November 2024 election: Larimer County candidates on the ballot - Coloradoan
Thomas Clayton
Colorado election 2024: These candidates are on Larimer County ballots
The Coloradoan will be following the below races appearing on Larimer County ballots in the November election.
This story will be updated with additional information and links to coverage as we get closer to the election.
Note: If you are a candidate and have an updated campaign website to share, please email Sara...@coloradoan.com and David....@coloradoan.com.
U.S. House
District 2
Joe Neguse (incumbent), Democrat
Marshall Dawson, Republican
Cynthia Munhos de Aquino Sirianni, Unity
Jan Kok, Approval Voting
Gaylon Kent, Libertarian
District 4
Trisha Calvarese, Democrat
Lauren Boebert, Republican
Paul Noel Fiorino, Unity
Frank Atwood, Approval Voting
Hannah Goodman, Libertarian
State Board of Education
District 2
Kathy Gebhardt, Democrat
District 4
Krista Holtzmann, Democrat
Kristi Burton Brown, Republican
District 8
Rhonda Solis (incumbent), Democrat
Yazmin Navarro, Republican
CU Regent - At large
Elliot Hood, Democrat
Eric Rinard, Republican
T.J. Cole, Unity
Thomas Reasoner, Approval Voting
Colorado Senate
District 14
Cathy Kipp, Democrat
Cathy Kipp, D-Fort Collins, has represented Fort Collins in the District 52 seat of the state House of Representatives since 2019. Prior to that, she was a Poudre School District Board of Education member starting in 2011, after she began volunteering in her children’s schools.
In the statehouse, she chairs the House Energy and Environment Committee and serves on the House Finance Committee.
On her website, Kipp says she’s now running for the District 14 seat to continue her work on: public education, particularly funding schools and addressing Colorado’s teacher shortage; the environment; affordable and attainable housing; and access to affordable and accessible health care, including behavioral and reproductive health care.
Phoebe McWilliams, Republican
Phoebe McWilliams said she is the founder and president of Concerned Relatives & Friends of Nursing Home Residents Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit organization, and has spent two decades advocating for long-term care residents, which gave her a deep understanding of federal, state and Medicaid regulations governing nursing homes.
She is the wife of a former Fort Collins police lieutenant and a mother of two.
McWilliams said her platform is based on safeguarding children, defending property rights, promoting energy independence, and upholding constitutional rights, including the fundamental right of self-defense. She says the current political landscape threatens cherished liberties and she will stand up for the rights of citizens and make decisions by using a “common sense” approach.
On her issues page, McWilliams said the Democratic-controlled legislature’s actions have been “communistic,” destroying the family structure, taking away gun ownership, undermining the judicial system, increasing taxes and controlling children in schools by not involving parents.
Jeffrey Brosius, Libertarian
An email and phone call to Brosius from the Coloradoan were not returned. The Coloradoan has been unable to locate a website or other candidate information but will update this story if information becomes available.
District 23
Barb Kirkmeyer (incumbent), Republican
Colorado House
District 49
Lesley Smith, Democrat
Lesley Smith is currently a CU regent. She worked for 30 years as a scientist and educator at CU, served on the Boulder Valley School Board and was the first woman aquanaut in the underwater Aquarius research facility.
On her website, she said she will take a scientific and progressive approach. She listed as priorities protecting the climate and public lands, education, affordability and the environment.
After the 2013 floods, Smith served an advisory board in Boulder to rebuild and strengthen the city’s water infrastructure. As a regent, she said she worked to ensure CU included sustainability in its strategic plan, developed the first Land Acknowledgement for the CU system, and successfully lobbied the legislature to allow CU to grant in-state tuition for any out of state student that has tribal ties to Colorado.
Steve Ferrante, Republican
Steve Ferrante says on his website he is a father, grandfather, businessman and pastor who has been married 42 years with four children and nine grandchildren.
His background includes 20 years in law enforcement, according to his website. He is now a pastor at Park Fellowship Church in Estes Park and operates a property management company in the town.
Ferrante said he’s running because “we need leaders who will strive to lead us from division and strife” and “because someone must help us stop focusing on political gamesmanship and start focusing on governance.”
