“There’s always this kind of fight for the soul of Douglas County.”
Season 1 Episode 2 — September 19, 2024
This episode is supported by Pacific Mercantile Company.
House District 44 where Alyssa Nilemo is running is in Douglas County on the southern edge of the Denver Metro Area. The county has historically been conservative, but elections in the past two years indicate a shift in local politics. Political experts and Douglas County elected officials help me contextualize these changes within Colorado’s recent “Purple State Era,” and I introduce Nadia, a voter in Parker, who shares her experiences living in the rapidly developing town.
Featured Guests
Nadia Konstantinov
Rob Preuhs
Logan Davis
Brad Geiger
Bob Marshall
Alyssa Nilemo
References
Purplish, Colorado Public Radio News — cpr.org/podcast/purplish
Logan M. Davis, Colorado Times Recorder — coloradotimesrecorder.com/author/logan-m-davis
Brad Geiger Ballotpedia Page — ballotpedia.org/Brad_Geiger
Bob4Colorado Official Website — bob4colorado.com
Colorado Independent Redistricting Commissions — redistricting.colorado.gov
Town of Parker Community Survey — parkerco.gov/80/Community-Survey
Transcript
[Advertisement] This episode of Middleweight is supported by Pacific Mercantile Company. For 80 years, Pacific has provided essential goods and services for Coloradans. Pacific Mercantile Company: Finest Asian Foods and Gifts.
Nadia Konstantinov: It was scary. We had been in Parker for maybe two years at that time, and I really loved it. I do love this town. There’s so many trails, and I walk every single day for miles. I love the little main street and the park, and it’s a great town. And then to suddenly see the atmosphere change the way that it did.
This is Nadia Konstantinov. I met her at a political house party hosted by one of her neighbors. Nadia moved from Denver to Parker in 2017, and she recounts an experience during the runup to the 2020 election.
Nadia Konstantinov: I met a lot of people because I did this campaign, like a sign-holding campaign for Biden. We were standing on all the Mainstreet corners with signs and asking people to honk and be seen that there is Biden supporters in this town because at the time, obviously, things were very divided. Things were intense and heated. And a lot of the Trump supporters were driving around town in these giant trucks with the biggest flags, the kind of flags you would see put in front of, like, a municipal building or a school, the really big ones, on either side of the truck bed. And first of all, to me, that was very aggressive. I was intimidated to see them driving around. Second of all, the way they were driving, particularly when they saw us on the corners. They would try to, like, swerve in towards the curb as though, like, they’re threatening to hit us. They would, like, hit the gas so we get hit with a cloud of smoke. Some Trump supporters came, like, they would pull off and park and come to us on foot. This one guy came and got in a physical altercation with me specifically, tried to push me off of a curb. And then me and him had to talk to a police officer about it. Nothing really, nothing at all came of it. But it was a fraught situation, and I did notice everything before the election, like, people were living very peacefully. There was not such demonstrations. Things got real, real heated right around the 2020 election. Lots of signs on either side. And then maybe a month after that was over, all the signs went away. And I thought the town was going back to normal, but I am noticing all of the signs coming back.
Over the past month, I’ve spoken to several Douglas County residents, and I’ve heard this concern for personal safety expressed a lot. And especially as the 2024 elections near, I feel this tension. I don’t think such a physical interaction like Nadia experienced is the norm, but the loud trucks wielding oversized Trump flags—I see them driving around. And yeah, whenever I come in contact with someone who’s aggressive like that, there is that epinephrine moment. Alyssa’s running a political campaign on a platform based on kindness, I think, because it feels like every disagreement about a politicized topic, even associating with a political party, has to become hostile. Everyone’s polarized, and no one’s making room for nuanced discussion. So how did we get to this point? From the perspective of a Democrat, a knee jerk reaction might be to blame Donald Trump. If he didn’t exist, his supporters wouldn’t be so confrontational. But I think it’s more complicated than that. What I’ve learned is that there are forces that’ve been at play for decades. I don’t think I can fully answer why we are where we are in the span of a podcast episode. But by talking with political experts, Douglas County elected officials, and voters like Nadia, I hope to give you some insights into how Colorado’s political landscape has evolved over the years, how it’s manifesting in a town like Parker today, and what Alyssa wants to do to change how we talk about local politics. Alyssa Nilemo is a fourth-generation Coloradan running for the Colorado House of Representatives District 44. By narrating her story, I reflect on my own civic duty as an American citizen.
Imagine a physics classroom demo on space-time. A heavy object is placed at the center of a stretched-out bedsheet, and as marbles roll across the warped fabric, they follow circular paths around the weight in the middle. What if every part of ourselves was one of these middleweights that attract other bodies in the universe toward us? Welcome to Middleweight, a podcast about the interlacing connections that create communities and cultures. My name is Toshiki Nakashige. This is District 44, Episode 2: “There’s always this kind of fight for the soul of Douglas County.”
To familiarize myself with state politics before coming to Colorado, I started listening to a Colorado Public Radio News podcast called Purplish. It’s called “Purplish” because for decades Colorado was a “Purple State,” meaning there was a mix of red and blue, Republican and Democratic, conservative and liberal elected officials controlling the state government. “Purplish” because, statewide, it’s not really purple anymore. By many metrics, it’s now a blue state. The governor is a Democrat, and the state legislature—made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, where Alyssa’s running—has Democratic majorities. But it’s important to highlight the recent history that Colorado shifted from a relatively conservative state to what it is today because it helps us understand what’s happening now in a town like Parker.
