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Beatriz Soto is an architect and environmental leader in Garfield County. Soto's priorities are finding solutions for the public health crises, ensuring the economy works for everyone, and addressing climate change. Among her intentions are attaining 100% clean energy in the county and giving incentives for sustainable and regenerative farming and ranching. She knows relying forever on gas and oil isn’t a winning strategy. Garfield County is in desperate need for new leadership to meet the problems of tomorrow head on, and progressive voters can feel confident that Soto will be that change.
She hopes to unseat the incumbent commissioner, John Martin, who has served the district for 24 years. In that time — despite however much he touts that he “stands up for the rights of western Colorado” — his actions have shown he’s not working for the best interests of the people. In August, he told The Colorado Sun that getting involved in the air quality and oil and gas coalition, which Garfield County is funding, was a way of ensuring the industry is not “constrained by cumbersome rules.” He is less concerned with finding alternatives and preserving public lands than he is about taking care of industry supporters. We are facing a very different world ahead, and Martin represents a bygone era. Voters should instead elect Soto.
Beatriz Soto
Beatriz Soto is an architect and environmental leader in Garfield County.
Beatriz Soto is an architect and environmental leader in Garfield County. Soto's priorities are finding solutions for the public health crises, ensuring the economy works for everyone, and addressing climate change. Among her intentions are attaining 100% clean energy in the county and giving incentives for sustainable and regenerative farming and ranching. She knows relying forever on gas and oil isn’t a winning strategy. Garfield County is in desperate need for new leadership to meet the problems of tomorrow head on, and progressive voters can feel confident that Soto will be that change.
She hopes to unseat the incumbent commissioner, John Martin, who has served the district for 24 years. In that time — despite however much he touts that he “stands up for the rights of western Colorado” — his actions have shown he’s not working for the best interests of the people. In August, he told The Colorado Sun that getting involved in the air quality and oil and gas coalition, which Garfield County is funding, was a way of ensuring the industry is not “constrained by cumbersome rules.” He is less concerned with finding alternatives and preserving public lands than he is about taking care of industry supporters. We are facing a very different world ahead, and Martin represents a bygone era. Voters should instead elect Soto.
Beatriz Soto
Beatriz Soto is an architect and environmental leader in Garfield County.
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.