In November, one of the most competitive races in Colorado will take place in the northwest corner of the state where Democratic incumbent Meghan Lukens is facing off against Republican Nathan Butler to represent House District 26.

The district has grown significantly since the 2021 state redistricting process, with Rio Blanco and Moffat counties joining Routt County and the majority of Eagle County in the district.

While previous elections in the district have swung blue, the race is expected to be tight.

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A 2021 report from nonpartisan staffers amid redistricting predicts a slim 2.7% advantage for the Democratic incumbent. Only six other seats in the 65-person chamber have tighter margins between the two parties.

It’s a district that historically has had similar numbers of registered Republicans and Democrats, with a vast majority registered as unaffiliated. In 2022, Republicans accounted for 27.9% of active registered voters, Democrats 22.7% and unaffiliated 47.7%.

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In 2022, Lukens won the race against Republican Savannah Wolfson by just over 2,800 votes, earning 53% of the votes cast. Lukens gained the victory by pulling off wins in the more populous Eagle and Routt counties, while Wolfson took more votes in Moffat and Rio Blanco counties.

Past gubernatorial and presidential races in these counties have followed similar voting patterns.

In Colorado’s 2022 governor race, Gov. Jared Polis won the race in Eagle and Routt counties by 68% and 66% of votes cast, respectively. In Moffat and Rio Blanco counties, Republican candidate Heidi Ganahl earned 77% and 78% of the vote, respectively. In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden won by 63% of the votes in Eagle County and 62% in Routt County, while Donald Trump took 80% of the votes in Moffat County and 82% in Rio Blanco County.

Meet the candidates

Lukens, who was born and raised in Steamboat Springs, was a social studies teacher at Steamboat Springs High School before running for the state house in 2022.

In her first election, she ran on a platform aiming to bring more teachers to the state legislature. Her work since has been led by “collaboration, communication and partnership,” Lukens said in a recent interview with Summit Daily.

“During my first term as state representative, I delivered results on the issues that matter the most to Northwest Colorado — strengthening our economy, investing in our children’s education and protecting our land and water resources,” Lukens said.

Seeking reelection, Lukens has defined her platform with “the three E’s”: economy, education and the environment. These are the three things she hears about from constituents the most, she said.

Addressing these will include addressing affordability concerns, workforce shortages, increasing affordable housing options, boosting early child care access, protecting the environment, conserving water resources as well as boosting and supporting public education, she said.

Butler, a disabled Army veteran, announced his campaign in February.

Born in Illinois and raised in Texas, Butler has been in Colorado for the majority of his adult life. He lives in Craig with his wife, whose family has been in Western Colorado for four decades, and two children. In Craig, Butler has been engaged in a few community groups, most recently serving as a Craig City Council member.

While Butler is running as a Republican, he considers himself more of a Constitutional Libertarian.

“I do believe that the bulk of the Libertarian Party has somewhat lost its way,” Butler said in a recent interview with Summit Daily. “I don’t necessarily think they stand on some of the underlying principles that they’ve set forth for themselves, which is why I’m not running as a Libertarian.”

As Butler joined the state race, he did sign a pledge created by the state’s Libertarian Party. The “pro-liberty” pledge includes attempting to eliminate the state income tax, “defending the taxpayer bill of rights, supporting the right for ballot access by citizens initiatives and maintaining our first and second amendment rights,” Butler said.

“Those are all things that I think we can all really agree on for the most part, so I thought there was absolutely nothing wrong with working with the Libertarians on this one,” he added.

Early in the race, Butler’s attendance at the Jan. 6 rally in Washington D.C. raised tensions between the candidates as Lukens brought it into a fundraising email.

While Butler has not discussed the topic much in the campaign, his initial interview with the Steamboat Pilot & Today after the rally indicated he attended over concerns of voter fraud. He also indicated that he only saw peaceful activity at the event.

For Butler, the reason he decided to run for the state seat aligns with the reason he resigned from the Craig City Council after eight months: “the expedited closure of the Craig power plant.” When Tri-State Generation and Transmission moved up the dates to shutter the coal-fired Craig Station, Butler felt that the transition away from coal was being mishandled and leaving the community without adequate solutions.  

Tri-State is now closing the plant in phases starting in 2025 and closing it entirely by 2028. With Tri-State’s closure, the Trapper and Colowyo coal mines in Moffat County will also be closed by 2030.

“We have thousands of workers who are going to be displaced because of the closure of coal,” Butler said at a Club 20 event in September. “These jobs have supported families and local businesses for generations and we’re about to lose that. We are watching that stability that we had disappear.”

Among the other issues topping Butler’s platform are economic development, “tackling illegal and unvetted immigration that is crippling Colorado’s cities and endangering lives,” health care and altering abortion access laws, gun rights and safety and election integrity.

Getting to work in the Capitol

During her first term, Lukens served on the House’s Education Committee, Legislative Council, and Agriculture, Natural Resources & Water Committee. In the most recent 2024 session, Lukens sponsored 25 bills, 21 of which had bipartisan sponsorship. Twenty-two were signed into law. 

In 2024, 528 bills were voted on the Democrat-controlled House floor. Lukens voted no on 11 of those bills, joining the Republican Party majority in those dissents. She was absent for one vote.

This was more “No” votes than some of Lukens’s fellow Democratic Western Slope representatives, Julie McCluskie and Elizabeth Velasco who voted no seven and five times, respectively. However, it was fewer than Barbara McLachlan, who dissented on 17 bills and Matthew Martinez, who dissented on 14 bills.