Rob Preuhs: I’m Rob Preuhs. I’m a professor and chair of political science at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
The political science degree that Alyssa was working on when I met her in 2018—she was a student at MSU Denver, and Rob Preuhs was one of her professors. Rob examines quantitative information like census and survey data to understand how democratic institutions incorporate voices of racial and ethnic minority groups. His research is related to elections at the local level like Alyssa’s, and I sense that it’s exciting for him to see an alumna of his program run for office. Colorado was considered a purple state from about 2004 to 2018, but before that, Colorado was largely considered conservative. Rob describes two coalitions in Colorado who shaped the political landscape in the 1980s and 1990s before the state became purple.
Rob Preuhs: We start to kind of recognize two forms of politics are still part of Colorado’s politics, prominently. One is this kind of a libertarian individualism.
Libertarian individualism promotes the idea that you can get ahead in life without the help of the government and advocates minimizing the government’s power and reducing taxes.
Rob Preuhs: Less government. All right, that’s still actually a vein in Colorado politics. But we also had the rise of Christian conservatives.
Christian conservatives promote policies that align with their traditional religious beliefs.
Rob Preuhs: And those two groups really combined in that period in Colorado to lead to a relatively conservative state
To understand what Rob describes next, I’ll briefly explain how the Government of Colorado is organized. Similar to the federal government, there are three branches. The executive branch is headed by the governor with four other statewide elected officials and includes various departments. The legislative branch, also called the General Assembly or state legislature, is a bicameral system of 35 senators in the Senate and 65 representatives in the House of Representatives. The judicial branch comprises the State Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and lower courts. OK, the two coalitions that gained power during the 1980s and into the 1990s were influential in making key decisions.
Rob Preuhs: From say from the early 1990s, we had Republican controlled state legislatures or at least one chamber. Sometimes we would elect Democrats statewide, but usually pretty moderate Democrats. And that would offset some of the partisan imbalance. But, you know, as recently in 1992, you know, we’re talking now 30 plus years ago, that was actually a watershed year in a lot of ways for Colorado to be seen as a very conservative state. And we passed this Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
In 1992, Colorado passed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights or TABOR amendment to the state constitution. Reflecting Libertarian ideals, this amendment limits the amount of revenue the state and local governments can retain and spend and requires voters to approve any tax increases. In practical terms, it’s contributed to reduced public services and limited the legislature’s ability to fund new initiatives, and you see it continue to affect local elections.
Rob Preuhs: But we also passed Amendment 2, which banned local governments from providing equal opportunities or equal protections to gay lesbians. And with those two combined, and particularly Amendment 2, you know, Colorado had a reputation actually nationally as the “Hate State,” right, where it was really, you know, conservative in terms of that social behavioral policy.
After receiving a lot of attention from civil rights groups, Amendment 2 was declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 1996. Nonetheless, because of those two amendments, the 1992 election is often considered one of the most important in Colorado political history.
Rob Preuhs: Since 1992, we’ve started to see a shift, you know, part of there is holding on in the state legislature among Republicans. Part of it has been addressing some of the tax limitations that were imposed in 1992. To a point where we were, you know, very much going from a red state, probably in the early 2000s, through a purplish swing state, at least in terms of national politics by 2008, 2012. By 2016 and 2020, where we’re a solidly blue state with majorities in both state legislative chambers held by Democrats and a Democratic governor. And that doesn’t seem likely to change this election year either.
Colorado has come a long way since being known as the “Hate State” in 1992. In 2018, Democratic Governor Jared Polis was elected and became the first openly gay governor in the US. Today, 23 of the 35 State Senators and 46 of the 65 State Representatives are Democrats. Having more than two-thirds of the seats, Democrats currently have a supermajority in the State House of Representatives. So what factors caused Colorado to go through a Purple State Era? Last episode, we discussed that Colorado has experienced a large population increase in the last few decades.
Rob Preuhs: Why people move to that place is primarily for jobs opportunities, and Colorado has grown its jobs. And folks are attracted for cost of living as well. Particularly, it doesn’t seem like it from a Colorado perspective, but relative to California, for instance, it’s much cheaper. So this seems like an attractive place, particularly for a same level salary. And then on top of that, you have this kind of mountain outdoors mentality, and actually really attractive to younger voters. So younger voters tend to be more liberal. Folks from California tend to bring their politics here. And that’s not to say that it’s offset to some extent from folks moving from the Midwest, for instance, but even so, that kind of self-selection, who’s moving, right, is part of it.
The Denver Metro Area has seen much of the state’s population growth, leading to the expansion and diversification of the neighborhoods surrounding the city.
Rob Preuhs: But I also think we’ve become much more urban. Denver proper has seen growth over the last 20 years. We’re also more diverse racially and ethnically. All those tend to correlate with more Democratic-oriented voting.
In addition to the increase in the number of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, the Republican Party has also experienced big changes. Similar to national patterns, the priorities of Republican voters in Colorado differ based on geography. Many individualist Republicans are found in rural and mountainous regions, and Christian conservatives are concentrated more in the suburbs. Located over an hour south of Denver in El Paso County, Colorado Springs is the second largest city in the state and has been a stronghold for Christian conservatives, and you also see that they have a strong influence in the suburbs of Denver like Douglas County. With the growth of suburban populations and perceived attacks on religious freedom, the Christian conservative faction has become more powerful over time. In the last decade, the convergence of this group and Donald Trump’s brand of populism essentially transformed the Republican Party’s identity, leading to Libertarian-leaning and moderate Republicans feeling pushed out of the party altogether.
