House District 13

Joe Biden is one of the nation’s most experienced public servants, having served as a U.S. senator from Delaware for 36 years and the U.S. vice president for eight years. Biden is running on a comprehensive progressive platform.

Biden has championed individual rights throughout his career — from spearheading the Violence Against Women Act to passing laws that expanded the definition of hate crimes to include those based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. Biden led the fight to pass the Brady Bill, which established the national firearms background check system, and helped secure a 10-year ban on assault weapons from 1994-2004. As vice president, Biden oversaw the implementation of one of the largest economic recovery plans in American history in 2009, saving the American automobile industry and millions of American jobs in all sectors of the economy. During the Obama/Biden administration, the United States made significant progress toward a clean energy economy and provided health coverage to millions of Americans via the passage of the Affordable Care Act — a law Biden has vowed to expand and improve.

If elected president, Biden has pledged to work to reverse the damage from the last four years of partisan obstruction and executive branch policies solely benefiting the wealthy and well-connected. Biden supports a $15-per-hour minimum wage and 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for all workers. He also seeks to address the country's racial wealth disparity, equal opportunity, and jobs gaps by empowering small-business creation and expansion in economically disadvantaged areas. On the climate crisis, Biden proposes net-zero CO2 emissions in the U.S. by 2050 and rejoining the Paris climate accords. On the immediate front, Biden has proposed a national crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden’s experience handling the economic recovery with Obama after the Great Recession of 2009 will inform his actions to help individuals, families, small businesses, and local and state governments that are struggling badly as a result of the botched response to the pandemic. Biden will restore the long-standing precedent that public health decisions are best made by public health professionals.

Biden has pledged to defend abortion rights, expand and protect union membership, bring together an equitable and diverse group of experts to handle the nation’s institutional racism crisis, and restore dignity to the office of president of the United States.

Biden is the clear presidential choice for progressive voters.

In this election, he faces Donald Trump — considered by progressives to be the most corrupt, incompetent, anti-progressive president in recent memory and perhaps in American history. Trump’s biggest achievement as president was forcing through a massive tax cut that overwhelmingly favored the wealthiest Americans, making the nation’s historic income-disparity problem even worse. Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords, making the U.S. one of very few countries that are not signatories. Trump’s administration has encouraged repeated unsuccessful attempts by Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which has provided health coverage to millions of Americans, including a federal court challenge in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic to dismantle the law. Trump has supported racist immigration practices that contravene international law on the treatment of refugees.

Trump’s decisions have trickled into even the most mundane things, affecting Americans on a daily basis. Trump scrapped a bill requiring airlines to disclose bag fees, blocked consumers from suing banks, ignored the growing crisis over student loans, lifted bans on transferring military equipment to local law enforcement which has exacerbated police-citizen conflicts, particularly in relation to Black Lives Matter protests, and has set off a trade war with China that has done tremendous economic damage to American agricultural producers and manufacturers.

Controversies involving Trump’s presidency are too numerous to list here but include lying about mail voting to such a degree that social media platforms have been forced to remove his misinformation, racist, sexist, and defamatory statements against his political opponents, dispatching federal police to attack protesters in unmarked vehicles, installing corrupt and incompetent tools of special interest into every level of government, nominating federal judges and Supreme Court justices who seek to overturn Roe v. Wade, banning transgender Americans from military service, helping spread baseless conspiracy theories, defending the actions of overt white supremacists and racist nationalists, downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic to the public despite detailed foreknowledge of the coming disaster, pursuing diplomacy with dictators while scorning traditional American allies, and changing federal guidelines to undermine racial equality. For a more comprehensive list, we encourage you to visit the Wikipedia page for Trump administration controversies.

Evidence abounds showing that Trump never disassociated himself from his businesses and has used his office for personal enrichment. And let’s not forget he was impeached over revelations he first blocked military aid to Ukraine and then pushed its president to dig up damaging info on his political opponent as a “favor.”

Trump must not only be defeated, but the margin of victory must be so resounding as to prevent him from calling the results of the election into question as he has already pledged to do.

Former Colorado Gov. and incumbent U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper did not take the usual path into public office. After being laid off from his job as a geologist, he opened a successful brewpub. But as a small-business owner, he became involved in his community, and he ran for office. He served two terms each as mayor of Denver and governor of Colorado, using his unique perspective to bring people together to get things done.

