When I announced my campaign in January earlier this year, I shared my commitment to travel our state, listen to voters about what’s on their minds, and share my plans for Colorado in the fall. Those plans–discussed in our newly released Colorado Blueprint–are over 90 pages of ideas. A few weeks ago, I asked you to take a look and let me know what you thought. Over 500 of you did—and your feedback was great! Thank you.
Your comments, and I reviewed them all, were so helpful, insightful, and consistent with much of what I heard over the past year. I want to highlight a few of them and invite continued feedback and suggestions. Over time, my team and I will continue to add to these ideas, and we’ll look for and lift up the big fights we will be taking on to build a more affordable Colorado, a Colorado where kids have opportunities to build a life and succeed, and a more resilient Colorado.
Not surprisingly, many of you spoke about affordability as a top concern, with many supporting our policies improving healthcare and housing affordability as well as expressing appreciation for our focus on working families. I was deeply grateful and humbled by your words about my fight against the grocery store monopoly and the suggestions for more specific proposals on housing as well as some specific ideas on that front. We will continue to drill down on those suggestions and prepare to tackle this top priority–for both renters and home owners.
Ensuring opportunities for our kids was also top of mind, with many comments on how we can improve K-12 schools and curriculum, recruit and support teachers, and invest in career and technical education for our kids. I am committed to doing just that—I particularly appreciated a suggestion from a Montrose resident on the importance of supporting and collaborating with local school boards. I also was grateful for the support for my ColoradoCorps concept, including from someone who heard me outline the concept in Alamosa and suggested that ColoradoCorp participants should be able to work in forestry, firefighting, and wildfire mitigation work—I agree and I’ll be updating our plans with that great suggestion.
On a resilient Colorado, I appreciated the comments about the importance of protecting public safety and our land, air, and water. Many called out the importance I placed on protecting Colorado’s water, encouraging steps to support voluntary conservation efforts like xeriscaping. Many highlighted the importance of our continued clean energy leadership. Some noted that we should be more clear about the importance of protecting wildlife—like deer and pronghorns—who are especially vulnerable at highway crossings.
A number of the comments were about people’s fears—from protecting Colorado against the lawless actions from the federal government to supporting young people hurting and searching for purpose. As for the Trump Administration, a central message was to keep protecting Colorado and stand strong for our principles. As for the state of our politics, one person bemoaned the rise of “dark money” and corporate money, wanting Coloradans, not out of state interests, to decide elections. I couldn’t agree more.
Finally, we received many comments about the type of leader we need from our next Governor—and my commitment to leading all Coloradans. Many spoke about my collaborative, innovative, and pragmatic approach, service-oriented leadership, and staying focused on doing the right thing. Many people commented on my commitment and ability to bridge the rural-urban divide, with one person stating that “Colorado is poised to be the first state to bridge the urban-rural divide; let’s role-model that and export it nationally.” Another person appreciated my commitment to “listening and working together. LIVING as an example of how respectful discourse should be an expectation demanded everywhere.”
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I often say that our campaign is powered by the people of Colorado. That is true in many ways. To power this campaign, I don’t have out-of-state interests or a billionaire’s funding, but I have you. And I’ll take that any day! Spiritually, I continue to be energized and inspired by your engagement. And, on the ideas front, please keep them coming. Your feedback both improved and validated our vision. And your support means more than you know, calling on me to “keep on being honest and strong” in my convictions and “keep going into ALL the communities, and talking to people.” That is how I governed and how I will govern–by showing up, listening, and getting things done for the people of Colorado. Thank you for your partnership in that work.