Aurora activist Hashim Coates announces campaign for Arapahoe County commission

AURORA | Political consultant and LGBTQ advocate Hashim Coates will seek election to the Arapahoe County commission this year, promising to promote affordable housing, environmental justice and a holistic approach to public safety.

“I want people to know that I will always be unbought, and bossed by the people,” Coates said. “The same tenacity that people have seen from me that have caused them to maybe call me a lightning rod, I am willing to do that work for the people of District 5, because I believe that every single life is valuable. I don’t cower to respectability politics.”

The Aurora resident joins Democratic state Sen. Rhonda Fields seeking party nomination for the Arapahoe County Commission District 5 seat currently held by Bill Holen. The position would be Coates’ first time holding elected office, while Fields has represented Aurora in Colorado’s General Assembly for more than a decade.

As of Monday, Coates and Fields were the only two to have filed paperwork formalizing their candidacy with the state.

Growing up in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood, Coates said he took an interest in public service and politics from a young age, helping out at his church and listening to his grandmother tell stories about supporting Arie Taylor in Taylor’s journey to become the first Black woman to serve in Colorado’s House of Representatives.

Coates came out as gay as a teenager. After losing a cousin to HIV, he began his career in public policy by advocating on behalf of HIV and AIDS patients with groups such as Brothers Forever and the People of Color Consortium Against AIDS.

“You can imagine at the peak of the HIV crisis in the ’90s, approaching someone on the street and asking them, ‘Hey, by chance, do you have sex with men? And if so, can we talk about it?’ And so that is kind of where some of my fearlessness comes from, from doing that type of work,” Coates said.

He attended Metropolitan State University of Denver starting in 2004 and obtained a degree in criminal justice in 2010. In 2013, while continuing his activism around HIV and working in the telecommunications industry, Coates’ grandfather died, which he said spurred him to volunteer and later work for the congressional campaign of Democrat Andrew Romanoff and Morgan Carroll’s campaign to lead the state Democratic party.

He also previously served on Aurora’s Human Relations Commission and the Citizens’ Advisory Budget Committee. In 2016 he announced his campaign for a seat on Aurora’s City Council. But his council bid was put on hold in 2017, after Coates was charged in connection with an incident in the Town Center of Aurora mall parking lot that ended with him firing a gun at a car.

Coates said an intimate partner stole electronics from him and offered to sell his property back, but when they met to conduct the transaction, the individual tried to hit Coates with their car, and Coates shot at the vehicle’s tire. According to police, Coates had sex with a prostitute and then fired a gun into the car where the prostitute and three other people were sitting.

Coates was charged with the felony of illegally discharging a firearm as well as misdemeanor counts of patronizing a prostitute, soliciting a prostitute and criminal mischief in March 2017. He ultimately pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor of prohibited use of a weapon and was sentenced to probation.

Reflecting on the 2017 case, Coates said he contacted the police three times prior to the shooting incident and asked for help retrieving his property, but his requests were turned down, and he was told to call again if he decided to meet with the alleged thief and “things got out of control.”

Coates described the charges against him as politically-motivated but said he is comfortable discussing the case since it “exposes the fact that I’m human, just like anyone else, and it highlights how the system failed.”

“I don’t think it makes me unfit. I actually think that situation increased and amplified my ability to be an advocate,” he said. “It made me more of a conscious and sincere person. My story is one that echoes that of the people I’m going to represent, the people who damn sure need to have representation (so) they’re not swept underneath the rug.”

He also brought up how Fields was arrested for larceny in 1976 and shoplifting in 1991, pointing out that those encounters with the criminal justice system have not prevented Fields from serving in an elected role. Fields has said that she regrets the incidents and that she stole groceries to feed her children.

After the 2017 charges, Coates said he stepped back from the city council race but continued to work in political consulting, helping with the campaigns of other Colorado Democrats. Coates said he became interested in the county seat because of the opportunity it would provide to guide the county’s public outreach and social services.

“I have a unique perspective that no one else in this race has,” he said. “I’m a renter. I’ve lived gig-to-gig. I had an experience once where I tried to file for food stamps, and they said, ‘You have too much value because you own a car.’ If I sell my car to get food stamps, then how do I get to work?”

Coates said his priorities if elected will include increasing the county’s inventory of affordable housing and offering property tax breaks to veterans and seniors, helping them remain in their homes. He also expressed interest in investing more in social services, including eviction prevention programs for county residents, and advocating for an end to Colorado’s prohibition on rent control.

“I want to focus on housing. I feel it’s a human fundamental necessity, and it cannot be overstated,” he said. “Your home is basically like a seed that allows you to branch out and to actually be a productive member of society.”

On the topic of environmental justice, Coates said he would support tougher penalties for oil and gas operators who violate county rules as well as employment opportunities in the renewable energy sector. He also said that he would support pushing Arapahoe County contractors to employ more local residents.

Coates described making sure county residents are able to find employment and meet their basic needs as essential to addressing crime as an economic phenomenon. He said he would steer more money toward programs such as drug and alcohol rehabilitation that could reduce the overall financial and social impact to the county of incarceration.

“I am not a ‘defund the police’ person. I think that safety is an issue, and the system needs to be restructured, and officers need to be trained better. But I also think that in terms of community safety, we need to approach things from an economic standpoint,” he said. “If you keep putting Band-Aids over the wound, and you don’t take the time to clean up the wound, the wound only gets larger, and it becomes more of a detriment to society.”

When asked how he felt about running against a candidate with more than a decade of experience in elected office, Coates said he believes he would be more effective as someone who doesn’t have to “pay back favors” and that his unique life experience will resonate with voters in District 5.

“I know that the work of commissioner would not be a career move for me. For me, this is not a stepping stone,” he said. “I’m running for the people, so I’m not running ‘against’ anyone.”

If Coates is named as a primary candidate by at least 30% of his party’s caucus in March, or if he submits at least 1,000 valid signatures to the county clerk by the third Tuesday in March, he will face Fields in a primary election June 25.

The general election for the District 5 seat will take place Nov. 5.