“We will never agree on all the issues, but we can bridge the divide by choosing to respect, honor, appreciate, and value others,” he says on his website
Under the issues section of his website, Ferrante says the state should support but not usurp the family. He said education funding should be moved from underperforming schools to parents charter, private, religious or home schooling.
District 51
Sarah McKeen, Democrat
Ron Weinberg (incumbent), Republican
District 52
Yara Zokaie, Democrat
Zokaie is a community organizer and tax attorney who is deputy assessor in the Larimer County Assessor’s Office.
She is a first-generation Iranian American and mother of three boys who became politically active in order to pass paid family leave in Colorado.
She helped found the nonprofit Latino Coalition, which advocates for people of color at all levels of government. Their efforts focused on getting vaccines to front-line workers and registering people to vote.
In her tax law career, she said she has represented individuals and small businesses against the IRS and Colorado Department of Revenue.
She has said a big reason she is running is to make sure others can do what her immigrant family did: working their way into the middle class.
Steve Yurash, Center Party
Yurash is state chairman for the new Colorado Center Party he formed after leaving the Republican Party in 2019. He felt reforming the party from inside “was a lost cause,” according to previous Coloradoan reporting.
“We need a voice for the majority in the middle … to balance the competing interests and focus on common sense solutions instead of strident ideology,” he says on his website.
Yurash is a retired computer chip engineer and has served on the Larimer County Board of Health and the Fort Collins Electric Board.
On the issues, his web page says he stands in favor of: "real property tax relief, not deceptive tactics like Proposition HH;" preserving local control of land use policy; maintaining TABOR tax refunds and tax growth limits; protecting women’s reproductive rights; supporting school of choice, including charter schools and local elementary schools; fighting crime by supporting police and cash bail; stopping "the flow of illegal migrants that cost us millions of dollars;" stopping "further erosion" of Second Amendment rights and keeping red flag laws.
District 53
Andy Boesenecker (incumbent), Democrat
Boesenecker has represented Fort Collins in the District 53 seat of the state House of Representatives since 2021. He has been elected to the House Majority Leadership team.
He is a former public school teacher with a music degree and former minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with a master of divinity degree. He said as a minister, he worked to advance LGBTQ+ rights within the church. He also previously worked in the nonprofit sector.
Boesenecker said he has championed bills on affordable housing, climate change, gun violence prevention, health care, transportation and public education.
Donna Walter, Republican
Walter is a board-certified naturopathic clinician and has served in the natural wellness field for 35 years, according to her website. She said she has 29 years of experience as a volunteer citizen advocate at the state capitol and said she understands how to make a difference there, fighting against special interests and championing the rights of citizens.
“I am concerned that state lawmakers have stopped listening. They’re in a bubble where they listen only to each other,” she states on her website.
Key issues listed on her website are: affordability, including with property taxes, energy prices and food; education; and public safety, including dealing with crime, addiction and homelessness.
She said family is important to her, and she was a single mother for a number of years who was helped by various government programs.
District 65
Will Walters, Democrat
Lori Garcia Sander, Republican
District Attorney - 8th Judicial District
Gordon McLaughlin, Democrat (incumbent)
McLaughlin is running for reelection as the 8th Judicial District Attorney, which covers Larimer and Jackson counties. He is the district’s first Democratic district attorney in more than 80 years.
McLaughlin said in campaign materials that, if reelected, he hopes to build on the successes of his first term, including increased transparency and progressive criminal justice reform. Some of the successes he cites include developing a data dashboard, expanding the independent review policy of law enforcement use of force case reviewed by the Critical Incident Response Team, supporting the creation of a mental competency court in Larimer County, and prosecuting people believed to be responsible for distributing fentanyl that has resulted in overdose deaths more than most other jurisdictions in the state.
If reelected, McLaughlin said he wants to continue advocating for these issues and others impacting this jurisdiction both locally and to the state legislature.
Dawn Lynn Downs, unaffiliated
Downs is running as the first independent and first female candidate for 8th Judicial District Attorney, according to her campaign. She spent 14 years as a chief deputy district attorney for the district attorney’s office and is currently an attorney for the public safety and prosecution section for the city of Fort Collins.
Downs’ leadership experience in the district attorney’s office included coordinating several multi-agency efforts between law enforcement and their office, including establishing the Criminal Impact Team that focuses on prosecuting violent crime.
