A Colorado Story: The Journey That Shaped My Understanding of Our State

Colorado isn’t just the place I’m running to represent. It’s the place that shaped me.

I was born in Denver and raised in the mountains above Black Hawk, a small mountain town where people understand the value of hard work, strong communities, and taking care of one another. Growing up there taught me what rural mountain life looks like — the beauty of it, but also the challenges that come with living in communities that are often overlooked by policymakers in the Capital and Washington.

During my younger years, I attended school in Broomfield while still living in Black Hawk. That experience gave me an early look at the contrast between mountain communities and the growing suburban Front Range. I saw firsthand how different communities within Colorado can face very different challenges — from infrastructure and education access to economic

opportunity.

My Colorado experience didn’t stop there.

Many summers of my youth were spent in Milliken, where I stayed with my grandparents for weeks at a time. Those summers were more than family visits — they were lessons in the values that sustain rural America: responsibility, faith, agriculture, and the deep sense of community that holds small towns together.

Later, I attended college at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS). Living and studying in Colorado Springs broadened my understanding of the state even more. The Springs is home to military families, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and young students building their futures. It’s a city where innovation and tradition coexist, and it gave me exposure to another important piece of Colorado’s identity.

Life took an unexpected turn when I faced one of the most difficult challenges anyone can encounter — a battle with lung cancer in my mid-late twenties. That experience changed my perspective on life and strengthened my determination to live with purpose, to continue to give my life to God and my community.

In the years that followed my recovery, I lived across Colorado’s Western Slope, including New Castle, Cedaredge, Delta, and Montrose. Those years were incredibly meaningful. The Western Slope has its own identity and its own set of priorities — agriculture, water rights, land use, energy, and the survival of small towns that depend on these industries.

Living there gave me a deeper appreciation for the concerns of Western Colorado residents — concerns that too often get drowned out by the political noise coming from the Front Range.

Those communities are filled with resilient, hardworking people who care deeply about protecting their land, their livelihoods, and their way of life. Spending years there allowed me to see Colorado not just from one perspective, but from many.

Another defining chapter of my life began in 2018, when I met my husband. He’s a cowboy in the truest sense of the word — someone who has spent his life working in ranching and construction, industries that form the backbone of many Colorado communities.

Through him, I gained an even deeper understanding of the realities that ranchers, farmers, and builders face every day.

My husband holds dual master’s degrees in agriculture and business agriculture, giving him a deep academic and practical understanding of the agricultural economy. Through our conversations, our work, and our life together, I’ve gained an insider’s view of the pressures ranchers and farmers are facing today — rising costs, increasing regulation, water concerns, and the uncertainty that comes with policies written far away from the land they affect.

In 2018, he also brought me into the world of nonprofit work, helping underserved youth gain skills and opportunities for a better future. That experience strengthened my belief that leadership is about service — about lifting others up and creating opportunities where none existed before.

When I look back at the path that brought me here, I realize something important.

I didn’t experience Colorado from just one place or one profession.

I’ve lived in the mountains, the Front Range, the Western Slope, and southern Colorado. I’ve seen life in small towns, rural agricultural communities, growing cities, and mountain communities. My education and work have exposed me to construction, agriculture, nonprofit service, entrepreneurship, and business development.

All of these experiences have given me something invaluable:

A real, lived understanding of Colorado.

Not from a policy briefing in the Capital or Washington, but from years spent living, working, learning, and building relationships across our state.

Colorado is diverse — geographically, economically, and culturally. The challenges facing a ranching family on the Western Slope are different from those facing a small business owner on the Front Range or a young family trying to afford a home near Denver.

But they are all Colorado stories.

And they all deserve a voice in the United States Senate.

That’s why I’m running — to bring the experiences of every corner of Colorado to Washington, and to ensure the people who live here are finally represented by someone who truly understands what life across this state is really like. Because Colorado deserves leadership that knows our land, respects our industries, and fights for the people who call this state home.