Until the election of Cindy Axne in 2018, he and Tom Harkin were the only two Democrats to have represented southwestern Iowa in the U.S. House since the end of the Great Depression.

[2] In the convention, on the ninth ballot, Hansen won the Democratic nomination without a single vote to spare.

However, Hansen was one of many Midwestern Democrats elected to Congress from Republican-leaning districts in 1964 who served only a single term.

After returning from Washington, Hansen served as member of the Iowa State Highway Commission, from February 1967 until retirement on July 1, 1969.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress