On the Issues

• Eliminate barriers to missing middle housing

• Preserve existing affordable housing

• Protect renters’ rights to ensure safe and secure housing for all

• Incorporate transportation choice as a key piece of housing policy

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Everyone deserves safe, secure, and affordable housing. I primarily favor supply-side solutions that promote diverse and abundant housing stock, as well as the preservation of existing affordable units. In general, I support loosening unhelpful regulations like restrictive zoning, parking mandates, and setback requirements, while preserving laws that are necessary for residents’ health and safety. In my first term, I took the lead on parking reform, making Colorado one of the most advanced states in rolling back these harmful laws that prioritize storage for cars over housing for people.

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The state also plays a vital role in establishing balanced landlord-tenant law that gives both parties access to a fair process when resolving disputes. Unsafe living conditions and evictions have serious long-term consequences for our entire community, and can be deeply traumatic or even deadly for vulnerable individuals. I've supported legislation to require just cause for eviction, expand enforcement options for tenants living in uninhabitable conditions, and guarantee pre-trial mediation for select tenants. I also spearheaded legislation that allows tenants to get a portable screening report when applying for leases. Colorado renters no longer have to pay repeat fees for the same information–their own data–just to get housed.

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I was very impressed by the eviction diversion and recovery program that was temporarily offered in our local courts, an innovative program that provided pre-trial mediation as well as immediate re-housing services for tenants experiencing eviction. It was disappointing to see the funding for that discontinued. An eviction can be devastating, and helping tenants avoid them wherever possible, or bounce back from one if necessary, is a wise use of our public resources. We should secure permanent funding for services like this, and apply those principles beyond our judicial district.

• Expand transportation choices so that all Coloradans can get where they need to go

• Support Front Range Passenger Rail (the “Colorado Connector”) and invest more in public and active transit

• Promote road design that puts safety first, especially for cyclists and pedestrians

• Make better use of taxpayer dollars by taking care of the roads we already have, and prioritizing infill over low-density sprawl

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Whatever form of transportation you need to take, you deserve to get around safely, conveniently, and affordably. Expanding transportation choices and using smarter road design reduces traffic congestion, improves air quality, and makes transportation more affordable for everyone. I’ve brought more transit funding to Colorado Springs with the Zero Fare for Better Air program, and cosponsored legislation to advance Front Range Passenger Rail (now named the “Colorado Connector” or “CoCo”).

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When a highway project near HD-16 caused the closure of Sinton Trail and cut off cycling constituents from a frequently-used path, I worked with the Colorado Department of Transportation to get the trail re-opened. I am committed to working closely with the administration, my legislative colleagues, and our local government leaders to make sure Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak Region see transit dollars invested here in our community.

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The roads, trails, and sidewalks we already have need a lot of attention, and I’m glad to see the tide changing in Colorado Springs to reject low-density sprawl. But we don’t exist in a vacuum, and communities all over Colorado owe it to each other to make better use of our shared state resources.

• Continue advancing Colorado’s clean energy economy

• Hold polluters accountable with meaningful enforcement of air quality rules

• Protect natural spaces and wildlife

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Climate change is not a tomorrow problem, it is a today problem. Droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires will continue to worsen as long as we burn fossil fuels for energy. Our state is too beautiful, and too precious, to give our future away in exchange for short-term profit. I’m proud that Colorado is a national leader in pursuing a just and equitable transition to all-renewable energy. We still have a long way to go in reining in polluters like Suncor, and ensuring the successful decommission of our last coal plants, including Ray Nixon.

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As a freshman legislator, I sponsored a nation-leading bill that set a high bar for tax credits for clean hydrogen, and will ensure that we only incentivize truly clean energy choices. When I'm back in office, I'll keep fighting for solutions that reduce emissions and fight climate change, not reward Wall Street with even more of our money.

