HOUSE DISTRICT 41, Jodeh vs McKenna

AURORA | Two factions in Aurora politics have made national headlines in the last two months.

One, led by far-right Republicans, has raised fears of immigrants, anxiety about a Venezuelan gang’s presence in the city and concerns that federal immigration policy is threatening Aurora’s safety.

The other, led by Democrats and immigrants themselves, has rallied around Venezuelans newly arrived in Colorado’s most diverse city, against a landlord who critics say has demonized them to justify blight in his apartment complexes, and against election season xenophobia.

There is perhaps no race depicting this contrast more than the one between State Rep. Iman Jodeh and Rob McKenna in House District 41. The district is bounded by Tower Road to the east, Hampden Avenue to the south, Dayton Street to the west and Mississippi Avenue to the north.

Jodeh, 42, the incumbent, is a lifelong Auroran and daughter of Palestinian immigrants who has spent her career advocating for the rights of people who, like her parents, came to the U.S. seeking better, safer lives. 

The progressive Democrat leads programs building relationships with and cultural understanding of Middle Easterners. She serves as a community advocate for the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado. And, as co-founder of the Colorado Muslim Leadership Council and spokesperson for the Colorado Muslim Society, she has fought Islamophobia and racism.

Jodeh has spoken out in recent weeks against what she says are racist efforts by Aurora Councilwoman Daniel Jurinsky and other Republicans blaming Venezuelan immigrants for blighted conditions in three northwest Aurora apartment complexes and exaggerating the threat posed by a Venezuelan prison gang called Tren de Aragua, also known as TdA, in the city. 

An owner of CBZ Management, which runs the three apartments complexes in question, has blamed TdA members and other Venezuelan tenants for disrepair, leaks, mold and pest infestations in his blighted buildings — problems that city officials have said stem from the company itself. Still, false claims about Venezuelan immigrants in Aurora have been paroted by candidates ranging from McKenna, Jodeh’s little-known Republican challenger, to Donald Trump.

“The Republican Party has weaponized problems with these apartment complexes to make it about failed immigration policies of the Biden administrations,” she said. “They need to stop vilifying Venezuelans.”

Jodeh says her policy agenda “is informed by basic human rights,” which she notes are as much a state issue as an international one. “It means the right to housing, clean air, access to jobs and education and health care for all,” she said. 

On health care, she is most proud of her legislation relieving and at times forgiving medical debt and ensuring birth doulas are covered by insurance. On housing, she touts her work extending eviction processes from 48 hours to 10 days to “avoid putting people on a path of homelessness.” She highlights her legislation making eviction proceedings accessible remotely “so more people can defend themselves” at hearings. On immigration, she points to her efforts helping establish the state Office of New Americans as a hub for immigrants seeking to navigate life in Colorado. 

If re-elected, Jodeh aims to continue pushing social policies that help immigrants and other vulnerable communities.

“When you have my identity markers as a Palestinian Muslim woman in America, you really don’t know anything other than how to advocate,” she said.

Her advocacy work intensified last fall when, following Hamas’ and its allies’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack that killed 1,139 people in Israel, Israel waged a war in Gaza that had killed 41,595 Palestinians there as of the end of September. Photos and video footage of dead and wounded Palestinian babies the age of her own daughter, who was born a month before the war, have haunted her, she said.

Late last year, Jodeh circulated a letter to Colorado’s congressional delegation calling for hostages to be released, humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza, a ceasefire and U.S. involvement brokering a lasting Palestinian-Israeli peace. She was dismayed that many longtime political allies and even friends wouldn’t sign it: 

“It was really hard to hear from my colleagues that a Palestinian life didn’t mean as much as the life of an Israeli. I felt a sense of abandonment.”

Nearly a year later, she continues speaking at rallies and urging members of Congress to press for an end to what she sees as Israel’s genocide in Gaza, but has no plans to circulate another ceasefire letter. 

“If people haven’t said anything by now on their own volition, then I don’t know how to help you.”

It has been gutting, especially as a new mother, she added, to “very much come to think I will never see a Palestinian state in my lifetime.”

Jodeh said in early October that her campaign had raised about $13,000 in her race against McKenna, who said he had raised $1,569.

