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Voters here won’t see a Democratic candidate’s printed name on the ballot, but Larimer County Democrats are promoting Vern Richardson as a late write-in.
Richardson is a longtime resident of Loveland and has served as the chair of the county’s Democratic Party for seven years. He’s running for a couple of central reasons: to ensure there is a choice in who the people elect as their representative and because he believes elected officials need to work together for the community. Richardson doesn’t have a fully developed platform, but he lists among his core beliefs social responsibility, a strong working/middle class, equality and fairness, and innovation.
He is taking on incumbent Republican State Rep. Hugh McKean, who was first elected to the seat in 2016. Also hailing from Loveland, he espouses service over politics, responsibility, and looking out for the “long-term future” of district residents. He is extremely conservative fiscally, but other views are moderate compared to a lot of the state’s GOP members. Progressives must be wary, however, of his statements against red-flag gun safety laws and his promise to fight “any restriction” to gun ownership rights plus his dismissiveness of health care for all.Vern Richardson
Voters here won’t see a Democratic candidate’s printed name on the ballot, but Larimer County Democrats are promoting Vern Richardson as a late write-in.
Voters here won’t see a Democratic candidate’s printed name on the ballot, but Larimer County Democrats are promoting Vern Richardson as a late write-in.
Richardson is a longtime resident of Loveland and has served as the chair of the county’s Democratic Party for seven years. He’s running for a couple of central reasons: to ensure there is a choice in who the people elect as their representative and because he believes elected officials need to work together for the community. Richardson doesn’t have a fully developed platform, but he lists among his core beliefs social responsibility, a strong working/middle class, equality and fairness, and innovation.
He is taking on incumbent Republican State Rep. Hugh McKean, who was first elected to the seat in 2016. Also hailing from Loveland, he espouses service over politics, responsibility, and looking out for the “long-term future” of district residents. He is extremely conservative fiscally, but other views are moderate compared to a lot of the state’s GOP members. Progressives must be wary, however, of his statements against red-flag gun safety laws and his promise to fight “any restriction” to gun ownership rights plus his dismissiveness of health care for all.Vern Richardson
Voters here won’t see a Democratic candidate’s printed name on the ballot, but Larimer County Democrats are promoting Vern Richardson as a late write-in.
Joe Neguse
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.