Colorado lawmakers Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Governor Jared Polis, and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) sent a letter to President Joe Biden yesterday urging him to use the Antiquities Act and other presidential authorities to protect Colorado’s Camp Hale and the Tenmile Range as the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument.
This week Democratic lawmakers in Colorado held events to bring attention to their efforts to prevent more gun violence and mass shootings ahead of the November election. According to Colorado Democratic Party Executive Director Karin Asensio, gun deaths and injuries have cost Colorado $11.7 billion each year.
Abortion providers and advocates took part in a round table discussion with Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) on Monday to discuss the impact on Colorado of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
It was an eventful weekend for election integrity advocates in Colorado and nationally. On Thursday, Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder held a press conference to address the controversy stemming from a forensic image made of Elbert County’s election management server by Schroeder in January. On Friday, the lawsuit Kirkwood v. Williams et al was filed in El Paso County against the El Paso County Board of Commissioners and El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman, regarding El Paso County’s use of electronic voting machines. On Saturday and Sunday, Colorado election conspiracists, Rep. Ron Hanks (R-Cañon City) and Shawn Smith, took the stage at MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s Moment of Truth Summit.
A Black separatist group with ties to Colorado has been implicated in part of a Russian influence scheme, according to a federal indictment filed last month.
Antagonism toward transgender people was on full display at Saturday’s “Red Wave” party in Colorado Springs, where nearly all of El Paso County’s Republican elected officials and candidates gathered to listen to former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines and to launch a political group aimed at restricting the participation of transgender people in sports, education, and public life.
On Aug. 1, the Fremont County School District tabled a proposed transgender policy, designed to comply with state law mandating support for transgender students, after pushback from local politicians, teachers, and community members. In Colorado, transgender people and gender identity are protected under nondiscrimination ordinances.
Since the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion providers in Colorado have seen an influx of patients from states like Texas, which passed a six-week abortion ban in 2021, and whose abortion ban — passed nearly 100 years ago — will go back into effect Aug. 25 as a result of the Dobbs decision.
Tempers flared during Tuesday’s meeting of Pueblo’s Chávez Huerta Preparatory Academy (CHPA) Board. Of the 13 speakers who addressed the board during the public comment period, eight called for the resignation of board president — and Republican Colorado Senate candidate — Stephen Varela.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) has been endorsed by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Bennet is facing a challenge from Republican Joe O’Dea, who doesn’t support Colorado Reproductive Health Equity Act (RHEA), but also didn’t support overturning Roe v. Wade, but also supported the nomination of the three conservative Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe.
