Core Policy Pillars & Local Mandates

1. Restoring Government Integrity & Accountable Power

Voters across the district expressed severe frustration regarding institutional transparency, the rule of law, and legislative accountability. The primary focus under this pillar is a complete structural overhaul to ensure elected officials answer directly to their constituents rather than wealthy special interests.

• Enact a comprehensive campaign finance reform package to overturn Citizens United and eliminate untraceable dark money from our elections.

• Introduce legislation banning Members of Congress from insider stock trading and participation in financial prediction markets.

• Establish strict, binding ethics codes and mandatory term limits for both Congress and the Supreme Court.

• Repeal the destructive mandates of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" (OBBB) and the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) to stabilize vital federal services.

2. Public Lands Stewardship, Water Sovereignty, & Climate Resilience

With public lands comprising 70% of Mesa County, and similar proportions of other parts of the district, our communities view environmental conservation and water security as existential economic interests. Tour participants rejected recent structural cuts that left land management agencies short-staffed and vulnerable.

• Re-fund and fully staff the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service to protect rural resource infrastructure.

• Help pass a new Colorado River Compact and pass specialized legislation to safeguard local water access, including the protection of Lake Nighthorse and the Crystal Reservoir.

• Accelerate transition initiatives for rural electrical cooperatives moving toward sustainable, renewable energy models.

• Fully restore withheld FEMA emergency recovery funds and expand federal grants for active, community-led wildfire mitigation.

• Pass specialized federal infrastructure carve-outs to fund immediate municipal pipeline access to regional reservoirs, prioritizing the construction of water lines from Lake Nighthorse for vulnerable communities in the South region facing critical supply limits. 

• Direct federal emergency management resources to develop dual escape infrastructure for isolated rural populations, specifically funding alternative emergency routes for areas like the San Luis Valley (Crestone and the Baca Grande) where a single road (Road T) creates severe wildfire entrapment risks. 

3. Rural Healthcare Stabilization & the Social Safety Net

Recent cuts to Medicaid have pushed our rural medical networks to the brink of collapse, leaving local independent hospitals facing immediate threats of closure. Congress must treat rural healthcare access as a foundational right.

• Protect rural medical access by stopping Medicaid cuts, investing in rural hospitals, and introducing a universal healthcare infrastructure in which everyone gets public health insurance with the individual option to opt out in favor of private insurance.

• Reverse recent budget cuts to SNAP, early childhood development grants, and substance abuse rehabilitation programs.

• Fiercely protect Social Security and the Veterans Affairs (VA) network from privatization, ensuring full cost-of-living adjustments.

4. A Fair Rural Economy & Working-Class Infrastructure

Skyrocketing housing costs, corporate consolidation, and rising expenses are making it difficult for working families to remain in their communities. Federal policy must prioritize structural support for local workers, municipalities, and physical utilities.

• Establish a comprehensive housing support framework by streamlining federal regulations for affordable housing, expanding grants for youth shelters, and constructing accessible senior centers with integrated programming.

• Simplify the tax code and close corporate and billionaire loopholes to rebalance tax levels, ensuring capital gains are taxed at rates closer to standard income. Enforce Anti-Trust laws to ensure competition and help our small businesses fight back against monopolistic consolidation.

• Launch a federal "Center of Excellence" to provide municipalities with proven infrastructure blueprints, eliminating the need to re-invent the wheel for local projects.

• Deliver direct federal funding for rural physical infrastructure, prioritizing the maintenance of roads, bridges, water treatment, and broadband access, while implementing transparency guidelines for matching grants to prevent state agencies from diverting critical transportation funds away from rural CO-3 maintenance.

5. Human Rights, Civil Liberties, & the Rule of Law

Constituents shared profound concern over the erosion of civil rights and targeted federal overreach that disrupted local communities. A return to basic constitutional protections, compassion, and global stability remains vital.

• Pass comprehensive immigration reform including permanent DACA protections, court system investment, and a functional pathway to citizenship.

• Restructure DHS to ensure constitutional compliance, remove unconstitutional detention centers, and reform ICE to its original INS service-based scope.

• Restore diplomatic stability by rebuilding international alliances, supporting democratic states, and re-funding global aid through the Department of State / USAID.

• Secure long-term voting rights protections, oppose the SAVE Act, and implement a national ban on partisan gerrymandering to ensure equitable representation.

• Codify comprehensive reproductive freedoms and women's healthcare rights at the federal level to override state-level restrictions on these freedoms.