AURORA | Aurora Democrats will decide a primary race in at least one state House district and possibly two after delegates made their choices Saturday at the Arapahoe County Democratic Party assembly.
In House District 42, incumbent Democrat Rep. Mandy Lindsay will face challenger Sarah Woodson in the June 30 primary in a contest to win the party’s nomination. Lindsay won 35% of the voting delegates and Woodson won 33% of the delegates.
Lindsay was appointed to the seat in 2022 to fill a vacancy left by Dominique Jackson. House District 42 encompasses much of central Aurora from East Mississippi to East Colfax avenues.
The race grew crowded quickly in January when Woodson announced her candidacy, joined by former Aurora Public Schools board member Eric Nelson and political newcomer and activist Megan Siffring.
Siffring won 16% of the delegates voting and Nelson won 15% of the delegates.
Candidates must take 30% of the voting delegates to claim a spot on the primary ballot in June.
Candidates can also petition their way onto the primary ballot. To win a spot, candidates must collect about 1,000 vetted signatures from voters inside their district by March 18.
Nelson created controversy two weeks ago when his campaign submitted 1,635 signatures to the Secretary of State, and 1,606 of those signatures were rejected, with only 29 accepted, according to state records.
“It’s unfortunate, it’s disappointing,” Nelson’s campaign director Jose Silva said last month. “But we, like many campaigns, have to sometimes pivot, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Nelson’s campaign staff pushed blame on paid Washington D.C. based petition circulator, Touchstone. Officials there did not return repeated requests for comment.
Nelson’s campaign was not immediately available Saturday to comment on whether they would try again to collect the signatures needed to make the ballot.
The assembly was held at Hinkley High School and included selecting state party delegates and deciding candidates for numerous other county and state races, mostly uncontested.
The delegate voting event using cell phones on Saturday ran almost two hours longer than expected after a variety of technical issues.
In House District 41, incumbent state Rep. Jamie Jackson won a razor thin majority of delegate votes in a bid to get elected to a seat she, too, was appointed to last year.
Jackson won 50% of the voting delegates.
House District 41 encompasses much of central Aurora between East Mississippi and East Hampden avenues,
Local activist and community organizer Aly DeWills-Marcano won 27% of the voting delegates and Aurora Public School board director Anne Keke won 23% of the delegates.
Keke filed petition paperwork with the Colorado Secretary of State Jan.5. She said Saturday it’s her intention to collect and submit required signatures to make the March 18 deadline.
DeWills-Marcano, who uses a wheelchair, said that encumbrance would make it impossible to collect the required 1,000 signatures in about 10 days.
In the House District 42 race, Lindsay has previously touted priorities that include creating housing options for all, repealing TABOR to help fund Colorado schools, stewarding the environment, improving access to health care and mental health care, and promoting abortion access.
“In communities like ours, the dream of homeownership is being snatched away (and the opportunity to grow wealth / generational wealth is becoming non-existent) and rents are rising sky-high, and as the cost of housing becomes completely unaffordable, more people will become unhoused,” Lindsay told the Sentinel in 2024.
Woodson, an Aurora resident, business owner and community advocate, said she is running to bring people-centered, service-driven leadership to a district she described as challenging and diverse, with communities facing issues tied to affordability, growth and representation.
“House District 42 is a tough district, and it requires leadership that can truly show up,” Woodson said in a statement announcing her campaign. “As a business owner, I understand how policy decisions affect people in real and practical ways. I’m running because this district needs leadership with a clear vision — someone who understands how to build coalitions, values stakeholder and community engagement, and leads from a place of service.”
Woodson is the founder and executive director of The Color of Cannabis, an organization focused on education, advocacy and policy initiatives related to social equity, small-business access and stakeholder engagement across Colorado. Through that work, she said she has collaborated with legislators, city councils and community leaders throughout the metro region, an experience she says has shaped her approach to public service.
Nelson served on the Aurora Public Schools board from 2013-2017. After launching an unsuccessful campaign for a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives in 2016, discrepancies in his public biography came to light and the board launched a formal investigation.