Rob Preuhs: As I mentioned in the 1980s and early 1990s, it really, you know, kind of conservative shift in the Republican Party. That subsided for a number of years with some moderate Republicans winning statewide office in the late 1990s, early 2000s. But more recently, you know, the Republican Party or the faces of the Republican Party have really retrenched into very conservative, kind of Trump faction-oriented kind of politics. And that is not as appealing to, well, generally moderate Republicans, but a lot of those kind of individualistic Republicans that were attracted to the Republican Party, say, 20 years ago.
Today, the City and County of Denver are led by Democratic leaders, and the surrounding counties—Jefferson County to the West, Adams County to the North and East, and Arapahoe County to the South—have all shifted toward Democratic majorities in recent elections. Farther South, though, is Douglas County, where the majority of elected officials are Republican.
Rob Preuhs: Douglas County is a southern suburb of Denver. For most folks, I think you can consider it an exurb, right?
Technically different from a suburb, an exurb describes the interface between developed and rural land. Some of the eastern parts of Parker, for example, are still essentially farmland.
Rob Preuhs: It’s relatively conservative, and it has been. If you go back to, you know, 2008, 2012, they voted for the Republican presidential candidate, McCain and Romney, respectively, at about 60% of the vote, and that’s pretty consistent. It’s certainly not a competitive county by most means, although by the time we take a look at 2020, Trump won with only 52% to Biden’s 45%. So, you know, some shifts there. It’s relatively conservative in terms of local politics as well, you know, very much a free market-oriented kind of business approach. It’s wealthy. Colorado’s median income, household median income is about $90,000, whereas Douglas County is $140,000, and it tends to be whiter. Colorado is about 66% white, non-Hispanics, whereas Douglas County is more like 84%, 85%. So, it’s what you might think of as a pretty classic exurb in the United States context.
Consistent with its more affluent and less racially diverse demographics, Douglas County is conservative, but recents trends in party affiliation help us gain a more nuanced understanding of its politics.
Rob Preuhs: We, in Colorado, we actually ask people to register to vote and designate the party orientation, and they can also designate whether they’re Unaffiliated. If you go back a little bit from 2008 or so, we see about 20% Democrats, about 50% Republicans, and the remainder are unaffiliated. Fast forward to now, it’s still about that 20% Democrats, but Republican registration has dropped to about 32% of the overall folks in Douglas County. And unaffiliated have increased to about 50%.
The number of registered Unaffiliated voters increased to a size bigger than either of the parties individually. The reasons that people change their party affiliation are multifaceted, but we can interpret that there is a growing group of voters who don’t feel like they belong in today’s version of the Republican Party. Rob will be back later in the podcast to discuss other facets of state and local politics, but based on our conversations so far, I started to reflect on why things have become so polarized in a place like Parker. There’s an influx of more liberal people into historically conservative communities. Perhaps long-term residents feel that these newcomers are causing new housing developments and changing the culture of their quiet old towns. Buildings are blocking once idyllic views of Colorado’s beautiful landscapes. And then there’s that transgender issue that throws all conversation into chaos. Douglas County has long been ruled by Republicans, but in the past two years, we’ve seen Democratic and less conservative candidates win local elections. Zooming in, the northeast corner of the county where the Town of Parker is is finding its own voice. More after this quick break.
[Advertisement] This episode of Middleweight is supported by Pacific Mercantile Company. When George Inai opened Pacific in 1944, he wanted to commemorate his homeland by giving the store the name Nippon Market, where “Nippon” means “Japan.” Even though Colorado was considered a welcoming place for Japanese Americans, Governor Ralph Carr understood that white residents still harbored bias against Japanese businesses and suggested Inai to consider a name that wasn’t Japanese. Taking this advice to heart, Inai decided on “Pacific” as a reference to the coast where he first called home in the US. Despite facing racism, Inai built a sense of community in Denver, making deliveries to customers who couldn’t get to the store. Unsurprisingly, during the Covid-19 pandemic when many people didn’t feel safe to go to public spaces, the staff at Pacific offered grocery delivery services. Pacific has long continued this spirit of inclusion, and as someone who stops by whenever I’m downtown, I certainly feel it. Pacific Mercantile Company: Finest Asian Foods and Gifts.
About 30 to 45 minutes south of Denver, Douglas County borders Jefferson County to the West, Arapahoe County to the North, Elbert County to the East, and El Paso County to the South, where Colorado Springs is located. To learn more about the politics of Douglas County, I sat down with Logan Davis.
Logan Davis: I am Logan Davis. I’m a longtime Colorado-based political consultant, these days primarily specializing in opposition research and strategic communications for national clients with a focus on swing states, but my heart and my home are still here in Denver.
Logan writes a column for the Colorado Times Recorder and bears a wealth of knowledge on state and local politics.
Logan Davis: DougCo politics is going through this years-long transition from being incredibly boring to incredibly interesting, and the reason it’s done that is because for years, it was a Republican stronghold, which is not to say like, “Oh, it was uninteresting because Republicans are boring.” When someplace is not the kind of area with swing districts—somebody’s going to win with 75% of the vote and somebody’s going to lose with 25% of the vote—it’s not very interesting. There’s not a lot going on, and that has really been changing. I think a lot of people would still say Douglas County is a Republican stronghold, and I think that in some ways they would be right. But over the last few cycles, we’ve really started seeing things change, especially in that northern part of the county where it starts butting up against the Denver Metro Area.
