CO – NewDEAL

Lindsey Daugherty

Rachel Walsh — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 11:00:45 +0000

Lindsey Daugherty

Representative | Arvada, CO

Since being elected to the State House in 2020, I’ve worked tirelessly to pass legislation that improves the lives of all Coloradans. I’ve sponsored dozens of bills focused on crucial issues like protecting Colorado’s youth, improving public safety, supporting local businesses, making quality healthcare more transparent and affordable, enhancing workers’ rights, and making our justice system more equitable. Some of my most notable accomplishments include establishing the Foster Youth in Transition Program (HB21-1094) to support youth who age out of the foster care system, and the Bill of Rights for Foster Youth (HB24-1017) which ensures Colorado’s foster youths are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve by addressing critical areas like protection from discrimination, access to education and healthcare, preparation for adulthood, and a written notification of their rights.

I’m also proud to have voted for transformative legislation like the Reproductive Health Equity Act (HB22-1279), which codified the right to abortion in Colorado law, and HB21-1299, which established the Office of Gun Violence Prevention to coordinate efforts and promote effective strategies to reduce gun violence throughout the state.

Jena Griswold

Rachel Walsh — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 11:00:41 +0000

Jena Griswold

Secretary of State | Colorado

Jena Marie Griswold is Colorado’s 39th Secretary of State. She was first elected in 2018 as the youngest elected Secretary of State in the United States. She was reelected to the office in 2022. Secretary Griswold grew up in a working-class family in rural Colorado and was the first person in her family to attend a four-year college and then law school. Since taking office, Secretary Griswold has overseen 10 statewide elections, protected Coloradans Constitutional right to vote and supported the State’s business community by cutting red tape and the cost of starting a business.

During her time in office, Secretary Griswold has launched statewide systems so that every Colorado voter can track their ballot and fix signature or ID discrepancies with ease; increased mail ballot drop boxes statewide; passed automatic voter registration reform, which has registered hundreds of thousands of eligible Coloradans to vote; established a unit within the Secretary of State’s office focused specifically on protecting Colorado’s elections from cyber-attacks, foreign interference, and disinformation campaigns; and guaranteed drop boxes and voting centers on college campuses and Tribal lands to make it easy for all eligible Coloradans to cast a ballot.

Meghan Lukens

Andrea Cruz — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:00:20 +0000

Meghan Lukens

Representative | Steamboat Springs, CO

Meghan Lukens is currently serving in the Colorado House of Representatives for House District 26, which includes Eagle, Routt, Moffat, and Rio Blanco counties, the most northwest corner of Colorado. At the State House, she is a proud member of the Education Committee and the Agriculture, Natural Resources & Water Committee. Prior to her election, Rep. Lukens was a social studies teacher at Steamboat Springs High School. She has a Bachelor’s in History and a Master’s in Leadership in Educational Organizations with a Principal’s Licensure.

During her time at the Colorado House of Representatives, Rep. Lukens has passed numerous bills to help people in rural Colorado. Since Colorado is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis, Rep. Lukens sponsored SB23-001: Authority Of Public-private Collaboration Unit For Housing, which provides valuable employees with affordable housing by allowing employers to build workforce housing on government-owned land. Rep. Lukens was also named Mental Health Legislator of the Year from Mental Health Colorado due to her sponsorship of SB23-174: Access To Certain Behavioral Health Services and HB23-1268: Private Treatment for Out-of-state Defendant. In the education space, Rep. Lukens sponsored HB23-1064: Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact which supports teachers who want to move to Colorado.

Amanda Gonzalez

Rachel Walsh — Tue, 30 May 2023 15:05:11 +0000

Amanda Gonzalez

Clerk & Recorder | Jefferson County, CO

Amanda Gonzalez is a dedicated professional known for her instrumental work in promoting civic engagement through policy development. She is currently the Clerk and Recorder in Jefferson County where she is the first Latina in the role. Gonzalez previously served as the Executive Director of Colorado Common Cause, a nonpartisan organization committed to advancing good governance. During her tenure, she played a pivotal role in formulating and advocating for policies that expanded ballot access, curtailed the influence of money in politics, created Colorado’s independent redistricting commission, and ensured an accurate count in the 2020 Census.

