My Priorities

I’m proud to represent Senate District 18 and the community of Boulder as a bold, progressive voice at the Capitol. Over the past 7 years, I’ve focused most of my work around combating climate change, increasing access to our elections, ensuring equal rights for all Coloradans, and making higher education more affordable.

  • The economic, moral, and environmental ramifications of climate change are not just something we read about anymore – they’re now something we experience on an all-too regular basis in Boulder County and throughout our state. Whether it’s a 100-year flood that leaves utter destruction in its wake, forest fires which threaten habitats and residents’ homes, the Pine Beetle epidemic, or a shortage of snowpack, climate change is a problem that requires aggressive intervention by our government to solve.

    As your Senator I have:

    • Sponsored & passed the largest overhaul of oil and gas regulations in over 60 years. We ensured that regulators are considering the health and safety of Coloradans first, and gave local governments much more control over what is happening in their backyards.

    • Sponsored & passed historic legislation to clean up Colorado’s air through investments to lower emissions in the industrial and transportation sectors, electrify school buses and other highly polluting vehicles, and improve air quality monitoring and reporting.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation that establishes tax credits to lower utility bills, fund the exploration of new, clean energy technologies, and extend tax credits for electric vehicles and ebikes amounting to $60 million annually for the next decade.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation that will protect Coloradans from future energy bill volatility, hold utility companies accountable, and invest in the transition away from expensive fossil fuels.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to expand the use of renewable energy and to account for the social cost of carbon in utility planning.

    • Supported & passed the most aggressive carbon emission reduction goals in the country.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to expand individual customers’ ability to store energy on their property.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation allocating $15 million to the Office of Just Transition, tasked with supporting traditionally coal-based economies as they plan for the transition to clean energy.

  • As a result of climate change, Colorado is seeing wildfires increase in frequency and destruction. High winds, low humidity, and unseasonably high temperatures combine to turn Colorado into a tinderbox – where one spark could threaten lives, neighborhoods and businesses. In recent years, I’ve worked hard to ensure Colorado is as prepared as possible for future fires, and that we’re adequately supporting Coloradans who are rebuilding and recovering from past fires.

    As your Senator I have…

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to purchase two Firehawk helicopters, a state of the art wildfire fighting tool that can more quickly respond to and put out fires.

    • Secured $20 million in funding to contract additional air tankers and helicopters to quickly and decisively respond to fires before they get out of control, ensure we have year-round and expanded dispatch services to immediately respond when a fire is spotted, and implement new technology systems for on-the-ground fire fighting coordination.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to create grant programs to help those affected by the Marshall Fire rebuild more resilient and more sustainably.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to improve insurance claims processes for homeowners affected by wildfire disasters.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to lower rebuilding costs for victims of wildfires.

  • I believe the fundamental building block of a strong economy and a vibrant democracy is our public education system. However, Colorado ranks right near the bottom in terms of level of investment in K-12 and higher education, and this must change.

    As your Senator I have:

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to establish the Department of Early Childhood Education, which is bringing universal preschool to every child in Colorado.

    • Supported & passed fully funded full day Kindergarten for every child in Colorado.

    • Fixed an error in our property tax system to ensure we are fairly and sufficiently funding K-12 education.

    • Supported & passed improvements to the READ Act, which will help schools improve teaching methods and increase the number of students reading at grade level.

    • Supported & passed an increase to the number of stipends available to teachers who choose to teach in rural school districts, where there is a teacher shortage.

  • With all the growth our state is seeing, especially along the Front Range, it is imperative that we are making investments in affordable housing so that longtime residents can afford to live in the communities they call home. We must also strengthen the protections of renters in the face of predatory housing practices.

    As your Senator I have:

    • Supported & passed legislation to protect renters by limiting security deposit amounts, capping income requirements, and reducing barriers to housing eligibility.

    • Supported & passed legislation to protect lower-income Coloradans from eviction.

    • Supported & passed legislation to increase Colorado’s stock of permanently affordable housing.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to create an enforcement mechanism for the Mobile Home Park Act and strengthen the rights of mobile home owners.

    • Supported all legislation developed from the recommendations by the Affordable Housing Task Force, which leveraged $400 million of federal pandemic relief funding to make transformational investments to increase availability and accessibility of affordable housing all across Colorado.

