004, and I just retired last year after 20 years. Over the years, there was always some big issue that would take over the legislative session. We had a lot of issues, as what’s happening now with immigration. It was very emotional and very trying—and we’re still going through the same thing. But there are some highlights from my time in the legislature that stand out. For example, a couple of sessions ago, I was able to get $1 million for an organization that helps with drug and alcohol addiction. I was also able to help get an organization started by a student group at the University of Utah that would host a sober tailgating party at the tailgate lot during home games. I was able to secure $100,000 of ongoing funding for this group. Overall, I had a terrific and fantastic 20 years, but it was time to retire and let some new blood come in.
Josie: I ran all of Mark’s campaigns except for when I ran for Lieutenant Governor for the state of Utah. I was the first person of color in the history of Utah to run for that office. When I did that, I couldn’t be Mark’s campaign manager, because I had my own to run. He was running for office, and I was running for office, and we were sort of competing for the same money and the same supporters. That was a real challenge in our relationship. I was traveling all over the state. He was traveling locally. We had a family. We had to adjust our life to the political arena that we were involved with.
Mark: And our young son hated politics because we were gone so much and always doing something. Now he’s evolved and he’s active, but it took a toll when he was younger.
Josie: It takes a toll on your family when you’re so politically entrenched in what needs to be done to win. So it was a challenge. When I ran for Lieutenant Governor, I ran against Jon Huntsman, who had an 87% approval rating. I knew that as a Democrat I wasn’t going to win, but my goal was to let the residents and the citizens of Utah know that a Latina woman or a person of any color is qualified if he or she is prepared, dedicated, and ready. My message was to the young women in our Latino community to stay in school, get your education, get prepared, and do your best. Nothing will stop you once you’re prepared—and I attribute that to Westminster.
Looking Forward—Without Giving Up
Mark: It felt like I got the wind knocked out of me when I saw the direction that the presidential race was going, along with the Senate. I still can’t watch the news. I have to take time. But you always have to look forward and pursue your ideals. We still have to fight for equality at the top level. People sometimes need to have a break. But you can’t stop. You have to continue to be involved, ensure that you vote, ensure that your family and friends vote, because that’s how you create change. You can always change the message a little bit, but you have to be persistent and move forward.
Josie: As a Latina woman in the state of Utah in particular, I’ve always been fighting an uphill battle, whether it’s in education, business, wherever it is; I was the only woman, the only Latina—the first. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. You appreciate the wins, you grieve the losses, but you keep swimming upstream. You just keep going. That’s your destiny, that’s your goal, that’s your life. You keep going. So with what happened, a reflection of where our country is, I have always felt undercurrents of discrimination—in the state, in the city, and in the nation. People don’t like what’s not familiar. People don’t like what’s different. And we have to keep moving forward, improving ourselves for the sake of our children, for the sake of tomorrow, for the sake of the following generations. We can take a break as Mark indicated, but then we need to regenerate and keep going because the values of equality, the values of opportunity are ingrained in our constitution. This is a country for all. And even though when the country was built, it was based on landowners and white men, there have been changes through history to create equality. So this country wasn’t based on equality. This country was not based on opportunity; it was based on wealth, and it was based on whiteness. So if we give up, we’ll continue to slide back to that. We have to keep going as women, as minorities, as different people, as the different groups: keep swimming upward, keep swimming against the current. We’ll get there.
About the Westminster Review
The Westminster Review is Westminster University’s bi-annual alumni magazine that is distributed to alumni and community members. Each issue aims to keep alumni updated on campus current events and highlights the accomplishments of current students, professors, and Westminster alum.
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