A couple neighborhoods in the northern part of Douglas County are part of the City of Aurora, and those neighborhoods are in districts represented by Democratic elected officials. But otherwise, one US Congressional District and three Colorado Senate districts that cover the vast majority of the county are held by Republicans. Douglas County encompasses five Colorado House Districts, 39, 43, 44, 45, and 61. House District 61 includes those Aurora neighborhoods and a small part of the Town of Parker. In 2022, Bob Marshall won his election for the House District 43 seat, the first time for the Democratic Party there in over 50 years. And in 2023, Brad Geiger, who’s Unaffiliated, won his race for the Douglas County Board of Education. I had the opportunity to talk to them both. Here’s Brad.
Brad Geiger: My name is Brad Geiger.
Brad is an attorney in Douglas County and has been practicing law in Colorado for 34 years.
Brad Geiger: Currently, I am the elected member from District C for the Douglas County Board of Education.
The Douglas County school board is divided into seven districts, A through G, and he now serves as one of the seven elected members.
Brad Geiger: About 12 years ago, a very conservative group—I would argue a group that was not particularly in favor of public schools—took over, brought in a very controversial superintendent, tried to pass a highly controversial measure where they were going to move some of the school money to vouchers.
School vouchers give parents the option to use taxpayer money to subsidize private school tuition or other educational alternatives for their children. An effect this would’ve had in Douglas County is reduced funding for public schools.
Brad Geiger: That caused a great deal of conflict and concern within the district and the county. That was fought for quite some time, taken all the way up to the US Supreme Court. Because of the conflict over that, a new majority of the board was elected to oppose that, and so it has gone back and forth. There have been times that it was 7-0 for conservatives, then it was 4-3 for conservatives, then it was 4-3 for less conservative. At one time, it was 7-0 for less conservative public school supporters.
Unlike state legislature races, school board elections are nonpartisan, so instead of party affiliation, Brad refers to the elected members as more and less conservative. Generally speaking, the less conservative members champion more public school funding, whereas the more conservative members support a shift to private schools.
Brad Geiger: After COVID, in 21, the board majority switched again, and it was a four-person conservative slate that won then. They ran on a lot of things. They were anti-mask, for example. They also ran on opposition to an equity policy that had been passed on the position that, while they would say they were trying to be more fair, I would say that they opposed generally equity. They caused a lot of conflict, fired the superintendent illegally.
In 2022, the school board made national headlines when the conservative majority held private discussions to fire Corey Wise, the superintendent of the Douglas County School District, after he supported marginalized students. Subsequent lawsuits for discrimination and open meetings law violations cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Brad Geiger: As a result of that, in November of 23, the election at that time kind of became a referendum on their leadership. They ran three people who supported the conservative majority. I was one of three people who ran opposing them, and we won by a substantial margin. The people of Douglas County, one, I don’t think love the policies, but two, are kind of tired of the political conflict.
Last November, Brad ran as a part of a slate of “less conservative” candidates, along with Susan Meek and Valerie Thompson.
Brad Geiger: One of our key issues and one of our slogans was local issues rather than national concerns. There is a concern, I think, in Douglas County, on a lot of voters across the spectrum, that national culture war issues had taken over rather than looking at what our specific district needed to do. And there was a backlash to some of the unkind and unnecessary fights that the board majority had started.
Reflective of trends seen in national and state politics, Christian conservatism and the Trump style of populism have become evident in Douglas County as well. You can see it in all the politicized topics that are brought up to the school board. The conservative majority amplify certain voices in the name of religious freedom.
Brad Geiger: They still have a 4-3 conservative majority. They don’t make much of a secret of their allegiance and alliance with the Douglas County Republicans. They tend to be very aligned with some culturally conservative church groups, some groups that have made no secret of their dislike for certain groups, including gay and trans kids and parents. So there remain some conflicts. We’ve also been able, however, to work together on some important issues. So it’s an interesting dynamic right now.
Brad explained to me the issues he wants to fight for—enacting anti-bullying policies and proposing to raise taxes to build new schools and to improve the infrastructure of existing ones. But he says that they get sidelined because of heated arguments over gender and sexuality.
Brad Geiger: One of the elected officials here from Douglas County has for a long time expressed a lot of concern about the existence of trans people, support of trans people. She is a true believer that there are no such things as trans people, particularly of trans kids, that they are all either mentally ill or gender confused.
Brad tells me about an incident that unfolded at a recent school board meeting.
Brad Geiger: And then last week, she used her Twitter—excuse me, X—account to criticize a teacher of one of her kids. For some small part of a world history lesson included some mention that Leonardo da Vinci may have been gender fluid. Now, that’s a phrase that sets this particular representative off.
The political organization Moms for Liberty advocates against the inclusion of LGBTQ issues in school curricula, and they’ve had an increasing presence in Douglas County.
Brad Geiger: Unfortunately, the elected official then decided to post a picture of the classroom that included the teacher’s name and school. She also used a tremendously offensive term to refer to the teacher, a word that I think is deliberately meant to incite violence. And that resulted in threats to our teacher. And so we at the board meeting discussed this. Nobody, I think, is in favor of putting a teacher on blast. The representative would say it was unintentional. But there was certainly a wide range of reactions to it. Three of us were extraordinarily offended. And two members of the board were pretty much supportive of the representative.
This story is only one of many I’ve heard about the school board that exemplify the fundamental rift between the more conservative and less conservative viewpoints. From various people in Douglas County, I’ve heard how conservative leaders single out transgender and nonbinary students and make them feel unsafe in the public schools here. I know that Brad probably wouldn’t like me to refer to it this way because protecting every student is a priority and not a distraction. But arguing about the existence of certain gender identities sounds like it’s distracting from the real effort of trying to improve education for young people. I’m biased because I’m grateful for the public education I received growing up, but it sounds frustrating. Reading about the school board in the news and hearing about Brad’s experiences, I deduce that Douglas County is a microcosm of culture war issues we hear about on the national level. It’s happening here because geographically it’s at the edge of Denver’s urban expansion.
