2023 Denver City Council Endorsements

A third-generation North Denver resident and a champion for strong communities, juvenile-justice reform, and workers’ rights, Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez plans to maintain her stride in Colorado’s General Assembly for a third term. A granddaughter of a prominent Chicano activist in Colorado, Serena propels her grandfather’s work by focusing on equity by pushing for affordable housing, promoting child welfare legislation, and advocating to protect our environment. As the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated some of these issues, especially the lack of affordable housing, Serena helped move millions in federal funds to prioritize low-income families or families experiencing homelessness in Colorado.

Serena has integrated her unique background in social services – working on the ground to support domestic violence victims through Victim’s Advocates and serving as Director for the Denver Collaborative Partnership – with her role as a state representative to pass key legislation, including HB22-1289, which grants pregnant people and children access to comprehensive health insurance coverage regardless of their immigration status. She was also critical in passing SB21-131, one of the strongest data privacy bills in the nation to protect personal information from getting into the hands of ICE. 

Shontel M. Lewis is a long-time champion for working people. She grew up in Denver and graduated from Manual High School. She has deep roots in District 8, having lived in several communities across the District. In 2018, she was elected to serve on the Board of the Regional Transportation District (RTD) where she advocated for safety, equity, and transparency – and pushed the board to meet the needs of frontline workers during the pandemic.  

Shontel is an advocate for progressive policies because she has lived through first hand experiences of displacement and the rising cost of living in Denver. In 2016, she moved from an affordable housing rental into a place of her own in East Colfax because of the rising housing costs in her own neighborhood in Five Points. She is dedicated to expanding protections for renters and increasing the accessibility of opportunities for home ownership for all Denverites – especially those who are at risk of being priced out of the city and uprooted from their communities. She is ready to bring her skills and passion for justice to Denver’s City Council where she hopes to make a lasting impact. 

Candi is a proud fifth-generation native of northeast Denver, Colorado. She lives in the same home in the Swansea neighborhood that her great-grandmother lived in nearly 80 years ago. Raised by a single mother and grandparents, Candi understands the importance of tight-knit communities and stepping up for neighbors in need.

Candi is also the first LGBTQ Latina and first Democratic Socialist to serve on Denver City Council. She has proven that candidates whose “radical” politics are rooted in their lived experience can still fight for and win a seat at the table, even when a corrupt political system stacks the odds against them.Candi has continued to be a fierce advocate against the criminalization of poverty, environmental racism, and the displacement of Denver’s Black and Brown communities. Looking forward, she will continue to fight for community every day, and infuse city government with policy expertise, a lens for justice, and ancestral wisdom.

Council President Jamie Torres took office as the Denver City Council Member representing District 3, Denver’s westside, on July 15, 2019. She was elected to serve as Council President on July 18, 2022. 

Jamie’s roots are directly in the west Denver community where she and her husband currently call home. She is a third-generation Denverite, her grandmother was born in a small house in the Curtis Park neighborhood and grew up in the old Auraria Neighborhood and her grandfather grew up in Sun Valley. Her family moved to Villa Park in the 1960s where Jamie has now lived for over 30 years. It is her home and the community is her inspiration.

Jamie is a community advocate and community connector to her core. Prior to being elected, Jamie spent 18 years in the Human Rights & Community Partnerships Agency (HRCP) in the City and County of Denver where she helped ensure Denver is focused on the civil rights, human rights, and social justice needs of its residents. Jamie was both Deputy Director of the Agency and Director of the Denver Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs, an office she started in 2005 because she saw a need for greater immigrant inclusion. Over the years in working for local government, Jamie worked directly on issues of poverty, equity, food insecurity, community and civic engagement, immigrant integration, and approaching innovative ways of direct leadership development in underrepresented communities.