When Hickenlooper was sworn in as governor in 2010, Colorado ranked 40th among the states in job creation. By the time Hickenlooper left office eight years later, Colorado had the #1 economy in the nation. Under Hickenlooper, when he was governor, Colorado’s economy grew without leaving Coloradans behind. Hickenlooper expanded Medicaid to cover an additional 400,000 Coloradans and cut the uninsured rate by nearly two-thirds. He signed three landmark gun safety laws in 2013 that banned high-capacity magazines and required background checks for any firearm transfer. On the environment, Hickenlooper made Colorado the first state to limit methane pollution from oil and gas wells. Working with the General Assembly, Hickenlooper signed legislation to ensure every eligible registered voter in Colorado gets a mail-in ballot, made voter registration more accessible, and pushed for numerous other election reforms that have made Colorado a model for election innovation. He also signed historic legislation granting in-state tuition to DREAMers.

Hickenlooper has vowed to improve and build on the Affordable Care Act and supports a federally administered public health coverage option. Hickenlooper recognizes the existential threat of climate change and favors a bold, science-based approach. He supports commonsense policies on gun violence, including restoring an assault weapons ban. Hickenlooper was the first governor of Colorado to apologize for the Sand Creek Massacre and has committed to listening to the voices of marginalized communities and rooting out systemic racism where it lurks in our society, from police brutality to immigration laws to racial disparities in economic status to access to quality education.

Hickenlooper is the progressive voter’s best choice for U.S. senator.

He faces incumbent U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner in this election. While in the Senate, Gardner has been a reliable Republican vote on the overwhelming majority of issues. He has supported Donald Trump’s position on votes 89% of the time, and Politico notes that Gardner is “reliably conservative on most issues.” In 2014, Gardner promised in a campaign ad to speak out when his party is wrong and called on Donald Trump to pull out of the race for president in October of 2016. Since then, however, Gardner has fully embraced Trump and was one of the first senators to endorse Trump’s reelection.

From his earliest votes in Congress, Gardner has consistently sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He has voted to repeal the ACA and to replace it with a bill that would dramatically decrease health care coverage and increase the cost of coverage. He was quoted at a private luncheon that failing to repeal the ACA would result in fewer donations to Republicans, suggesting he is not motivated by the common good.

Gardner has rejected most gun safety legislation throughout his career and is a top recipient of donations from the National Rifle Association. He has voted against expanding background checks to include gun show sales, which has been the law in Colorado since just after the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. He even voted against banning gun sales to people on the terrorist watch list.

In a historic change of heart, The Denver Post editorial board declared in 2019 they made a mistake in their 2014 endorsement of Gardner, stating he “has been too busy walking a political tight rope to be a leader.”

This race also has a Libertarian candidate: Raymon Doane. Doane is a Denver native who currently works for the Colorado Department of Revenue as a property tax specialist and business analyst. He previously ran for the state senate in 2016 as a Republican, and in 2018, he first filed to run for state treasurer and then for Congress against Democrat Diana DeGette as a Libertarian.

Doane’s few public statements should give voters pause. While the country has been dealing with the coronavirus outbreak, Doane was quoted as saying, “The federal government should not have to intervene on behalf of local municipalities and states that make poor decisions during a pandemic.” He also has said he thinks public health mandates should be more like “suggestions.” Additionally, among the four policy positions Doane takes on his website, one statement endorsing an unregulated Second Amendment stands out: “The government should NEVER have a monopoly on force. The U.S. Senate must … refuse to vote for any legislation which limits an American’s right to self-defense.” These kinds of statements don’t represent Colorado progressives.

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse is running for reelection in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District. Neguse, a lawyer and the son of Eritrean refugees, is the first and so far only Black American to serve in Congress for Colorado.

As a vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Neguse advocates for bold progressive policies to address the most pressing issues facing our nation, such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. His priorities to date in Congress have included lowering prescription drug prices, raising workers’ wages, ensuring greater accountability in government, and protecting public lands, which make up over 50% of his district.

Although he was first elected just two years ago, he has introduced more legislation than any freshman lawmaker in the country and has had more legislation signed into law than any member of Colorado’s congressional delegation. Before Congress, Neguse fought to expand opportunities for families across Colorado in a variety of roles: as a co-founder of New Era Colorado, the state’s largest youth voter registration and mobilization nonprofit; as a six-term member of CU’s Board of Regents; and as leader of the state’s consumer protection agency for two years.

Neguse is a self-described eternal optimist who will continue to provide Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District with enthusiastic, diligent, and bold representation if reelected.

Running against Neguse is Charles Winn, a radiologist and first-time candidate. Winn asserts that he’s running to change a “false narrative” about the Republican Party, but it’s a challenge to see how he will do that with his public statements on Donald Trump and the coronavirus.

When asked to assess the president’s response to the pandemic, Winn dodged the question and instead said it’s “tragic we need to point fingers.” He later tried to clarify that he thought Trump was “a good commanding officer.” Winn also tried to downplay the threat posed by COVID-19, blaming partisanship for the widespread virus and saying Americans “started politicizing [the pandemic].” Winn also claimed we should open the economy back up because “the risk is less than riding in a car.” He made comparisons to the 1968 flu pandemic to try to prove the U.S. can reopen its schools, but he wasn’t on-point about the facts; he said we should “do what we did in 1968: get on with our lives.”

