Trisha Calvarese on Running Against Lauren Boebert and Ensuring the Safety of Poll Workers, Voters

Trisha Calvarese is running to represent Colorado’s 4th Congressional District against one of the most notorious MAGA Republicans…Lauren Boebert.

Boebert has represented the state’s 3rd Congressional District since she was elected in 2020. For this election, she moved to the 4th District, so that she would win the Republican primary. 

Calvarese, the Democratic candidate, is a stark contrast to Boebert and her anti-democratic agenda. Calvarese grew up in a rural community in Colorado, which she said will help her appeal to voters with various political affiliations and upbringings. Before getting into politics, she worked for the AFL-CIO and the National Science Foundation.

In Democracy Docket’s latest candidate Q&A for the 2024 cycle, Calvarese discusses how she strives to defeat Lauren Boebert, protect voting rights, ensure the safety of poll workers and voters and expand access to healthcare.

Responses have been edited for style and clarity.

Why are you running for Colorado’s 4th District in Congress?

I’m running to make it easier for everybody to take care of and to spend time with the ones they love, to drive down costs and to get rid of corruption. I’m a daughter of this district — born and raised, through and through. I went to the public schools and earned a full academic scholarship to an amazing school — Johns Hopkins [University]. I was at the AFL-CIO at a very exciting time and then in government at the National Science Foundation…when life happened. 

If you’re lucky to live long enough, somebody you know will get sick, and you’re going to have to deal with end-of-life care. And for me, it happened to both of my parents at the same time. They both had cancer, and I’m an only child. So, thank goodness for my union, AFGE 340, and Medicare. I was able to drop everything, move back home and provide end-of-life care for my parents at home. So, I have a very first-hand knowledge of the system, of all the pieces that are missing and that never were there. [It’s] frankly inhumane. 

What really inspired me to step up and run for Congress was my dad. He was a lifelong Republican. He’s a very old school-Republican. He told me, “Listen, you need to step up, even if you’re a Democrat,” — that was my great rebellion — “and you need to run to serve the community that has invested so much in you. It’s time for you to return it.” That’s how I made up my mind, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.

How would you like to protect democracy in Colorado and the country in general? 

Democracy is really on the ballot. It’s on every single ballot in America. And it’s not just at the ballot box, it’s also in our workplaces. You should have a voice on the job, and that means restoring our union rights. So, [we need to be] making sure that we’re electing those pro-democracy candidates up and down the ballot for results.

What’s your strategy for running against your Republican opponent, Lauren Boebert, who has a strong MAGA base and has already served a term in the House?

We’re engaging folks wherever they are throughout the district. We’re making it very clear that we’re running to put people over politics. And we’re hearing from independents and even Republicans, as well as Democrats. We’re engaging folks across the board who want reform and are ready to get rid of corruption in our politics, enforce things like term limits and make sure that dark money is not having as big of a role as it is having right now.

We’re seeing grassroots momentum behind this campaign from not only Democrats but Independents and Republicans as well, and that’s so exciting.

It’s important to look at what Lauren Boebert has done in Congress along with the other Republicans. She supported the SAVE Act, which would require citizens nationwide to provide proof of citizenship. And then she opposed a voting rights bill, the For the People Act. What impact does this have on a legislative level and what you would do differently in this position?

It’s not what she’s doing, it’s what she’s not doing. It’s what she’s preventing. People don’t need another barrier to vote. Life is hard enough. People are busy. They have got things to do. They’re taking care of our kids, our families. Don’t make it harder [by playing] political games. You can see what they’re doing. They’re setting the table to already say that there’s some kind of big conspiracy about [undocumented immigrants]. Undocumented people are afraid to come out of the shadow economy. That’s part of the problem. And that hurts all working people. 

So, [noncitizens] are not voting en mass as Lauren Boebert is claiming. You already see they’re setting it up to sow seeds of disinformation and doubt in the district. But, people are engaging. There is no better antidote than the reality of knocking on doors, talking face-to-face to voters, engaging them, handshaking them and meeting them where they are. So, that’s exactly what we’re doing. I would 100% support voting rights reform. You better believe it.

Something mentioned a lot in voting rights reform is reducing voter intimidation and any tactics that people employ to cause that. So, I wanted to ask you about a 2022 Colorado case. Pro-voting groups filed a lawsuit explaining that a right-wing group, the United States Election Integrity Plan, was intimidating voters. Ultimately the case got tossed because the judge said there wasn’t enough evidence. What are the impacts of that case and similar cases for Colorado voters?

I can promise you on my campaign, we’re going to be hitting those doors twice as hard to engage people, to make sure that we are meeting them wherever they are throughout our district. 

That’s the opposite of democracy — to intimidate people. You have to win on the idea of your merit. Even if you disagree with people, that’s what democracy is about. We are a plurality of voices. So, intimidation is the most anti-democratic thing I can think of. And I think the antidote to that is democracy and exercising rights like free speech.

We’re finding a lot more community than the divisiveness that Lauren Boebert wants you to believe is writ large. There is more community here. Folks are worried about the future and they want somebody who’s going to be there for them. So that’s exactly what we’re doing, engaging it on a grassroots level.

How do you hope to bring people together during this time of divide?

My mom — who was my best friend and I was her only child — was a Trump supporter. She grew up in Dixon City, Pennsylvania. She never had access to college. I was the first in the direct maternal line to go to college. And we would have the best debates because there’s common ground. You can find that common ground [by saying the system] isn’t working for you, and it hasn’t for a long time. And I get that — regardless of your party, regardless of the politics. Let’s send somebody in there who’s actually going to try to fix it. 

