Visitors walk around the Colorado Capitol on the first day of the 2025 session of the Legislature on Jan. 8, 2025. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)
The four candidates hoping to be appointed to represent Aurora in the Colorado Legislature acknowledged the potential challenges with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump during a forum on Thursday night.
“I am very afraid of what might be coming down the road for us,” said community advocate Aly DeWills-Marcano. “We’re between a rock and a hard place — the federal administration coming into office in a few days and the Aurora City Council, which is following that administration’s playbook.”
Dewills-Marcano currently works for the Community Economic Defense Project and has experience managing constituent services for U.S. Rep. Jason Crow.
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A vacancy committee will pick a new representative for House District 41 next week, after Sen. Iman Jodeh was appointed to her new office earlier this month, replacing former Sen. Janet Buckner. The Aurora-based district is one of the most diverse in the state.
Whoever replaces Jodeh will be part of a legislative delegation that represents a city with a political target on its back.
Aurora became the center of national attention last year with a viral video of armed men forcing their way into an apartment unit and assertions that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the city. The city became a flashpoint in a conservative claim that links criminality with immigrants, and Trump held a rally in the city in the final weeks of his campaign.
During that stop, he announced plans for “Operation Aurora,” an effort to deport undocumented immigrants convicted of violent crimes. Immigrant advocates worry that Trump’s plan would amount to unprecedented mass deportations of all undocumented immigrants.
“Right now, we have a problem come Jan. 20, when Trump will come and ask all the immigrants and refugees that are illegal to get out,” said Jane-Frances Echeozo.
Echeozo is a community organizer and nurse who leads a home health care organization.
Two of the four candidates are immigrants: Echeozo is from Nigeria and Aurora Public School Board Member Anne Keke is from Cote d’Ivoire.
Also running is Jamie Jackson, who currently works as the chief operating officer at The Naloxone Project and previously worked at the Colorado Children’s Campaign. She previously worked for the City of Denver as a probation officer and at the GEO Group managing re-entry services, according to her LinkedIn.
Jackson said that her top priority at the Capitol would be equitable health care access.
“Everyone has the right and should have the right to access affordable, high-quality health care, including mental health and substance use treatment,” she said. “I’ll work to increase funding for community clinics in underserved areas in order to address racial disparities in healthcare and also advancing culturally-competent preventative measures as well.”
On education, Keke said she would take her school board experience to the Capitol to advance education policy,
“If I am afforded that opportunity to represent you, I will advocate for better funding for our education. We know that there is a budget cut this year, but … everybody came together and said ‘We do not want education to be cut,’” she said. She said her priorities would include making sure the budget stabilization factor — essentially a decade-long I.O.U. to public schools so the state could balance its budget — does not return.
The four candidates all expressed strong support for public education in Colorado.
Dewills-Marcano said there is an “insidious” strategy by Republicans to privatize public schools.
“They’re not saying we’re going to privatize schools. They sort of change the way that funding works. We’re going to fund different things, or we’re going to bring in different types of groups. And I’m very wary of that,” she said. “It’s important that we continue to make sure that our schools are accessible to everyone, including students with disabilities, students in poverty and students of color. Public education is the best way to do that.”
Echezo said her top issue at the Capitol would be homelessness.
“There is a reason for homelessness. It is not only housing. We have mental problems. We have drug addictions. These are things we have to really address and make sure that will ameliorate the problem,” she said.
Dewills-Marcano indicated that housing and homelessness would also be her top priority. She said she supports a housing-first solution, which is a policy that provides unconditional housing to people followed by supportive services.
The vacancy committee, which is made up of Democrats in the district, will select a new representative on Jan. 22. The Arapahoe County Democratic Party will livestream the election on its website.
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