This kind of thinking has helped get us into the health crisis we’re in today and cannot be elected to office.

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter is running for reelection in Colorado’s 7th Congressional District. The lifelong Jefferson County resident has been active in his representation of this district since 2006 and is well-known for his relentless brand of door-to-door retail politics. He’s held over 100 constituent meetings in local food markets — events that he calls “Government in the Grocery.”

His main priority since taking office has been improving opportunities for the area by way of fighting to make sure good jobs remain at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden and ensuring the completion of the VA Medical Center in Aurora for the benefit of veterans in the Rocky Mountain region.

Another focus of his has been gun safety. As vice chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, he has supported requiring universal background checks and reinstating the federal ban on assault weapons. He also introduced legislation to address the gaps in federal gun policy by clarifying and expanding existing federal prohibitons related to mental health and other common risk factors in gun violence tragedies.

Perlmutter worked to secure passage of the historic Dodd-Frank Act, which placed much-needed regulations on Wall Street and big banks and established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Other fights he has taken on include comprehensive immigration reform, a sweeping investment in America's infrastructure, and the preservation of Social Security and Medicare.

According to Georgetown University’s index, Perlmutter is one of the most bipartisan members of Congress. He is the preferred candidate in this race.

The Republican candidate he faces is Casper Stockham, who has previously run to represent the 1st and 6th Congressional Districts. His platform is that of the generic conservative Republican these days, which goes along with his parachute campaign style. He is “100% pro-life and supports President Trump’s effort to defund Planned Parenthood.” He is against “red flag” laws that keep guns away from domestic abusers and suspected violent criminals. He thinks Obamacare is “a disaster.” And he is a strong supporter of Trump, “loves his record and results,” and thinks that Trump is “winning for all of us.” These positions take us backward, not forward. We suggest voting for Perlmutter.

Karla Esser is an educator through and through. Her career is a prime example of someone who has seen every aspect of the education system, having spent time as a teacher, college professor, school administrator, and assistant superintendent. Esser has seen it all when it comes to education, and we desperately need someone with her experience guiding those decisions in Colorado. She has a strong recommendation.

Her opponent, Nancy Pallozzi, is a small business owner in Lakewood and has no experience for the school board that compares with Esser’s. Neither Pallozzi’s social media nor her website say much if anything at all about education or ideas about what she’d do in office, although the one-time middle-school PTA president does have a lot of right-wing thoughts. She appears to be just another Republican candidate on the ballot.

Callie Rennison has been a strong progressive leader in higher education for many years. A first-generation college student, she worked as a statistician before becoming an instructor, professor, and prominent voice of change at universities in the Midwest and Colorado. Her work has focused on victimization and violence against women and people of color with a particular interest in victims’ interactions with the criminal justice system. Rennison has served the University of Colorado as the associate dean of faculty affairs, director of equity, and Title IX coordinator and has participated in numerous public panels and boards. In her leadership roles, she proved her ability to successfully navigate various institutional levels and bring people together in discussing contentious issues. Rennison is committed to making college more affordable and accessible to low-income students, ending sexual assault and discrimination on campuses, and striving to make diversity and inclusion a priority among students, faculty, and staff.

In the wake of recent changes to Title IX under Betsy DeVos, Rennison has pledged to work harder to ensure survivors are supported. Importantly, she champions accountability and transparency as key factors in combatting the businesslike model of CU’s institutions that centers around “returning investments” instead of prioritizing learning and a holistic higher education.

Running against her are Republican Dick Murphy and Libertarian Christian Vernaza. Murphy is a longtime financial consultant who served as a deputy state treasurer from 2003 to 2004. He has made few public statements on his own policy positions, and his campaign website serves as a personal resume detailing a career in investment banking and management rather than a true statement of platform.

Vernaza is a car sales associate in Fort Collins and a first-time Libertarian candidate for office. He has not made any public statements about his own positions on the issues, so it can only be assumed he supports the Libertarian Party of Colorado’s position to completely privatize education. For that reason, we cannot recommend voting for Vernaza.

Rennison is the clear progressive choice for regent in this district.

Nolbert Chavez is the only candidate registered to run in this race.

Judy Amabile, a businessperson and committed progressive activist, is running to succeed term-limited Speaker of the House K.C. Becker as the District 13 representative.

