The U.S. House of Representatives is one of two chambers in the federal legislative branch. House members propose and vote on legislation, which must pass both the House and the Senate before the President can sign bills into law. The duties of House members differ to a certain extent from Senators in that they have the “power of the purse” – the ability to tax and spend public money for the national government, impeach federal officials as we saw in both 2020 and 2021, and elect the President in case no candidates get the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win. Representatives are elected to two-year terms, and do not have term limits. There are 435 Representatives in the House, eight in Colorado. Congressional districts are re-drawn every 10 years after each Census, with an objective to get the population of each district in states with multiple districts as equal as possible.
For this guide, I will only write about the race in Colorado’s Second Congressional District, which basically lies in north-central Colorado, including all of Boulder County, along with all of Larimer, Broomfield, Gilpin, Grand, Clear Creek, and Summit counties, and parts of Weld, Jefferson, and Park counties.
Joe Neguse, Democratic
U.S. Representative Joe Neguse
Joe Neguse is the incumbent Representative from the 2nd Congressional District, and is currently running for his third term in office. He graduated from the University of Colorado with a juris doctor degree, was elected for a six-year term on the University of Colorado Board of Regents in 2008, served as Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Affairs, and ran unsuccessfully for Colorado Secretary of State in 2014.
Neguse beat Republican Charlie Winn in 2020 by 61.5% – 35.4%. In early September 2022, the Cook Political Report rated the 2nd CD “Solid Democrat,” with a D + 17 rating.
In 2022, he sits on the following House committees: Natural Resources, Judiciary, Rules, and the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. He also chairs the House National Parks, Forests, and Public lands subcommittee, and is a member of five other subcommittees: Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law; Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet; Immigration and Citizenship; Legislative and Budget Process; and Rules and Organization of the House.
The House is part of the federal government’s legislative branch, and Neguse has been a very active legislator. He introduced 80 bills in 2021, and had 14 of them signed into law. Unlike the typical bill signing results people might be used to from members of Colorado’s state legislature, it’s often much harder to get bills signed in Congress, partially because the partisan balance of the U.S. Senate is 50-50 and bills must pass both the House and Senate before the President can sign them into law.
For a sample of bills Neguse sponsored that have been signed into law:
- The PRICE Act (Promoting Rigorous and Innovative Cost Efficiencies) for Federal Procurement and Acquisition Act directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to publish an annual report on projects that have used innovative procurement techniques within DHS to accomplish specified goals.
- The State and Local Cybersecurity Act provides for collaboration between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, as well as corporations, associations, and the general public, regarding cybersecurity.
- The Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act of 2019 prohibits employers from retaliating against certain employees who report criminal antitrust violations to the federal government.
- The Supply Chain Security Training Act requires the Federal Acquisition Institute to develop a training program for officials with supply chain risk management responsibilities at federal agencies.
But you can’t always get what you want, at least not right away. Neguse has sponsored legislation that hasn’t yet been enacted, including the CORE Act (Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy) that would preserve 400,000 acres of public lands. CORE would protect the Thompson Divide on the Western Slope from oil and gas exploration impacts, expand Wilderness designation in Colorado, and establish Camp Hale as a national historic landscape. It passed the House 227 – 182 but has yet to pass the Senate.
For a few of his policy position priorities:
- Climate: He believes climate change is an existential threat, and has sponsored legislation that would expand the use of solar energy, increase renewable energy, and invest in regenerative agriculture.
- Voting Rights: Neguse says voting rights are under attack. He has supported the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and HR 1, a voluminous voting bill that would in part expand voter registration opportunities including through Automatic Voter Registration.
- Economic Opportunity: He has supported closing the gender pay gap through the Paycheck Fairness Act and raising the minimum wage to $15 through the Raise the Wage Act. His proposal to increase the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, once known as food stamps) by 15% was signed into law in 2021.
- Education: Neguse supports ensuring every public higher education graduate finishes debt-free, increasing pay, and supporting rural schools financially. He also worked to successfully secure millions of dollars in increased funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
- Civil Rights: He is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and voted for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed the House 220 – 212 but has yet to pass the Senate. He is also a sponsor of the EACH Woman Act (Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance), which requires coverage for abortion care through public health insurance programs and insurance plans for federal employees.
Neguse was in the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when an insurrection breached the Capitol building, leading to fatalities, numerous injuries, reasonable threats to the personal safety of Vice President Pence and members of Congress, and serious damage to the building itself. The House took up impeachment proceedings against President Trump shortly thereafter, voting to impeach, and Neguse was appointed as an impeachment manager for the ensuing Senate trial that could have removed Trump from office though the votes weren’t there. Incidentally, Rolling Stone Magazine called Neguse the “Breakout Star of the Impeachment Hearings” for his work.