Both candidates discussed issues at a recent forum at Heather Gardens that marked one of McKenna’s main opportunities to make himself known in the community. 

The 41-year-old was born and raised in Staten Island, New York. He graduated from law school and enlisted in the Army at age 27, was transferred to Fort Carson in 2012, left regular service in 2016, and since has served in the Army reserves working in psychological operations, which mainly involves monitoring military interrogations. 

“Capt. Robert McKenna cannot make any official statements,” he told the Sentinel of his service, noting that military personnel are precluded from conducting psychological operations against the American public. Still, he said his psychops training has given him skills “to analyze what people are saying to me and what is being said both in the traditional media and social media.” 

Robert McKenna, the candidate, is free to talk about the issues, and he does.

Although he has a law degree, McKenna is not a licensed attorney and works as a compliance specialist for Winn-Marion Barber, LLC, an oil and gas contractor in Centennial. 

Drawn by what he calls its “Leave it to Beaver, homey feel,” he has lived in House District 41 since 2017. He has been active as a district captain and delegate to county and state Republican conventions, and decided to run for the state House because, as he tells it, “there needs to be a change to state government’s current trajectory.” 

“It’s going too far to the left,” he said, citing Jodeh and her progressive politics as examples.

Describing himself as a “6’ 3’’ soldier,” McKenna said he feels safe in Aurora, but “that is not the case with everybody.” He is running largely in hopes of enacting what he calls “tighter controls on both crime and illegal immigration in the district and state as a whole.” He noted he is especially concerned about the recent influx of Venezuelans to metro Denver and was rattled by a home-security video depicting armed men in an Aurora apartment hallway that went viral in August and became the focus of heated controversy about Venezuelan immigrants and gang members in the city.

Aurora police have repeatedly said, that as of Oct. 4, investigations had not shown any of the men depicted in the video to be members of “any organized crime.”

“I actually saw the video before it was released to the media,” he said, underscoring his aim to “clean up gang activity and clean up illegal immigration.”

He welcomes Trump’s frequent references this campaign season to Aurora and fears about TdA gang members overrunning the city. “I don’t agree 110 percent with everything (he says), but I’m definitely in the 90-plus percent,” he said of Trump.

He said he knows he is a longshot in a predominantly Democratic district. He alsoacknowledges he doesn’t know much about state government and has never attended a legislative hearing in Colorado. Still, if elected, he wants to “get tougher on crime, impose tougher prison sentences and more prison time for violent offenders and property damages.” He also wants to work toward deregulating the oil and gas industry in Colorado and preserving the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), enacted by voters in 1992 to limit the amount of revenue governments in Colorado can retain and spend.

His main criticism of Jodeh is a common Republican talking point this election season: That she is “giving more support than I think is necessary to illegal immigrants.” 

“I would just ask the people of Aurora, of my community, that if you would like a change, give me a vote. If you like the status quo, then don’t vote for me,” he said.

Meet Iman Jodeh

Incumbent Iman Jodeh, 42, is a first generation American, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants and refugees. She was born and raised in Aurora and has lived in House District 41 her entire life. She attended Aurora public schools and received undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science from the University of Colorado, Denver. 

Jodeh was first elected to the House in 2020. She has served as the longtime executive director of Meet the Middle East, a nonprofit organization aimed at building relationships between the U.S. and the Middle East through cultural events, consulting, classes and travel. She co-founded the Colorado Muslim Leadership Council and is the spokesperson for the Colorado Muslim Society. She has worked since 2018 as a community advocate and liaison for the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado. And she taught continuing education courses at the University of Denver on Islam, Muslim culture and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

She is married and has a 1-year old daughter. 

www.imanforcolorado.com/

Meet Robert McKenna

Robert McKenna, 41, is a compliance specialist at  Winn-Marion Barber, LLC, an oil and gas contractor in Centennial. He said he would quit that position if elected.

Born and raised in Staten Island, New York, he has a bachelor’s in history from St. Francis College in Brooklyn and a law degree from the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. 

Rather than practicing law, McKenna enlisted in the Army at age 27 and moved to Colorado when stationed at Fort Carson in 2012. He served in the Army until 2016, and now serves as a captain in the Army Reserves specializing in psychological operations.

He was divorced 14 years ago, and his mother, father and brother live in New York.