Brad Geiger: One hundred percent. We are a bellwether county. And because we’ve gone back and forth, there’s always this kind of fight for the soul of Douglas County. You know, we’re weird. Denver sits right there, much more liberal. Jefferson County to our west has gone from solid red to purple to pretty much blue. We are reddish purple.
School board members serve for four years and can serve up to two terms, so Brad Geiger will be up for reelection in 2027.
Toshiki Nakashige: Great, yeah, thank you so much.
Brad Geiger: Sure. Is there anything else I can tell you? I’ve got—what time is it? I probably need to get back pretty soon. But let me know. I talk too much.
Unlike school board elections, state legislature races are partisan, and Representative Bob Marshall made a splash in 2022 for being the first Democrat since 1966 to win a House race in Douglas County. His victory was even more notable because he won by about 400 votes, or 0.9% of the total vote.
Bob Marshall: I’m Bob Marshall. I’m the state house representative for House District 43 in Colorado, which is basically all of Highland Ranch, except a little piece to the south.
Highlands Ranch is an unincorporated community in the northwest corner of Douglas County. Bob worked as an attorney and was in the Marine Corps for 28 years, 20 years active duty. His path to becoming a Democratic elected official is unusual.
Bob Marshall: I had built a little bit of name recognition and goodwill because I had taken on the local government structure. They were doing a lot of shady, corrupt things.
Bob is known for good governance, holding politicians accountable for fairness and transparency.
Bob Marshall: And I orchestrated about four lawsuits, one of them all. Everything here is run by the Republicans. So I was beating up the Republican establishment, which made the Democrats like me a lot.
There are voters moving away from the Republican Party because of the change in its identity over the past decade. Bob grew up in Evergreen, a town in the mountains west of Denver, and he was one of these Republicans.
Bob Marshall: I’d become unaffiliated back in December 2017. I’d been a very active, very strong Republican for decades, for like 30 years. I became a never-Trumper the moment he attacked Captain Khan’s mother at the convention. Because of my background, I was like, “If you want to be the commander in chief and the mother of a dead soldier wants to yell at you, hit you, spit on you, you just sit there and take it like a man.” And she didn’t even say anything against him. And he went after and attacked her. I was throwing stuff at the TV that morning. It was like a Sunday morning seeing it. I was in the bachelor officer’s quarters. I was just mad as heck. So I was like, “Well, I could never support a man like that.” And I thought the GOP would come back to its senses. But when they kept supporting Roy Moore for the US Senate in Alabama, I was like, “Man, they have just hit rock bottom.” I pulled my affiliation with the Republican Party, which was actually really hard because I was a delegate to the 1996 GOP convention.
After changing his party registration, Bob channeled his energy toward politicians he would be able to support.
Bob Marshall: So I was unaffiliated for four years. And then I started campaigning for Biden. And it got a lot of notoriety here. So I just went out to the main intersection here in Highlands Ranch, the giant American flag and the Biden 2020 sign. And I was wearing a big cowboy straw hat just to keep the sun out of my eyes and off my neck and stuff. I grew up in Colorado. I had my cowboy straw hat. But it became a huge thing. And I had no idea how big it started to becoming because I started doing it every day. And I didn’t do social media back then, but it was going like wildfire.
Because he was so visible in the community, Bob became known as “Cowboy Biden” and “Biden Bob.”
Bob Marshall: So it got me a lot of name recognition, the lawsuits and being out there. So the Democrats came and asked if I’d run. And I joined the Democrats in December 21. And then they made me Democrat of the Year in June of 22. I hadn’t even been a Democrat for a year. So it was kind of an interesting ride. After getting elected, it was a little bit difficult because I’m the most conservative Democrat in the statehouse. But I represent the most conservative district held by a Democrat. But the Democrats here in Highlands Ranch, they’re real Democrats. So they want me to vote like a Denver or Boulder Democrat. That’s just not happening. We only have 21% of the registered voters here are Democrats. I kind of fit just a very decent niche. But I’ve been very blessed with the Democrats here that understand that and are willing to put up someone that kind of matches the district in the median rather than when they always ran real progressive candidates. It’s just not an ultra-progressive place. It’s just not going to work out that way.
Talking to Bob reminded me of the type of principled politician Alyssa strives to be. Like Governor Ralph Carr, who believed in the Constitution and protected the freedom of Japanese Americans during World War II, including Alyssa’s ancestors who found a home in Colorado. Bob doesn’t put party allegiance above his morals.
Bob Marshall: Yeah, well, that’s what I even put on my website when I explained my political background and my own background was, ’I haven’t changed, but the world has changed around me.” And I clerked for a federal circuit judge. And he was a very strong Republican. His father had been the Republican congressman in Kentucky for a long time. And he was an interesting character because his father had been a World War II and Korean War combat veteran, very well known. But he was the only Republican to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. So both men of incredible human beings, men of principle. Sure, he was a little disappointed I had left the Republican Party. But he also mentioned, he was like, “Well, Abe Lincoln changed parties. Churchill changed parties twice. And Ronald Reagan was a Democrat, and he changed parties. So sometimes the world changes around you. And if you have your own principles and things, that party is no longer part of what you are. It’s better to leave it than try and change yourself to stay with the group.”