Campaign Website: https://joeforcolorado.com/
Marshall Dawson, Republican
Marshall Dawson
Marshall Dawson, an engineer, runs a development organization for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). He does not appear to have run for elected office before, but has served as one of the Vice Chairmen of the Boulder County Republicans and as President of Liberty Toastmasters North, where he is now serving as Vice President of Education.
He was raised on a farm in a small community in Kentucky. He then attended the University of Kentucky and earned a degree in Electrical Engineering, then went to work for IBM in Raleigh, but left in 1997 “for new opportunities” in Longmont. As an open-source engineer, Dawson has worked for both big and small companies, and has run his own company.
Since he has not served as a legislator, he has no voting record on legislation. For a brief sample of some of his policy positions:
- He favors spending more on school security within the United States, as opposed to “funding the security of foreign countries.”
- Dawson notes that deaths from synthetic opioid overdoses have increased by seven times since Neguse took office (NOTE: Of course, the same is true for any legislator who took office at the same time). Dawson supports stronger and better-funded border patrolling efforts to prevent dangerous drugs like fentanyl from coming into the country.
- He supports the REINS Act (Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny), which was sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul, and would require that all regulatory actions having at least a $100M effect on the economy must be reviewed and voted on by Congress.
- On abortion, he was quoted as saying, “The Supreme Court made the correct decision today in overturning Roe v. Wade…This decision rightfully gives power back to the states.”
- Dawson supports reintroducing the Keystone XL Pipeline Construction and Jobs Preservation Act (H.R.684), while supporting efforts to integrate nuclear power into America’s energy infrastructure.
Campaign Website: https://dawsonforcongress.com/
Tim Wolf, Unity Party
Tim Wolf is the acting chair of the Unity Party of America, and says he has spent his life striving for a new approach to politics.
His campaign website doesn’t say a lot, but here’s one statement: “Though mostly working to eliminate the stranglehold of the two-party system in America, Tim has a passion for education, entrepreneurship, and community building.”
Campaign Website: https://unityparty.us/candidates/tim-wolf/
Gary Nation, American Constitution Party
As of September 2022, I haven’t been able to find any online information about Gary Nation.
Steve Yurash, Colorado Center Party
Steve Yurash has worked in the computer chip industry, grew up in Silicon Valley, and has a degree in physics. He is the state party chairman for the Colorado Center Party, which is intended to give voters a centrist choice as opposed to right-wing or left-wing choices. Yurash served on the Larimer County Board of Health and the City of Ft. Collins Electric Board.
For a brief sample of Yurash’s policy positions:
- Inflation and high gasoline prices are made much worse by the government overspending from the Biden Administration.
- He supports women’s reproductive rights, the right to end a pregnancy when she sees fit based on her own conscience.
- The total federal debt will surely sink the U.S. as interest rates rise. Adding to the debt is a huge mistake.
- The surge in crime across our nation is mostly caused by elimination of cash bail and progressive District Attorneys failing to prosecute crime in big cities. We need to support our police and prevent criminals from getting back on the street to recommit crimes over and over again.
- We need to allow oil producers to continue producing oil and gas so that our economy stays strong while we build more renewable energy.
Campaign Website: https://coloradocenterparty.org/steve-yurash-for-congress/
Richard’s Take
Vote Neguse. He’s done his job in Washington, yet also stays active and engaged within CD-2, which is an admirable and proper combination for the job title of Representative. He’s had professional experience in law and administrative government, plus a campaign for Colorado’s Secretary of State and a term as a University of Colorado Regent before running for Congress. Add four years of Congress to this mix, and you’ve got a representative with a wide range of policy and legal experience – plus unlike most of us he’s actually taken part in impeaching a President – twice! Personally, he’s got the intellectual capacity for the job and anyone who’s seen him in action knows he’s super-energetic.
I fully expect Neguse to win, given the district’s demographics and Neguse’s strong record in Congress, but voters should be aware that partisan control of the House could be at stake in this election. The balance right now has Democrats with a 221-212 majority (two current vacancies), which might look like a 9-seat majority, but it would only take five net seats flipping from Democratic to Republican to also flip the majority. So, make sure you vote in this race!
Dawson is a first-time candidate for office in a general election. He’s got impressive professional experience, but not much when it comes to legislating, and his conservative policy views simply won’t win him a majority in the 2nd Congressional District. And voters from Boulder – the second-largest city in population in this district – might be interested to know I watched a little bit of the Club 20 debate from Grand Junction, where Dawson impressed maybe a few dozen people not even from the 2nd Congressional District with his remark about being disappointed that the most recent redistricting process put him in a district with Boulder. Pro tip: that’s probably not the best strategy for anyone who actually wants to win in this district.
