Over two weekends in April, Western Colorado Alliance realized our goal of holding unifying and powerful events that united nearly 500 people and centered diverse voices from across our region. At the West Slope Peoples’ Forum on April 11 and the West Slope Peoples’ Town Hall on April 18, candidates for Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State heard about the lived experience of our neighbors from across the West Slope, on issues ranging from access to affordable health care, housing, public lands, affordable energy, safeguarding democracy, protecting immigrant community members, and more.
On April 11, Attorney General candidates Michael Dougherty and David Seligman, Secretary of State candidates Amanda Gonzalez and Jessie Danielson, and Gubernatorial candidate Phil Weiser were joined onstage at the Avalon Theatre in Grand Junction by people from across the West Slope, who told their stories of how state and federal policies are showing up in their lives. These folks had their voices and their experiences centered in front of an audience of nearly 400 of their neighbors from Ouray to Glenwood Springs. The room was full of energy and people demanding Care over Cuts from these candidates.
West Slope storytellers included Kaye Hotsenpiller, CEO of River Valley Health in Montrose that provides dental, medical, behavioral health, and pharmacy services to the communities of Delta, Olathe, and Montrose, who asked candidates to ensure that the state of Colorado will not continue to lose Medicaid coverage, or if it does, how Medicaid recipients can be protected from the reduction or even elimination of health care. And Grace Colby, a farm manager at Highwater Farm, a 3.5-acre nonprofit farm in Silt shared the importance of farms like hers in keeping their neighbors fed.
The Alliance’s youth focused civic engagement program, West Slope Youth Voice, also showed up in force, and contributed meaningfully to both the People’s Forum and the People’s Town Hall. Jayden Hernandez, a high school student from Olathe High School and a West Slope Youth Voice student leader, joined the Forum to draw attention to the fact that due to recent cuts, his school district is facing a serious budget crisis. Jayden’s school has been asked to eliminate five teaching positions. Jayden was able to ask candidates directly how they would support policies that benefit rural schools like his.
Then, on April 18, the Alliance did it again, hosting Gubernatorial candidate and current U.S. Senator Michael Bennet for a town hall at Grand Junction’s Dual Immersion Academy, in front of a crowd of nearly 100 people from all over the West Slope. Again, storytellers from Rifle to Olathe described the issues that most affect them in their daily lives, and asked Senator Bennet how he would protect Care over Cuts for people across Western Colorado.
Among the storytellers at this event was Elvia, an immigrant who has had family members deported during this frightening time of ICE overreach, demanding to know how Senator Bennet would protect her basic civil liberties as a legal resident of this country, should he be elected Colorado’s next governor.
As we reflect on these successful events we have heard from attendees about how much it meant that the focus was on ordinary people and the all-too-common stories of their daily lives. The candidates who attended were also impressed by the format of the events, as well as by the courage of our storytellers who stood onstage and demanded answers to the issues that impact them most.
The biggest takeaway from these events is that we are just getting started! All of the candidates who came to our events committed to working with our Alliance to deliver results for West Slope residents, and we are committed to making sure they make good on those promises. Please join us, and add your voice!
