Candidate Q&A: Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District

A view of the dome of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 25, 2022. (Quentin Young/Colorado Newsline)

Coloradans will elect representatives to the 119th Congress in all eight of the state’s congressional districts in 2024. Members will be sworn in to serve two-year terms beginning on Jan. 3, 2025.

Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, which they have used to stonewall President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda while targeting his administration with a spree of investigations and impeachment inquiries. Democrats are looking to flip the lower chamber while holding on to the White House and the U.S. Senate.

Incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse has represented the 2nd District since 2019. The district includes all or part of 10 counties in north central Colorado, including the cities of Boulder, Fort Collins, Breckenridge and Steamboat Springs.

Neguse faces Republican Marshall Dawson, an engineer and former vice chair of the Boulder County Republican Party, along with three minor party candidates: Gaylon Kent of the Libertarian Party, Cynthia Munhos de Aquino Sirianni of the Unity Party and Jan Kok of the Approval Voting Party.

Registered voters in Colorado should soon receive their ballots in the mail for the Nov. 5 general election, which includes races for president, Congress, the state Legislature, the University of Colorado Board of Regents and other local positions, as well as a handful of statewide ballot measures.

Voters can contact their county clerk if they have not received their ballot or check the online BallotTrax system. They can also visit the secretary of state’s website to make a plan to vote in person ahead of or on Election Day. Ballots need to be received by the county clerk by 7 p.m. on that day, so voters should make a plan to mail their ballot at least eight days ahead of time or drop it off in person.

Dawson, Kent and Kok did not return questionnaires.

Key provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are set to expire in 2025. Which if any of these tax cuts should Congress extend, and what other significant changes to the federal tax code would you support?

NEGUSE: Congress should focus on extending provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that benefit middle-class families, such as the expanded standard deduction and child tax credit. It should be the goal of any related legislation to ensure a fairer tax system, including allowing for the expiration of tax breaks for billionaires. I also support efforts to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, the closing of loopholes that allow billionaires to avoid paying their fair share, and the enactment of provisions to spur innovation and small business growth.

SIRIANNI: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has primarily benefited the richest one percent of the population, who received an average tax cut of $61,090. The corporate rate cut did not boost worker earnings for the 90% of the population at the lower end of the economic scale. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the act would cost $1.9 trillion over ten years. It has severely eroded the country’s revenue base. Tax cuts for people with incomes over $400,000 should end on schedule. The Earned Income Tax Credit for adults not raising children should be extended.

What legislation would you pursue in Congress relating to abortion and reproductive rights?

NEGUSE: I strongly disagree with the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Dobbs, which departed from nearly 50 years of legal precedent. I believe the Congress should pass legislation to codify Roe v. Wade — which the House did in the 117th Congress and which I voted to support — and ensure that women’s fundamental rights to make reproductive health decisions are protected under federal law.

SIRIANNI: Men and women share the responsibility to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Vasectomies prevent abortion. The most effective way to reduce the need for abortion services is to secure universal access to publicly funded vasectomy, birth control, morning after pills, and family planning programs. All health insurance programs should include coverage of reproductive health care. I support a single-payer Medicare for All national health care program that includes birth control and abortion services. I support a constitutional amendment to guarantee the natural right of women to reproductive freedom, including the right to get an abortion when they choose to do so. A related concern is human overpopulation. The biggest threat to sustainability of life on Earth is human overpopulation and overconsumption. People and livestock have replaced 96% of wildlife mammal biomass on Earth. Overpopulation causes climate change and loss of biodiversity. Preserving life on Earth requires us to both reduce our birth rates substantially and reduce our per capita ecological footprints.

Do you support Donald Trump’s plans for the “largest mass deportation in the history of our country,” including deployment of the National Guard in Colorado communities to forcibly deport all of the approximately 200,000 undocumented immigrants residing in the state?

NEGUSE: No, I do not support this plan. I have long supported comprehensive immigration reform, including strengthening resources for border security, reforming our broken immigration system on a number of fronts, and protecting Dreamers and DACA recipients.

SIRIANNI: No. I consider freedom of travel and migration to be a fundamental human right. Reasonable paths to asylum, residency, and citizenship should be available to immigrants. I oppose the demonization of immigrants. Reason Magazine reported that Donald Trump’s proposal to arrest and deport 13 million undocumented immigrants would cost nearly one trillion dollars over ten years. It would devastate the economy due to the loss of workers in industries such as construction that are already struggling to find enough labor. The average immigrant has a positive financial impact, reducing the federal budget deficit by over $10,000 during their lifetime. Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall the length of the U.S. border with Mexico is absolutely ridiculous. It would be an absurd waste of resources with enormous environmental impacts.

Long-term inflation in housing and health care costs are responsible for the biggest strain on household budgets compared to a generation ago. What can Congress do to reduce the costs of owning or renting a home or accessing medical care?

NEGUSE: I have long supported efforts to make housing more affordable and expand federal investments in affordable housing programs, including the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and down-payment assistance programs. In Congress, I’ll continue to pursue innovative reforms that help address housing affordability — such as my bicameral bill with Sen. Bennet, the Forest Service Flexible Housing Partnerships Act. I am proud of the steps we have taken to reduce the cost of health care for Americans, including recently with the Inflation Reduction Act, which allows Medicare to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies and capped the out-of-pocket costs of certain prescription drugs including insulin for Medicare recipients. I believe we should build on the steps we have taken to ensure that prescription drug prices are capped at an affordable rate for all Americans, expand Medicare to more Americans, and more.

SIRIANNI: I support a single-payer Medicare for all national health insurance program. The high cost of housing is the leading cause of homelessness. I support a universal basic income as a safety net to eliminate poverty in the United States. Livable wage laws should allow local communities to secure livable wages so that workers don’t need to spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Higher density housing should be allowed to enable workers to live in the communities where they work. We must protect elderly homeowners from high property taxes.

Many Coloradans surveyed by the statewide Voter Voices project list their top issue this election year as democracy and good governance. As a member of Congress, how would you seek to find common ground with members of the opposite party, and rebuild shared trust in our elections and institutions?

NEGUSE: Earlier this year, I was proud to be identified as the most bipartisan member of Colorado’s delegation, and believe my legislative record of having 18 bipartisan bills signed into law — by presidents of different parties — demonstrates my commitment to working collaboratively. I believe the Congress must restore trust in government by taking a thoughtful, consensus driven approach, and also by enacting serious ethics reform — for example, I have led the effort to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, and will continue to prioritize such legislation. I also support H.R. 1, the For the People Act, which would enact campaign finance reforms, and H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would protect our fundamental voting rights.

SIRIANNI: The United States is stuck with an archaic winner take all election system that was originally designed to exclude 94% of the people from representation. We should join the 95 countries that now use proportional representation voting methods to secure fair, inclusive representation for a politically diverse population in their legislatures. The U.S. Senate and the Electoral College should be abolished. I advocate electing a unicameral Congress by Hybrid Proportional Representation, as proposed by the Boulder-based election reform group Best Democracy. This would give everyone fair representation. We should have eight or more parties in Congress, not just two cartel parties. I oppose Proposition 131, which would keep most independent and alternative party candidates off of the general election ballot in Colorado.