People want good jobs. They want good opportunities. Like I said, I’m from this community, too. I went to these amazing public schools. We want to keep them amazing. We want to also adapt for the future. This is the AI era. We need somebody who’s going to be getting us forward, not taking us backward.

Speaking of the AI era, what can be done about AI threats to elections — whether that’s deep fakes or other people pretending to be candidates and giving election misinformation? How do you think we can fight against that? What’s the strategy there?

This is such an exciting conversation because it’s not happening, and it needs to happen more. We need to get in front of the problem. I think there were pieces of legislation that were moving. Honestly, I think they were a little bit too blanket. I think we need to tailor-make it a little bit. 

But, we have got to get ahead of this. This not only applies to our election integrity. This is an issue writ large. So, we need folks who are thinking about these issues and understanding them. They’re seeing how it’s impacting the workforce. They’re getting ahead of it and they’re going to Washington, D.C. to try to fix it. These are not easy things to do. It’s easy to blow things up. It takes a lot of effort to try to build, even when you disagree with people, but that’s what I’m here to do.

In addition to the things you’ve already brought up in terms of voting rights and democracy, what about your other priorities in Congress?

Lauren Boebert voted against cancer care for veterans. And she said, “Your healthcare isn’t my job. Keeping you healthy isn’t my job.” Yet, she thinks she has any business at all in my healthcare decisions. We need to go further than just restoring our rights. We need to expand maternal health care. 

The year before I was born, [my] mom and dad were living in rural Sterling, Colorado. My mom had an ectopic pregnancy. It was an absolute emergency. So they removed it, saved her life, and made mine possible the next year. We are seeing right now in Texas that women who are having ectopic pregnancy emergencies are turned away from care. That is unconscionable. It is unacceptable. And in running for Congress, I will do everything I can to stop that.

[We need to] expand maternal care finally. Because ultimately, we left Sterling. We moved to the suburbs to be closer to Denver to be closer to care. These communities have been drained of resources for so long, and have been left behind. We need people who believe in them. I believe in them, and that’s what I’m running for.

You talked about your upbringing growing up in a rural community. How will you use that experience to help appeal to rural, urban and suburban voters on all issues, including voting rights and democracy?

It comes down to care and opportunity, honestly. Living in rural places before, you see it over and over again. These young folks who are like, I was, you know, pursuing my dreams, and I, you know, had moved away, but I came back. And it’s like, well, why? For so many reasons, the same reason I did. Because of care. I never even wanted to necessarily leave home, but that’s where my opportunity was. It was on the coast. There is no traditional four-year university in my district, even though we have 21 counties. So, it’s about making those pathways accessible that don’t even necessarily require a four-year degree. 

I am thrilled to be endorsed by the Colorado AFL-CIO. I’m going to fight tooth and nail to bring the trades, to bring those skilled pathways to more places in traditional trades and industries of the future. There’s so much potential here. We have big problems, but there’s a big opportunity if we have the right people willing to step up to roll up their sleeves and get some work done.

Speaking of jobs, there has been — across the country —  a shortage of poll workers and election officials. This is an extremely important job to make sure that races are run smoothly. What do you think should be done about that and how to bring more poll workers in?

We need to pass legislation that guarantees protection for poll workers. And it’s a job. People should be compensated and protected. That is one of the most sacred things you can do. And I think more young people should be encouraged to be poll watchers to help them understand the way our democracy works. 

You talked about the kind of protections that people should have and trying to encourage more young people to vote. But, a lot of people may not understand how elections work or understand how voting works. Do you think there needs to be more education and information spread around voting and elections? 

Absolutely. This [relates to] protecting us against AI disinformation. It’s wild how quickly AI is evolving. There was a deep fake of President [Joe] Biden earlier in the campaign cycle. You can even see the technology has jumped from where it was a couple of months ago. It’s wild. So, protecting us from that [is important], but we need to go further than that.

[We need] to guarantee that our poll watchers are safe, that there’s absolutely no intimidation. We can do basic things like banning firearms from polling locations. It’s time to pass legislation and to work with the other side to get it done.

Bipartisanship is a big struggle right now in Congress, in both houses and even at the state level as well. How will you work to push this goal of bipartisanship and get things done despite this deep partisan divide?

I do want to point to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment Act, which was historic as well as the Bipartisan Chips and Science Act. And that one folks probably don’t know about as well. The Chips and Science Act is one of the biggest workforce investments that we’ve had in a generation. We are reshoring American innovation, we’re reshoring our manufacturing and it equals good jobs. So, it’s no wonder it had bipartisan support. 

We need more of those pieces where we can agree because I think there are values that unite us. Folks want to be able to take care of their family. They want to be able to put food on the table, and people should be able to…support that family and retire with dignity.

I noticed on your website you said you grew up in a rural area with wild horses. What’s your favorite part of growing up in that area? 

It’s Daniels Park, so it’s protected, and there are buffalo. These are the same herd of buffalo that  I grew up with. I’m sure some of the calves are now my age. [It’s great to see] that we’ve protected that — those buffalo are still there. There’s [also] a lot of development. The pace of development has been stunning. I’m 37, and there are entire towns and municipalities that [used to be] just dirt roads.

So, it’s given me the perspective that you need to legislate. If we’re anticipating how many millions of people are coming here and we’re growing, how do we do that sustainably? There’s no reason we can’t. The technology is here. We have so much exciting energy from the young people. I just want to emphasize that because I’m a daughter of this district, and I’ve come back, and the fact that this community is behind me. means the world. And I want to support the next generation of young people to solve those problems for the next decades of growth. I’m so excited.