Amabile wants to bring the voice of “the progressive business owner” to the legislature and “foundational change” to a system that for too long has been fixed in favor of the wealthy. Her platform focuses on three main issues: acting boldly on climate change, improving the lives of working people “at the bottom of the economic ladder,” and increasing access to mental health resources to address the rise in homelessness, substance use disorders, incarceration, and suicide. She has ambitious policy ideas like putting a price on carbon emissions to incentivize businesses to cut them, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, transitioning to a single-payer health care system, equalizing internet access, fairness in banking, instituting balanced executive pay, and more.

Electing Amabile will definitely advance the progressive causes in Colorado.

On the Republican side for this seat is Kevin Sipple, a co-founder of Eldorado Natural Spring Water. He has a long history of public service and leans on a traditional party platform — he supports right-to-work laws that make it harder for people to form unions, defends the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), and is against abortion rights from “conception to natural death.” Sipple has concerning stances on gun policy and COVID-19. He has advocated for arming school staff, and on the virus, he has strongly criticized health measures and calls on people to “stand up” to the “tyrants.”

Libertarian Jed Gilman is also on the ballot. He gained attention in May for his own “tyranny” commentary on Tri-County Health Department COVID-19 restrictions where he praised a restaurant for defying public health orders and staying open. His stances on other issues, outlined in a July video interview on Facebook, are as expected for the Libertarian Party.

Democratic candidate Heidi McCollum is a prosecutor in District 5. McCollum is unopposed and has a knowledge base for the office already that only a handful of candidates have: She’s presently in charge of overseeing the day-to-day operations for the district attorney’s office and helps to develop policy while also maintaining a caseload of juvenile and high-profile felony cases. Her priorities include protections for vulnerable groups, such as the elder and immigrant populations, and she aims to ensure all victims in the community have a voice. She is also supportive of reforms within the department, including alternative justice to address recidivism. This is the kind of reputation and representation needed in a DA’s office. Progressive voters can feel comfortable supporting McCollum.

Gordon McLaughlin is the Democratic candidate in this race and is a current deputy district attorney for Larimer and Jackson counties. He has worked with law enforcement to take down methamphetamine and heroin distribution networks and also worked locally on issues like domestic violence and cyberbullying. As district attorney, he wants to make the criminal justice system more just for all, no matter where a person is on the economic spectrum. He wants to end mass incarceration by finding alternatives to jail and reforming the bail system, which disproportionately affects people of color.

McLaughlin is just the kind of candidate who knows what the job requires and how we more effectively provide justice; the progressive recommendation is for him.

On the Republican side of this race is Mitch Murray, who is the first assistant district attorney in District 8. He represents an unbroken line of Republican leadership in this office for more than 30 years, and in the same time, crime rates have increased in the district. We think it’s time for a change. Voters should elect McLaughlin to the district attorney’s office.

Kaitlin Turner was appointed as the district attorney for District 11 in 2019. In that short time, she has earned the trust and reelection endorsement of critical partners in law enforcement like Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw, Custer County Sheriff Shannon Byerly, and Fremont County Sheriff Allen Cooper. It’s no surprise why: Her experience is incredible — she was selected to be a U.S. Bureau of Prisons attorney and received law enforcement training in addition to her legal expertise, then she was invited to serve as a federal prosecutor for the Colorado U.S. Attorney’s Office. In 2018, she additionally took on a role as a council member in Cañon City. Across all this, her priorities have been finding alternatives to incarceration to ensure community safety and facilitating cooperation among agencies.

Turner is an impressive person and dedicated public servant no matter how you slice it, and we strongly recommend reelecting her as district attorney.

Taking her on for the office is Republican candidate Linda Stanley, a former police officer and municipal prosecutor. She has a different kind of experience on her side, but as she pointed out in a July 4 campaign statement, possibly the key issue to consider this year is a candidate’s approach to Black Lives Matter protests and law enforcement accountability. In describing her stance on this, however, she only seemed to say having spent years learning the criminal statutes and traffic codes is what will make the difference on the issue. Without more context, it’s hard to say who she wants the laws to provide justice to—protesters or police (or both or neither). Supporting Turner’s reelection is a much more clear path for those who want to continue to see positive change.

Matt Karzen is the party-unaffiliated district attorney who was appointed to District 14 during the last cycle. It’s nice to hear when a candidate is interested in talking about the job instead of talking about the politics, and Karzen did that starting day one. When he announced his candidacy for this election, Karzen discussed topics such as sending people battling substance use disorders to rehabilitation instead of prisons and fighting institutional racism so that citizens feel comfortable around law enforcement officers, and ensuring that law enforcement officers know who they are hired to protect and serve. The district attorney is in a position that needs to be beyond reproach and above the political squabbling, and we applaud Karzen’s efforts to do so. He faces no opposition in this race, but we still recommend voting to keep Karzen as district attorney.