Throughout her career, Gonzalez has held diverse roles, including policy analyst, staff attorney, small business CEO, nonprofit executive director, and Chicano Studies adjunct professor. The first in her family to go to college, holding degrees from Occidental College and the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

Dylan Roberts

Ben Moore — Thu, 06 May 2021 13:46:03 +0000

Dylan Roberts

Senator | Eagle, CO

Dylan Roberts represents Senate District 8 in the Colorado State Senate which encompasses Clear Creek, Eagle, Garfield, Gilpin, Grand, Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco, Routt, and Summit Counties. Senator Roberts serves as the Chair of the Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee and as a member of the Judiciary Committee and the Local Government & Housing Committee.

Senator Roberts was elected to the Senate in 2022. From 2018-2022, Dylan served in the State House representing Eagle & Routt Counties. His work at the legislature has focused on lowering the cost of health care and prescription drugs, protecting our environment and water, funding more affordable housing development, and promoting rural economic development. In 2019, he wrote and passed the law that made Colorado the first state in the nation to cap the cost of insulin and in 2022, he helped pass the largest single-year investment into affordable housing in Colorado history. Prior to and during his service in the legislature, Dylan has worked as a Deputy District Attorney for Eagle County. Dylan grew up in Routt County and now lives in Eagle County with his wife Sarah and their son Teddy.

Jared Polis

actualize — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 08:35:19 +0000

Jared Polis

GOVERNOR
CO

Governor Polis is an entrepreneur, education leader, and public servant. He started his first business, American Information Systems, while in college out of his dorm room. By the time he was 30, he’d launched three successful companies, including ProFlowers, one of the world’s leading online flower retailers. Jared’s pioneering role in the internet economy earned him an “Entrepreneur of the Year” distinction from Ernst and Young.

Following these business success, Governor Polis committed himself to making sure other Coloradans had the opportunity to pursue their dreams. He co-founded Techstars, a startup accelerator that mentors entrepreneurs from all walks of life, and Patriot Boot Camp, which helps veterans start their own small businesses after coming home from their service.

In addition to his career as an entrepreneur, much of Governor Polis’ adult life has been focused on improving public education. He served six years on the State Board of Education, where he worked to raise pay for teachers and reduce class size for students. He also founded several public charter schools for at-risk youth, and served as superintendent of one of them, the New America School, which helps immigrants earn their high school diploma.

Most recently, Governor Polis served as the U.S. representative for Colorado’s Second Congressional District, which stretches from Larimer County and the Wyoming Boulder, to the Central Mountains at the heart of Colorado’s tourism economy, to Boulder and the U.S. 36 high-tech corridor. During his time in Congress, the Center for Effective Lawmaking ranked Governor Polis the most effective member of Colorado’s House delegation due to his success working across the aisle to improve Colorado’s schools, protect public lands, and support startups and small businesses.

John Hickenlooper

actualize — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 07:23:00 +0000

John Hickenlooper

U.S. SENATOR
CO

John Hickenlooper was elected to the U.S. Senate and took office in 2021, following two terms as Colorado’s governor from 2011 to 2019. He has spent the last twenty years finding solutions to challenges facing Coloradans. He is excited to continue and expand those efforts in the US Senate.

John started his career in Colorado as a geologist. After being laid off in the long recession of the mid-80’s, along with an estimated 10,000 other Earth Science professionals, he opened the state’s first brewpub in a neglected warehouse district in Lower Downtown (LoDo) Denver. He and his partners started multiple businesses, renovating nearly a full block of LoDo warehouses in mixed-use developments that included 90 units of affordable housing. His company led the renovation efforts of more than a dozen historic buildings in cities across the Midwest.

In 2003, John was elected Mayor of Denver. As Mayor, he focused on bringing people together to get things done, just as he’d done as an entrepreneur. He unified all 34 metro mayors to fund and build FasTracks, at 119 miles of new track the most ambitious US transit initiative in modern American history. John made Denver the first large city to provide quality Early Childhood Education for every 4-year old, initiated the most significant police reforms in the City’s history, and opened one of the first offices of sustainability in the country.