Consistent with the platform he ran on, Bob has been committed to good governance throughout his first term as a representative. Last year he sued the State House, including his own party’s caucus, for violating the state’s open meetings law. It didn’t make the Colorado Democratic Party too happy, but from my perspective, it’s nice to see that a principled politician is holding other elected officials accountable. State House terms are two years, and representatives can serve up to four terms. Bob Marshall is up for reelection again this November, and I’m grateful that he took time out of his busy campaign schedule to talk to me.
Toshiki Nakashige: Thank you so much for your time.
Bob Marshall: Yeah.
Toshiki Nakashige: This was a lot of fun.
All right, so I gave you a glimpse into how Douglas County might possibly be turning purple. There’s evidence of it in the northwest corner of the county, so where do we look next? To the East. The Town of Parker, where Alyssa’s House District 44 is located. In 2020, Logan Davis served as the Deputy Director of the Colorado House Majority Project, an initiative of the Colorado Democratic Party that oversees Democratic State House races. He helps me understand why Alyssa’s race is interesting even though it’s been an historically conservative district.
Logan Davis: We have this really robust ballot initiative process. With enough signatures, you can get something on the ballot, and then we all have to vote on it—just direct questions that go out to everybody. In 2018, our voters decided to change how our redistricting process works.
Every ten years after the census, districts are redrawn to adjust for population changes. After Amendments Y and Z were passed in 2018, the Colorado Independent Redistricting Commissions were formed in an effort to prevent partisan gerrymandering during the redistricting process. There were two commissions, where one set out to redraw the US congressional district map and the other the state legislative district map based on the 2020 Census.
Logan Davis: What that looked like, essentially, was—people applied, and then a diverse, nonpartisan, bipartisan group of non-elected Coloradans were chosen to sit on this commission. They toured the state together, listened to various communities, and ultimately drew up the new district maps for the State House, State Senate, and congressional districts here in Colorado.
There were some notable changes to the Colorado Senate and US congressional districts, but for now, I’ll only go into the Colorado House of Representatives. There are 65 districts for the state house, and each of these House Districts comprises an average of nearly 89,000 citizens. Most districts generally don’t change that much. But since Parker reached a critical size of about 60,000 people, the commission decided to draw the borders of a district essentially around the town. This was House District 44, or HD44.
Logan Davis: Alyssa’s area, as one of those areas that has seen disproportionately high population growth over the last decade, the district she’s now running in—the version of HD44 she’s running in, up until two years ago, was part of three separate districts because it was just these rural odds and ends at the edges of those districts. And now, it’s a full-fledged district of its own. And until two years ago, Parker did not have its own voice in the state legislature. It was not large enough to have its own district. And now it is.
As a municipality, Parker has a mayor and a town council, but it’s had its own state representative for only two years. The first election for this iteration of HD44 was in 2022, and the Republican candidate, Anthony Hartsook, won that race by 17 points over the Democratic candidate. So yeah, the new version of this district is also pretty conservative. This year, Alyssa’s running against incumbent Anthony Hartsook. There are a lot of factors that make the 2024 matchup different from two years ago. For example, this race coincides with a presidential election. But by all official metrics, Alyssa faces an uphill battle. In addition to redistricting, Parker’s experiencing rapid economic and cultural changes. Logan lives in Denver and has personally witnessed Parker’s growth over the years.
Logan Davis: Parker is the redheaded stepchild of the Denver Metro Area in that, until two or three years ago, people would be like, “Oh, you should come to this thing I’m doing. It’s in Parker.” And you’re like, “Oh my God, I’m gonna roll my eyes. I’m gonna have to drive through empty cow fields for as far as the eye can see before we eventually pass into some other dimension and make it to Parker. It’s the furthest thing away in the world.” And then you get there and there’s nothing there, et cetera. And every time I have ended up in Parker over the last three to five years, you’re like, “Oh wow, there is significantly more here than there was last time I was here.” I’ve not seen many places make the transition from, like, inconvenient punchline of the metro area to, like, truly booming corner of the metro area, like Parker has done over the last decade.
Logan was extremely helpful in getting me caught up with local politics, and you’ll hear from him again in future episodes. You can describe Parker as an exurb where that boundary between developed and rural is getting pushed farther south and east over the past few decades. Businesses are flourishing. Houses are being built. And people, like Alyssa Nilemo and Nadia Konstantinov, who you heard from at the top of this episode, are moving into those houses. After this break, I get their perspectives on living in Parker.
[Advertisement] This episode of Middleweight is supported by Pacific Mercantile Company. Conveniently located in Downtown Denver at Sakura Square, Pacific is a 15-minute walk from Union Station and an 8-minute walk from Coors Stadium. Community members have long been able to do their grocery shopping after Sunday services at the Denver Buddhist Temple next door. Nevertheless, for those who are in need of Asian food staples but can’t make their way to the Mile High City, Pacific also offers online shopping. If you don’t live near an Asian supermarket, you can place an order at pacificeastwest.com. “East” and “West” because they ship across the country. They even have loyal customers in rural areas of California, who ironically sometimes order California-grown rice. My mom recently ordered dried squid snacks and udon for her work lunches. Her order arrived in Texas quickly, and you could tell that her items were packaged carefully and thoughtfully by the staff at Pacific. Place your next Asian snack order at pacificeastwest.com. Pacific Mercantile Company: Finest Asian Foods and Gifts.
Nadia Konstantinov: My name is Nadia Konstantinov.
Nadia immigrated to Colorado from Bulgaria when she was a child.