• Advance single-payer healthcare in the absence of Federal action

• Increase access to primary care by reducing administrative burden for Medicaid providers

• Combat suicide with stronger public health education, increased protective factors, and management of access to lethal means

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Healthcare is a basic human need that should be covered for everyone. I support a well-planned Colorado public option as a stepping stone to single-payer coverage. The demand for healthcare goods and services is not like other kinds of demand in a market setting. It is non-negotiable and often extremely time-sensitive. You need what you need, when you need it, in order to carry on living. Anything less than universal healthcare access fails to secure our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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Colorado does better than some other states on account of having embraced the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, but we still have a lot of work to do. The public health emergency unwind caused many eligible patients to get dropped from the rolls, and the Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing (HCPF)–the department that administers Medicaid in Colorado–has had significant internal difficulties and has gone over their budget. Difficult decisions will be made in the 2027 legislative session, but I believe that what is most critical is to cover primary care and to at least maintain the Medicaid providers we have. The Commission on Medicaid that has been meeting throughout the interim this year is finding many areas of improvement that are absolutely fixable – coding issues, for instance, and gaps in oversight. There are also structural challenges that are much harder to overcome, such as Medicaid’s inability to negotiate drug prices the way a private insurer can.

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All of this speaks to the underlying issue of healthcare in America: a patchwork of public and private insurers makes budgeting unpredictable for providers and facilities, patients struggle to pay for healthcare at precisely the moment they need it the most, and a few companies are making bank off our desperation. We need a single-payer system as quickly as we can feasibly get to one.

• Make it easier to form a union by removing the second election from the Colorado Labor Peace Act

• Advance the rights of app-based workers and ensure that the future of work actually works for all of us

• Ensure living wages, safe working conditions, and a dignified work-life balance for every Coloradan

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Working people are the true source of our nation’s prosperity. The upward redistribution of wealth into the non-laboring investor class has dealt a terrible blow to working families, with $50 trillion moving from the bottom 90% to the top 1% over the last forty years. We’re living in a second gilded age, and it won’t get better on its own. Governments need to take action.

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Attacks on organized labor have played a big hand in this, as well as corporate power in politics and government affairs, and working people are feeling the squeeze. I support a living minimum wage and robust enforcement of Colorado's labor laws. I also support the repeal of the confusing second election required by Colorado’s Labor Peace Act, so that workers can form a union and a collective bargaining unit with one election.

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The way we work is also changing rapidly, with more and more work opportunities becoming remote or app-based. The future of work will require us to think creatively and establish a good system of checks and balances to protect workers, consumers, and honest businesses. In 2024, I prime sponsored a bill that will begin to rein in the worst excesses of app-based delivery and ride share companies.​

• Protection public education against privatization

• Promote equitable access to opportunity and ensure a safe, inclusive learning environment for every child

• Respect and support education professionals so we can attract and retain great teachers

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Every child deserves a world-class education, and teachers should be compensated and respected as the valued professionals that they are. While we have finally paid down the budget stabilization factor, we are still frighteningly close to the bottom as a state in terms of school funding, and Colorado's unique fiscal constraints (TABOR) make it difficult to meet our educational needs. TABOR (the “taxpayers bill of rights”) caps state spending based on inflation and population growth. But not all costs experience the same rate of inflation, and different demographics require different public services, so that arbitrary spending cap doesn’t account for the complexity of a state budget for a population of over 6 million people.

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School choice can be really powerful for families in need of high-quality options, especially for children with unique needs, but it is also vital that we preserve neighborhood schools, and ensure we're using public dollars for public education, not for political agendas. Any institution that receives public education dollars, including charters, should meet public education standards, and refrain from discrimination based on identity, religion, or ability.

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I also support revising our approach to teacher evaluations to reduce administrative burden, and focus on meaningful, long-term academic development, rather than fixating on short-term metrics that don’t acknowledge the whole child.

• Defend voting rights and promote more accessibility for voters

• Defend the right to reproductive care, including access to a safe and legal abortion

• Protect the safety and freedom of LGBTQIA+ Coloradans

• Uphold due process under the law for everyone in our state, citizen and immigrant alike

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Self-determination is a basic human right and a core Colorado value. It is essential that we protect our Colorado way of life against Federal overreach, especially in this dangerous time. This means defending the will of Colorado voters in codifying the right to a safe and legal abortion, marriage equality, and equal legal protections for LGBTQ+ individuals and their families.

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The atrocity at Club Q in November 2022, right here in HD-16, only strengthened my commitment to protect the LGBTQ+ community against politicized attacks, marginalization, and violence.​ We must stand firm in our values to protect our individual liberties, and promote safe and healthy communities for all of our neighbors.

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We have to do more to protect Constitutional due process under the law for all–citizen and immigrant alike – and hold Federal agents accountable for abusing Coloradans’ civil rights. This is a nation built on immigration, and that diversity makes us strong.