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Incumbent State Rep. Barbara McLachlan has served District 59 since 2017. McLachlan worked as a teacher, college consultant, and journalist for The Durango Herald before entering politics. As a legislator, she has prioritized education by serving as a chair on the House Education Committee and sponsoring numerous bills relates to education policy. Her recent measures in education include a media literacy bill and a student emergency grant bill for college students enrolled in state institutions of higher education.
McLachlan also has served on the House Transportation and Energy Committee, Joint Review Committee on Water Resources, and the Rural Affairs and Agriculture Committee. She recently led an effort to strengthen the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI), which provides grants to create new jobs and diversify rural economies of Colorado.
Her long-standing efforts in education and economic development for rural communities proves she will continue to be a fierce advocate for the voices in her district, and she is the recommended candidate in this race.
Her challenger is Marilyn Harris, a former business manager and small-business owner from Archuleta County. Alongside such topics as reopening the economy without a care for what she calls the “flavor of the week” public health position and wanting the government to stop “interfering” with however parents want to educate their children, Harris’ biggest policy position is being in favor of an unchecked Second Amendment. Her main complaint about gun safety legislation is that they “cannot be enforced” when numerous states around the country have gun laws and haven’t been proven to be successful in making sure the wrong people aren’t able to buy guns, including Colorado, where our Instacheck system regularly prevents people with long criminal records from obtaining firearms. Commonsense protections like universal background checks that keep guns away from domestic abusers shouldn’t be up for debate. These laws are things that the vast majority of Americans and gun owners agree upon to make our communities safer. We cannot recommend voting for Harris.Barbara McLachlan
Incumbent State Rep. Barbara McLachlan has served District 59 since 2017. McLachlan worked as a teacher, college consultant, and journalist for The Durango Herald before entering politics.
Incumbent State Rep. Barbara McLachlan has served District 59 since 2017. McLachlan worked as a teacher, college consultant, and journalist for The Durango Herald before entering politics. As a legislator, she has prioritized education by serving as a chair on the House Education Committee and sponsoring numerous bills relates to education policy. Her recent measures in education include a media literacy bill and a student emergency grant bill for college students enrolled in state institutions of higher education.
McLachlan also has served on the House Transportation and Energy Committee, Joint Review Committee on Water Resources, and the Rural Affairs and Agriculture Committee. She recently led an effort to strengthen the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI), which provides grants to create new jobs and diversify rural economies of Colorado.
Her long-standing efforts in education and economic development for rural communities proves she will continue to be a fierce advocate for the voices in her district, and she is the recommended candidate in this race.
Her challenger is Marilyn Harris, a former business manager and small-business owner from Archuleta County. Alongside such topics as reopening the economy without a care for what she calls the “flavor of the week” public health position and wanting the government to stop “interfering” with however parents want to educate their children, Harris’ biggest policy position is being in favor of an unchecked Second Amendment. Her main complaint about gun safety legislation is that they “cannot be enforced” when numerous states around the country have gun laws and haven’t been proven to be successful in making sure the wrong people aren’t able to buy guns, including Colorado, where our Instacheck system regularly prevents people with long criminal records from obtaining firearms. Commonsense protections like universal background checks that keep guns away from domestic abusers shouldn’t be up for debate. These laws are things that the vast majority of Americans and gun owners agree upon to make our communities safer. We cannot recommend voting for Harris.Barbara McLachlan
Incumbent State Rep. Barbara McLachlan has served District 59 since 2017. McLachlan worked as a teacher, college consultant, and journalist for The Durango Herald before entering politics.
Diane Mitsch Bush
Diane Mitsch Bush, a former state representative, is now running for Congress. She is a retired sociology professor and previous Routt County commissioner who has lived in the Western Slope — a part of Colorado’s sprawling 3rd Congressional District — for over 43 years. She previously ran for this seat in 2018, when she came closer to winning than any Democrat had in the three prior elections.
Colleagues from her other tenures have commended Mitsch Bush’s extreme attention to detail, her pragmatism, and her willingness to work with all sides. She has shown an ability to lead calmly through disasters, including the Great Recession, wildfires, floods, drought, and the swine flu epidemic. While in the state legislature, Mitsch Bush was a leading advocate for family agriculture, sustainable water infrastructure, and small rural communities. She sponsored many critically important bills, including ones to protect the environment and hold polluters accountable, lower health care and health insurance costs, and increase funding for rural schools. Over 80% of her bills were co-prime sponsored with rural Republicans.
Mitsch Bush has said her family’s early struggles with financial insecurity taught her the importance of helping others through public service. Her goal is to have an America that provides opportunities for all, not just the wealthy and well-connected. She intends to fight to make health care affordable for everyone, to protect the environment for generations to come, and to bring more good-paying jobs to rural communities.
Mitsch Bush is an experienced lawmaker and local leader who, if elected to Congress, will be ready on day one to get to work on policies that will benefit her district.
Running against her is Republican Lauren Boebert. Boebert is the owner of Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colorado — a restaurant known mainly for the fact that the wait staff openly carry guns on their person. Guns are one of the few things Boebert talks about regularly. She once drove across the state to go to a rally for Beto O’Rourke just to confront him about his gun safety position.
What voters really need to know, however, is that Boebert is a strong proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory: the wild idea that Donald Trump is waging a secret war against Democrats and movie stars who are running an international child trafficking ring. She has been quoted as saying, “I hope that this is real. … It only means America is getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values and that’s what I’m for.” She later added, “Everything that I have heard of this movement is only motivating and encouraging and bringing people together stronger ... it could be really great for our country.”
Boebert hasn’t explained more of her own positions beyond generic talking points, but it seems clear she is very far from being a progressive choice.