    • Supported and passed several bills to shift funding toward affordable housing initiatives and provide incentives for developers to invest in affordable housing options.

    • In 2017 and 2018, sponsored legislation to increase the transparency of rental application fees.

    • Sponsored legislation in support of inclusionary housing programs to make it easier for municipalities to diversify their housing plans.

  • Although Colorado’s economy has been and continues to be performing better than most states across the country, it’s clear that it’s still not working for all of us. We need an economy that benefits not just the wealthy, but everyone.

    As your Senator I have:

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to hold utilities more accountable to ratepayers while better aligning utility companies’ and Coloradans’ interests and expectations about their energy service, ultimately saving people money on their energy bills in the short- and long-term.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to guarantee paid sick days for hardworking Coloradans.

    • Supported & passed legislation to allow municipalities to increase their local minimum wage.

    • Supported & passed an implementation plan to create paid family leave in Colorado.

    • Supported & passed legislation to strengthen the penalties for employers who engage in wage garnishment.

    • Supported & passed legislation to increase access to child care services and make it easier for preschool teachers to get licenses.

  • In the wake of a seemingly endless number of mass shootings, we must take meaningful steps to keep our communities safe. Colorado has lost far too many people to gun violence. The King Soopers shooting in Boulder renewed my sense of urgency to take action, and I’m proud of the work we’ve gotten done in recent years to build safer communities.

    As your Senator I have:

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to allow local governing bodies to regulate firearms.

    • Cosponsored & passed legislation requiring safe storage of firearms and reporting standards for lost & stolen firearms.

    • Cosponsored & passed legislation to expand & improve background checks.

    • Cosponsored & passed legislation to establish the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, tasked with conducting public education & outreach campaigns to inform Coloradans about existing gun legislation.

    • Cosponsored & passed the creation of an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) as a mechanism for a court judge to remove firearms from an individual deemed to be at risk to themselves or others. Four years later, cosponsored & passed legislation to expand and strengthen our ‘Red Flag’ law to allow more qualified individuals, such as teachers and DAs, to file ERPOs.

    • Supported & passed legislation to increase the minimum age to purchase firearms from 18 to 21.

    • Supported & passed legislation to establish a minimum 3 day waiting period for a firearm purchase.

    • Supported & passed legislation to remove the gun industry’s overly broad legal protections, holding them to the same rules as everyone else.

    • Supported & passed legislation to ban the purchase, possession, and sale of unserialized guns, known as “ghost guns”.

    • Repeatedly voted against Republican efforts to roll back Colorado’s universal background check laws.

  • Higher education needs to not only be taken off the chopping block for budget cuts, but we need to double-down on the amount of public dollars available for further investment. If we continue to rely on only private dollars and repeated tuition increases, we’re only going to make higher education further and further out of reach from the average Coloradan. Runaway student loans with double-digit interest rates are not the answer and we need to make college more attainable for everyone.

    As your Senator I have:

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to increase awareness of, and enrollment in, public student loan forgiveness programs.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to automatically create a college savings account with $100 for every child born or adopted in Colorado.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to put an end to the predatory practices of student loan servicers and create an ombudsman to help assist Coloradans with questions and issues regarding their loans.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation that allows students who have tribal membership with a tribe with historical ties to Colorado to qualify for in-state tuition at public universities and colleges.

  • Access to quality health care is a fundamental human right. While 93.5% of Coloradans have health insurance, the problem is that coverage is simply too expensive for most families. We must address the existing coverage gaps across the state and examine methods to reduce costs.

    As your Senator I have:

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to help create the Office of Saving People Money on Healthcare.

    • Supported all legislation developed from the recommendations by the Behavioral Health Task Force, which leveraged $450 million in federal pandemic relief funding to expand our behavioral health system capacity, resources, and workforce to ensure every Coloradan who needs help, can get help.

    • Supported & passed legislation to create a reinsurance program which will assist health insurers in paying high-cost insurance claims. By reducing system-wide costs and paying for a portion of high-cost claims, we can reduce premiums for all Coloradans.

    • Supported & passed measures to increase the transparency of medical billing to protect consumers from things like surprise bills from out of network providers.

    • Supported & passed legislation to increase access to programs and services for those in need of treatment for opioid and substance use disorders.