A report presented to the school board found that Nelson had falsified much of the information on his resume. He did not have any of the four degrees he claimed to have, and several diplomas he provided were faked, the report said. He also represented himself as having been a decorated officer in the Air Force, but was only in active duty for two months in 1998 and did not receive any awards. Of the 40 organizations he listed himself as a member of, many could not be reached or said that he was not a member or only had minor involvement, the report said.
He was formally censured by the board but refused calls to step down. Then-Congressman Mike Coffman also urged the U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate Nelson under the federal Stolen Valor Act for making false claims about military service.
Since then, Nelson has become increasingly active in local issues. Nelson began a campaign for the House District 42 seat two years ago, but withdrew from that.
On Saturday former state legislator and retired Arapahoe County Judge Steve Ruddick said “I believe in second chances,” when he nominated Nelson for the HD 42 contest.
Nelson has focused on the issues.
“I am committed to increasing funding for education, housing affordability, and ensuring the aging population can live with dignity,” Nelson said in a website statement. “Additionally, I will continue fighting for equal rights, economic opportunity, criminal justice reform, and access to mental health.
I hope you will support my campaign so we can create a Colorado that works for all.”
In House District 41, Jackson, a longtime community advocate, seeks a full term to her House district. Jackson was selected to fill the seat left open when former Rep. Iman Jodeh moved to the Colorado Senate last year.
She secured the majority of Democratic vacancy committee votes over her opponents, Keke and DeWills-Marcano. They both barely lost a delegate count Saturday to challenge her in June.
Jackson, a Denver native and longtime community advocate, said she brings extensive experience in criminal justice reform and public health. Previously serving as the Chief Operating Officer at The Naloxone Project, Jackson said she has dedicated her career to saving lives and fostering second chances for people linked to addiction or incarceration.
Her tenure with GEO Group in Denver, which she quit five years ago, drew criticism this week from supporters for DeWills-Marcano.
Aurora Councilmember Alison Coombs in an op-ed sent to the Sentinel, tied Jackson to the controversial GEO ICE facility in Aurora, an immigration detention center.
Jackson, in a rebuttal, said she never worked for or at the detention center, and instead worked in GEO programs intended to get incarcerated citizens back on their feet after release from jail or prison.
“I don’t take this role lightly, and I am in this position to do the work,” Jackson said previously. “I have already kept the promises that I made when I first came to the legislature. It is really, really important that the community knows that they are first and foremost in everything that I do in this role.”
Keke cites her experience in education, community leadership and advocacy for families and students.
An immigrant from Cote d’Ivoire and single mother who has lived in Aurora since 2001, Keke said her decision to seek a seat in the state Legislature is rooted in her work with students and families facing economic and social challenges.
“As a proud Aurora community member, immigrant, single mother, and elected member of the Aurora Public School Board, I have seen firsthand the challenges my neighbors and other families in Aurora face,” Keke said in a statement. “That’s why I’m running for the state House. I will work for policies that not only make Colorado a more affordable place to live, but that put the future in reach for the students and families I’ve dedicated my career to serving.”
DeWills-Marcano, who is the wife of former Aurora Councilmember Juan Marcano, said that although the House district seat is regularly held by Democrats, just sending a party member to the State Capitol doesn’t meet the community’s needs.
“Simply electing Democrats is not enough,” DeWills-Marcano said in a statement. “We need bold, passionate, experienced leaders who are ready to fight against fascism and take action to create a more equitable state for all of us.”
DeWills-Marcano describes herself as a disability activist and community organizer, and now plans to apply that knowledge and experience as a state house representative to fight for accessibility and immigration rights.
“This is a critical moment for our district, our city, our state, and our country as a whole,” she said. “It’s not the time to uphold the status quo or make excuses for the inhumane, for-profit detention of our own community members.”
DeWills-Marcano said she has built a career fighting for Colorado’s working families, including three years in Congressman Jason Crow’s office and three years at the Colorado Economic Defense Project and the CARE Center, which runs a hotline for people in housing crisis.
Arapahoe County Republicans are slated to meet in assembly on March 21. Republican candidates for House districts 41 and 42 have not yet been announced, and no compaigns in those districts have been filed with the secretary of state as of Saturday.