Downs touts herself as “a prosecutor, not a politician,” with a focus on improving victims’ rights and community safety through increased accountability within the district attorney’s office and a continued focus on rehabilitative solutions, according to her website. If elected, Downs said she’ll focus on “reviving the District Attorney’s Office,” by decreasing turnover within the office and restoring community partnerships.
District 2 County Commissioner
Kristin Stephens, Democrat (incumbent)
Before being elected to the Larimer County Board of Commissioners in 2020, Stephens spent five years on Fort Collins City Council. She resides in Fort Collins.
Some key county issues on Stephens’s campaign include affordable housing, climate action, outdoor recreational opportunities, supporting businesses, transportation and infrastructure, and a transparent and open government.
“I have consistently stood up for working families and older adults during my time on the Board of County Commissioners. I have supported Climate Action and stricter oil and gas regulations because I believe in protecting our community and our environment,” Stephens’ campaign website says.
Erick Selgren, Republican
Selgren lives in Fort Collins and is an Air force veteran; he says on his campaign website that he intends to run the county with "caring leadership."
Selgren, who is now retired, used to work as an IT specialist at CSU and has not held an office position previously.
Some key issues to Selgren’s campaign are affordability and safety. “I intend to defend our Constitution with the county commissioner position, meaning that everybody will have true freedom. There's no certain group that gets (a) different kind of freedom,” Selgren told the Coloradoan.
District 3 County Commissioner
Jody Shadduck-McNally, Democrat (incumbent)
Shadduck-McNally was elected as the first woman to serve in the District 3 seat, and she has been in office since January 2020, according to the county website.
A resident of unincorporated Larimer County west of Loveland, some key issues for Shadduck-McNally’s campaign include the environment, behavioral health, affordable housing, equity, broadband, economic development and support for small businesses, and transportation.
“Whether you (live in a) in city, town, village, unincorporated county, urban or rural area, Larimer County government plays a critical role in protecting or enhancing our quality of life by providing necessary public services, resources, and infrastructure. Together, we can work to solve problems, finding common ground for the common good, united for an inclusive Larimer County,” Shadduck-McNally’s campaign website says.
Ben "Uncle Benny" Aste, Republican
Aste, who resides in Loveland, is the business owner of Uncle Benny’s Building Supplies and previously ran for commissioner in 2020.
Some of Aste’s priorities are around traffic projects, affordable housing, natural resources, social services, local businesses and a balanced budget, according to his campaign website.
During a previous Q&A for the primary race, Aste told the Coloradoan: “I want to ensure that our county policies are reasonable, affordable, and sustainable. For example, I’ve been hearing from residents for years now that the permitting process, which used to take less than a year, is often a 2-3 years process. Sometimes rules change along the way, causing the process of establishing or running a business to become too burdensome and costly.”
Clerk and Recorder
Wyatt Schwendeman-Curtis, Democrat
Schwendeman-Curtis, who lives in Wellington, sat on the town's events community board and also on its utility board, and he ran for its mayor in 2022.
Schwendeman-Curtis wants to focus on transparency with elections, efficiency in the licensing and records process and accessibility for rural communities. According to his campaign website, Schwendeman-Curtis works as a demand planner for Noosa Yoghurt where he does product forecasting — bringing his passion for data to his campaign.
“I have always been passionate about our democratic process, and I wanted to dive in, head first, to all the data and processes behind it,” Schwendeman-Curtis’s website says. He also aims to run in a “nonpartisan fashion.”
Tina Harris, Republican(incumbent)
Harris, a resident of Fort Collins, is the current clerk and recorder and has been in the Larimer County Clerk and Recorder’s Office for 24 years, through various roles, according to her campaign website.
Harris says she is committed to empowering staff to rethink the challenges they encounter; conducting elections with attention to detail, accuracy and integrity; and leaving politics aside for the services the office provides.
“I have proven that I am non-political, I have been mentored by non-political leadership since being in the office, and my experience in the office is clearly the driver of my interest in pursuing this next level of leadership within it,” Harris’s website says.
 | Tom Clayton Communication and Media Specialist, Public Affairs |
| Commissioners' Office 200 W Oak St, Fort Collins, 80522 | 2nd Floor W: (970) 498-7005 tcla...@larimer.org | www.larimer.org |