    • Supported & passed legislation to bring down the costs of life-saving prescription drugs.

    • Supported & passed the Colorado Option, a plan to bring more affordable health insurance options to Coloradans.

    • Supported & passed legislation to protect patients from the overwhelming costs of medical care by capping medical debt interest rates and increasing transparency for prescription drug prices and hospital services billed.

  • With our state’s population slated to double in the next 50 years, we need to be making forward looking investments in infrastructure and public transit.

    As your Senator I have:

    • Sponsored & passed a $5.4 billion transportation package.

    • Helped pass a budget that included $330 million for transportation projects across Colorado.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to provide thousands of dollars of tax credits - some of the best in the country - for Coloradans to purchase electric vehicles (EV) and ebikes.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to curb the predatory behavior of booting companies (get it?).

    • Supported & passed legislation to make it easier to purchase an EV and dedicated more funding to expand EV infrastructure across the state.

    • Supported & created a study to examine solutions to improve transportation access for people with disabilities.

  • We’ve made huge strides in the past several years when it comes to ensuring that every Coloradan is treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, race, or economic circumstance. However, discrimination is very much still a reality for many LGBTQ Coloradans and we need to be steadfast in supporting policies that create a more fair, just, and equal state for everyone.

    As your Senator I have:

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to restore voting rights for tens of thousands of parolees in Colorado.

    • After 3 years of sponsoring the bill, I finally banned gay conversion therapy for minors in 2019.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to reduce youth suicide rates in Colorado by expanding access to mental health services for minors.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to expand automatic voter registration and increased access to our elections.

    • Supported & passed legislation to prevent institutions from asking about criminal history on college and job applications.

    • Supported & passed legislation to make it easier for transgender Coloradans to get a new birth certificate.

    • Supported & passed legislation to reduce the penalties for possession of drugs from a felony to a misdemeanor.

  • One would think we wouldn’t still be having the conversation about access to birth control and the right to make decisions about what’s best for one’s health and family. But, we are. And with near abortion bans passing in states across the country, it is more critical than ever to have strong voices in the legislature ready to stop conservative politicians from getting in between decisions best left to a patient and their doctor. Further, we shouldn’t only be standing our ground, but also moving forward and expanding access to comprehensive birth control.

    As your Senator I have:

    • Supported & passed legislation to shield patients, providers, and assistors of politically targeted health care services - like abortion or gender-affirming care - from criminal prosecution, de-licensing, or discrimination.

    • Supported & passed legislation to increase access to reproductive health care services.

    • Supported & passed legislation to prohibit the use of deceptive advertising by anti-abortion centers and crack down on unethical “medical abortion reversals”.

    • Supported & passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act, codifying the right to abortion in Colorado state law.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation requiring large group insurance plans cover to fertility treatment.

    • Supported & passed legislation to expand sexual education in Colorado, and ensure that curriculums are comprehensive and include consent.

    • Supported & passed legislation to ensure incarcerated individuals have access to feminine hygiene products.

    • As a member of the State Affairs committee in 2018, helped defend the right to choose by voting against a number of bills involving personhood, heartbeat restrictions, and required dissemination of misinformation by health care providers to patients considering abortion.

  • There is no question that Colorado’s communities are better off because of contributions from immigrants. We must celebrate and embrace our diversity by standing strong to ensure everyone in Colorado feels safe and welcome here.

    As your Senator I have:

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to allow refugees access to in-state tuition at Colorado universities.

    • Supported and passed measures to protect undocumented citizens against deportation from ICE.

    • Supported the creation of a grant program to fund targeted outreach to hard to count populations for the 2020 US Census.

  • Colorado has long been at the forefront of legalized and well regulated marijuana and hemp production. As your Senator, I am proud to have led the charge to ensure these important products remain a strong part of the economy in a safe and healthy manner.

    As your Senator I have:

    • Sponsored & passed the Marijuana Sunset bill to streamline and modernize our marijuana regulations.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation that allows people with autism to qualify for medical marijuana cards.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to require the CO Department of Agriculture to develop a Statewide Hemp Plan to address regulatory questions and foster development of the commodity.

    • Sponsored & passed legislation to increase funding to the CO Department of Health and Public Safety’s hemp regulation programming.