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Democrat
Carlos López
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Carlos López is someone who knows southern Colorado well. He was born and raised in Trinidad, started his college education at Trinidad State Junior College, and has served Trinidad on its city council. He knows what this community wants and needs. He’s not interested in playing politics as he’s more interested in the specifics about education funding in the state and the decrease in rural education funding. López is here to help out working folks in southern Colorado, and we recommend electing him to the state senate.
Cleave Simpson is on the Republican side of this race. He’s a rancher and engineer from Alamosa, and his campaign statements cast a wide net of generalities, mostly on agriculture and land management and a call for rural and urban areas to “unite.” But he hasn’t made any other opinions on issues that affect daily life widely known. It’s hard to support a one-note candidate.Carlos López
Carlos López is someone who knows southern Colorado well. He was born and raised in Trinidad, started his college education at Trinidad State Junior College, and has served Trinidad on its city council. He knows what this community wants and needs. He’s not interested in playing politics as he’s more interested in the specifics about education funding in the state and the decrease in rural education funding. López is here to help out working folks in southern Colorado, and we recommend electing him to the state senate.
Cleave Simpson is on the Republican side of this race. He’s a rancher and engineer from Alamosa, and his campaign statements cast a wide net of generalities, mostly on agriculture and land management and a call for rural and urban areas to “unite.” But he hasn’t made any other opinions on issues that affect daily life widely known. It’s hard to support a one-note candidate.Carlos López
Carlos López is someone who knows southern Colorado well. He was born and raised in Trinidad, started his college education at Trinidad State Junior College, and has served Trinidad on its city council. He knows what this community wants and needs. He’s not interested in playing politics as he’s more interested in the specifics about education funding in the state and the decrease in rural education funding. López is here to help out working folks in southern Colorado, and we recommend electing him to the state senate.
Cleave Simpson is on the Republican side of this race. He’s a rancher and engineer from Alamosa, and his campaign statements cast a wide net of generalities, mostly on agriculture and land management and a call for rural and urban areas to “unite.” But he hasn’t made any other opinions on issues that affect daily life widely known. It’s hard to support a one-note candidate.
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.