John served as Governor of Colorado from 2011 to 2019. During his tenure, Colorado’s economy recovered from ranking 40th in job creation during the Great Recession to become the number one ranked economy in the country (US News & World Report). As Governor, he expanded health care to half a million Coloradans, established climate pollution limits that served as a national model, and enacted commonsense gun safety measures. He oversaw the creation of the first regulatory framework in the US for the legalization of recreational marijuana, which has become the gold standard for other states.

As Colorado’s U.S. Senator, John will continue working to bring people together to address Colorado’s toughest problems — whether rebuilding a stronger, more resilient economy after Covid, lowering the costs of health care and prescription drugs, or combatting climate change and protecting our public lands. He is honored to work for the people of Colorado.

Dan Pabon

actualize — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 11:30:09 +0000

Dan Pabon

Former Representative | Denver, CO

Dan Pabon served in the Colorado House of Representatives from 2011 to 2019. The son of working-class parents and the first in his family to have access to preschool, Dan Pabon is living proof that early childhood education is a means to close the educational achievement gap.

Dan was first elected to the legislature in 2010 with 75% of the vote and grew up in the same community he served in the Colorado House of Representatives. After earning his JD, Dan worked at a Denver-based law firm, before becoming Northwest Denver’s neighborhood attorney, working with small business owners, residents, and non-profit organizations.

Dan has worked on higher education issues as the vice-chair of the Auraria Higher Education Center Board and was a voice for senior citizens as a member of the Association for Senior Citizens Board. He also worked for two months on the Obama-Biden Presidential transition team, where he helped draft the President’s first executive order on transparency and ethics in government.

Albus Brooks

actualize — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 11:29:50 +0000

Albus Brooks

Former City Councilmember | Denver, CO

Albus Brooks is a former Denver City Councilman. He served from 2011 to 2019. He moved to Colorado in 1997 to study and play football for the University of Colorado. Sports Illustrated named him one of the Top 10 Hardest Hitters, and the NFL took interest in him before injuries ultimately ended his football career.

Albus pursued his calling for community development by working with young people in Denver’s poor communities. He served as the Director of the Issachar Center for Urban Leadership, an organization that invests in Denver’s emerging leaders.

In 2010 Albus worked to elect then-Mayor John Hickenlooper as Governor of Colorado, acting as the statewide Outreach and Political Director. This exposure to political leadership led him to seek public office, and in 2011 Albus defeated 38 opponents to become the youngest African American ever elected to Denver City Council.

Serving two terms on Denver City Council, including two terms as Council President, Albus accomplished an ambitious range of progressive legislative victories with the goal of building a truly inclusive city.

To address the affordability crisis he co-created Denver’s first – and Colorado’s largest – affordable housing fund.
To make Denver a more equitable place to grow up he funded and expanded the Denver Preschool Program, providing universal access to preschool for all 4-year-olds.
He also decriminalized marijuana possession for those 18-21 years old, preventing thousands of young people from entering the criminal justice system.

Albus Brooks received his M.B.A. from the University of Denver. He is now the Vice President of Business Development and Strategy for Milender White, a Development and Construction firm operating in Southern California and Colorado.

Albus sits on multiple boards and commissions and has been a part of the following national and international fellowship programs: The Marshall Memorial Fellowship, the NewDEAL Leaders, and the Aspen Institute-Rodel Fellowship.

Although a rising global leader, it is in the heart of Denver where Albus feels most at home. He lives in the Cole neighborhood with his wife Debi and their three young children, Makai, Kenya, and Kaya.

Brittany Pettersen

actualize — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 11:07:47 +0000

Brittany Pettersen

U.S. Representative | CO-07

Brittany Pettersen has served as the U.S. representative for Colorado’s 7th congressional district since. 2023. She first assumed office in 2013. Before running for office, Pettersen worked for New Era Colorado, a nonprofit that seeks to increase youth participation in politics and the government process. As a legislator, Pettersen has championed legislation to assist Colorado’s students and families, such as expanding tuition assistance and access to affordable child care. In 2013, Pettersen focused on making it easier for Coloradans to receive an education, sponsoring a bill cutting red-tape to make it easier for Coloradans to put their income tax returns into a college savings account.