Nadia Konstantinov: I was born in the Capitol, but I grew up in a town called Haskovo and they have the largest Virgin Mary statue in the world. It is in the Guinness world records. It’s very proudly displayed. It overlooks the whole town. So I do actually come from—I don’t know, I don’t want to say somewhere of significance—but they have a claim to fame.
Nadia became a US citizen shortly before her 18th birthday when her mom was naturalized. She identifies as liberal, but since she grew up in a small city of an Orthodox Christian country, I asked where that came from.
Nadia Konstantinov: I’ve always been a very headstrong girl, especially when girls were not expected to be that way in Bulgaria. I don’t know if you know the TikTok trend that’s going around, like, “Very demure, very mindful.” That’s how they expect you to be. And I am not that woman, and I never have been.
Nadia told me about how her grandparents valued education and how their pragmatism influenced her. Education was a theme in her story. Nadia went to high school in Florida, and loving the mountains and yearning for a more youthful culture, she came back to Colorado as soon as she could. After working as a pharmacy technician for ten years, Nadia went back to school at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. She recently earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, and she’s now considering going into teaching. After deciding to buy a house, Nadia and her husband moved from Denver to Parker seven years ago.
Nadia Konstantinov: We didn’t even know about Parker until the day our realtor took us to this house and we had to put in a bid immediately because houses in Colorado sell that fast.
I’ve heard versions of this story a lot. Current residents of Parker used to live closer to the city center and didn’t have Parker on their radar until they started looking at houses.
Nadia Konstantinov: So we didn’t even research the town of Parker until after our offer on this house was accepted. So that’s when we found out it’s a conservative town.
Nadia moved during the Trump presidency and says that the first few years here were normal. It was only around the 2020 elections that she started to feel scared. She told me that she’s considered moving out of Parker a couple times because of hostile interactions with conservative people, but she also underscored how much she loves it here. Downtown Mainstreet is walking distance from her house, where there are quaint shops that I’ve already come to love during my time here. She’s also out hiking and camping whenever she has the chance. I ask Nadia what she’s observed over the past seven years, and she echoes a lot of the things I’ve heard from other residents.
Nadia Konstantinov: We have so much growth happening in Parker, which is the main thing I’ve noticed. The town is booming. I think Denver is expanding so fast that even though we’re a suburb that’s, honestly, far from Denver—we’re 45 minutes from Denver, but I think their population is so big that everybody’s having to be pushed out this way. And that’s why we’re having all of these big new builds just to fit all the new people coming into Colorado, which I specifically want to state my opinion on because it’s a very divisive topic in Denver. A lot of people really hate all of the influx of people. They’re like, “It ruins traffic. I miss, you know, the way Colorado used to be.” I don’t. I think it’s cool. I believe in growth. I don’t love that some people are being pushed out of homes and priced out, but I just think it’s nice that more and more people are coming here. I love this state, and I think they should get to see it.
Every three years, the Town of Parker administers a community survey where they ask residents to rate the quality of life, services, and priorities. What stood out to me the most about the survey is that around 75% of respondents believe the town was growing too fast, both in terms of population and new construction. When we were standing in the backyard at the house party where we met, Nadia pointed to the construction at a nearby intersection. She knew all the details about the town’s development that I imagine, not too long ago, was once all grass. I don’t think Nadia was specifically concerned about what buildings block the view from her porch. But I started to see why long-term residents might be concerned with Parker’s rapid transformation. For every small business that adds to the town’s charm, there are probably two or three big-box stores that line Parker Road, causing honestly too much traffic on that two-lane highway. Nadia’s starting to volunteer for Alyssa’s campaign. So I’ll continue talking to her throughout my time in Colorado, and we’ll get more into what kind of issues voters care about. But for now, I’m going to feature another Parker resident who moved here not too long ago. Alyssa Nilemo. 2018 was a big year for Alyssa. The leadership program where I met her, marriage, starting her bachelor’s degree, and homeownership. Alyssa and her husband Korey moved to Parker because they were ready for more space, and at a time when house prices were already high, she’s grateful that their financial situation made it possible. Even for my Texan standards, their house in Parker is big with a sizable backyard where the dogs can explore and where she now has a garden. I think Alyssa was familiar with Parker, but she hadn’t really considered moving here until her husband shared with her a listing of this house. Alyssa’s in a different neighborhood than Nadia, but like Nadia, Alyssa immediately loved the house and the cute businesses along Mainstreet. Parker offered opportunities that other parts of the Denver Metro Area didn’t. Alyssa loves Parker, but she’s also running for office because she feels that there’s room for improvement. She reconciles that both can be true at the same time.
Alyssa Nilemo: I love a lot of things about my community and the people who are here. And I think we have a lot of shared values, and I think it’s a beautiful place to live. I think we’re right along a great trail. We are not too far from some of the most beautiful hiking spots. I live in a great neighborhood. I have a great home. Like, it’s a great place to live, and that lives directly next door to the fact that I realize I may not always feel safe or like this place accepts me, sometimes, because my face is different, because my views are, you know, across the political spectrum. And that was another reason I wanted to run is because that’s not true. I do belong here. I belong in this place. This is my home. But I get it. I get why some folks choose to just move away from Douglas County because it doesn’t feel safe. I get why some parents have to put their kids into charter schools because they don’t feel like they’re safe in public schools. And I know that makes the news, and I know people see that about Douglas County. And so it’s weird to both feel really proud and love a place so much and, at the same time, be really disappointed in some of the things that have happened here or come out of here. And so I hope people just know that a place is not defined by its sort of worst qualities, I guess. And that there are just wonderful people here who are just trying to make the best of their lives, and that that is worthwhile, and that we are a good community. And we’re working out some of our issues, but we’re working them out.
When I first got here, I judged Parker for being conservative. Encountering those in-your-face Trump flags, I certainly still have those epinephrine moments. But the longer I’m here, I’m learning how to contextualize a place like Parker within Colorado’s recent Purple State shift, which actually happened during the span of my lifetime. Taking into consideration everything I’ve learned about Colorado state politics, I started to think. Why is Alyssa’s race even important? Alyssa is the Democratic candidate for the State House that already has a Democratic supermajority. The Democratic caucus has enough votes that they don’t even need the support of a more conservative Democrat like Representative Bob Marshall.
Toshiki Nakashige: I think a question that I have, obviously I’m here in Colorado, so I believe there’s something important going on. But for someone who’s looking at your race, understanding that there’s already a supermajority for Democrats, why is it important that you’re even running?
Alyssa Nilemo: So looking at my race, I think there were two parts to that. There’s the hard power. There’s the actual, if you get the job, what does that job do? The votes, the final votes on bills don’t change. But going into committee, the measurements by which we decide how we’re going to split up funding, that gets influenced before a vote happens. And I don’t have confidence that, right now, HD44 or Douglas County necessarily is being advocated in the room. And what I say by that is really looking at public education. The Republican Party has made it clear, not just in our race or in our spaces, that they want charter and choice schools. And they want charter and choice schools at any cost. And that includes hemorrhaging public schools. And so whereas some of the folks at the House are voting on bills because their community needs charter schools to help balance out what is a shortage of things, that’s not true of Douglas County. And so representation can sort of just let things happen, knowing that it’ll cost Douglas County voters money in our public education, because then they can go, “Oh, see, public education failed. We need to put money in these private charter schools.” And for me, I need someone up there saying, “Actually, Douglas County does need this money. We do need to be investing in our public education.” And yes, I absolutely see a space for charter schools. But charter schools still have to live up to high standards of education measurements. And they have to be open for specific reasons and in specific ways. And we can’t just sort of be making this hodgepodge, where now we have kids who can afford to go other places going other places, and kids who can’t being stuck and now failing local schools. So that’s sort of the way of saying, before a bill is even passed, you’re at the negotiating table deciding where money goes. And I want to make sure money’s coming back to my community. The other part of the race, though, and I think for me, in a lot of ways, the more important part of the race is what is outside of the job. When it comes to being an elected official, you have power, and you have voice. And right now, in my community, there’s not a voice standing up to bullies saying that it’s not okay for you to pick on trans kids. It’s not okay for you to pick on pride and how other people have made their families. It’s not okay for you to be saying hateful things. And it is also not okay for you to turn those hateful things into sort of power dynamic structures in our community. And what I mean by that is like pride used to be held at the fairgrounds and these voices made it impossible for pride to be held at fairgrounds. So now they have to rent private spaces to hold pride. But that’s not what public space, that’s not what fairgrounds—you don’t get to exclude people because you disagree with that part of it.
I think one of Alyssa’s best qualities as an aspiring politician is that she isn’t hopelessly idealistic. In a race against a Republican incumbent, she knows it’s going to be a challenge to win.
Alyssa Nilemo: Before I even began running, a mentor of mine who knew that more likely than not, I was about to just get completely demolished in this race—this was before we had raised money or gotten support or any of those things. And she asked me, “Too many people focus on whether or not they can win. I’m going to ask you if you think you can build power and if you think you can bring attention to the issues.” And she said, “If you can do those two things over the next year, that matters more than the win.” And I really felt like we could build power in this community, and we could bring attention to issues like our public education, like reproductive health care, like small businesses—all these things that me and so many other people who I have now met on this journey care deeply about. And now we know each other, and now we know how to build together. And we have brought attention to the issues, and there are other people paying attention. No matter what, that’s important. That’s why people should run, and there should be contested races because then you have to have hard conversations about issues in your community. You don’t get to just pretend that one side is the only side represented in a community and that they get to just go completely unquestioned.
Since beginning her campaign, Alyssa has continued to build power and bring attention to the issues. And what I’ve noticed is that, throughout her political journey, she’s surrounded herself with incredibly inspiring people. It’s September now. Less than two months until the election, Alyssa’s putting People Before Politics, meeting HD44 voters like Nadia Konstantinov who want to bring kindness back into the political conversation. I’m observing her knocking doors, writing thank you cards to donors, and carving time out of her packed schedule to be interviewed by me. But Alyssa’s hard work began long before I arrived. Six years ago, she started working in the City Manager’s office in Westminster. Four years ago, she spoke at an anti-Asian hate rally that brought together influential Asian American leaders. Two years ago, she got involved in a Congressional campaign. And last year, she canvassed for Douglas County school board candidates like Brad Geiger where she met people who would become important members of her campaign. I chronicle Alyssa’s political origin story, where I talk to her mentors, advocates, and staff who empower her as she runs for a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives. That’s next time on Middleweight: District 44.
Neal Walia: People from our community—meaning like the larger Asian American community—were finally able to see somebody from their heritage, their story, someone that they could see themselves in, do this thing that not many Asian Americans, unfortunately, do in Colorado.
Paula Smith: I sat down with Alyssa. I mean, anybody who’s ever met Alyssa, you can just feel that she is meant for greater things.
Middleweight is produced by me, Toshiki Nakashige. The art for the podcast was created by Yoko Takahashi. Music was composed by Tim Greer and performed by Steve Denny and Gary Tsujimoto. For more information about the podcast, please visit middleweightpodcast.com, and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. My name is Toshiki Nakashige. Thanks for listening.