Of the 11 bills, two were related to gun safety, a few were related to property and homeowners associations, two were related to government transparency rules and one that would have allowed local municipalities to authorize overdose prevention centers in their communities.

“With every bill, I look at three things: the constituents’ wants and concerns, the data driving the policy and the text of the policy itself,” Lukens said.

Lukens said it has been important to work closely with her fellow rural legislators at the Capitol.

“I am in regular conversation with rural Republicans and rural Democrats, and the majority of my bills are with rural legislators,” Lukens said. “The Western Slope legislators stick together when uplifting our needs around water conservation, around promoting and supporting agriculture as well as recognizing the different challenges that rural areas face.”

If elected, Butler has ideas on bipartisanship and how he would represent all his constituents.

Butler would like to see a bill requiring “at least 50% support from the opposition party” to be able to call it bipartisan. In addition to helping bridge political divides, this would “inevitably lead to more rural Colorado politicians being on bills,” he said.

“Assuming that we’re trying to maintain real bipartisanship, just getting those voices into the room to be dealing on certain bills is going to dramatically increase our voice as well as how much influence we have over a bill,” Butler said.

When it comes to how he will represent the district, Butler said his plan is simple.

“It really starts with just listening to the people that are here and then taking their words, not mine, to the legislature,” Butler said. “It’s something that I feel hasn’t really been happening in the past… I think we’re supposed to take all the criticism from either side and then try to come up with a balance.”

The issues percolating in House District 26

So far Butler and Lukens have faced off in a few candidate events, including a North Routt forum in August and a Steamboat Springs Chamber Q&A in September. Predominantly, these discussions have touched on the energy transition, cost of living, abortion access, wolves, gun safety laws and more.

Energy and economies in transition

Atop of Butler’s platform is how the state has mishandled the transition away from coal, calling it “reckless.”

“While I understand that the energy landscape is changing and renewable energy and natural gas are part of the future, the transition must allow and protect the people who have powered these communities for decades,” Butler said at the September debate.

As part of his campaign platform, Butler is advocating for the establishment of replacement industries before the closure of the coal industry, promoting “clean coal” industries as well as creating jobs and training programs to support workers and promote economic development in the region.

“I’m very worried that there’s going to be a lot more casualties in this transition than people realize,” Butler said in the Summit Daily interview.

As the demand and cost of energy increases, “there’s a lot of concerns,” he added.

“I know, me personally, I might not be able to afford to live out in Craig, and that’s, that’s a story that I hear all throughout the district.”

In dealing with this transition, Lukens has advocated for an “all of the above energy strategy.”

“I’m very supportive of diversifying our economy in our coal transitioning communities,” Lukens said. “I believe green energy jobs are good jobs; promoting that is crucial.”

Lukens pointed to two bills she sponsored that illustrate this strategy. The first, passed in 2023, created assessments to advance energy solutions in coal-transitioning communities. The second, passed in 2024, extended grant funding for helping small businesses in rural communities.

Additionally, Lukens said that the passenger rail from Denver to Craig would have multiple benefits for the region, including “continuing to support the rail that the coal plants are using, hoping that any business that moves to Northwest Colorado can then also use that rail, and also using it as a passenger rail.”

Butler has expressed support for the rail line, but also believes there is some hypocrisy around the environmental rationales surrounding the rail and coal.

“(The Front Range and legislators say) we have to close down the coal for the environment,” Butler said. ” And yet, what (the rail freight bill) is doing is it’s actually going to lead to certain coal mines being given tax incentives so they can use the rail line, but what they’re doing is they’re shipping their coal overseas, presumably to countries like China and Germany.”

This, he said, is “exporting our guilt toward the environment.”

“Just getting the coal to these other countries is so much worse than what we’re doing here already in our much cleaner plants,” Butler said.

Abortion

As Colorado voters will weigh in on whether to solidify abortion access within the state’s constitution this November, women’s reproductive rights have been present in the House District 26 race.

“Protecting and preserving our reproductive rights is crucial for women across the entire state of Colorado, but also for the women that are coming into the state of Colorado to seek this care,” Lukens said. “I believe that a woman’s reproductive decisions should be between her and her doctor, not politicians, not the government. And I am proud that Colorado is working to keep it that way.”

Butler has referred to himself, somewhat facetiously he said, as the “real pro-choice candidate,” with the clarification that “choice comes before fertilization.”

However, Butler said he would not push against the will of the voters, who have made it clear they support this access.

“Regardless of where I personally stand on it, the votes are not there and I’m not going to waste the people’s time,” he said.

However, Butler does want to close the loophole in Colorado law where there are “no gestational limits.”

“Under Colorado law, you could abort a baby up until the moment that umbilical cord is cut because it has not been fully delivered, as is required by law, to be considered born,” he said. “I would move to get the language reworked to make sure that that never happens.”

Gun safety regulations

One of Butler’s top campaign issues is gun rights and safety. Butler said he is a “staunch supporter of constitutional carry,” adding that he supports “strengthening self-defense rights and ensuring that criminals face strict penalties for gun crimes.”

In general, he has said he supports a less-is-more approach when it comes to gun safety laws and has indicated concerns with Lukens’s decisions around gun legislation. 

In 2024, Lukens voted against a bill that would have banned the sale and transfer of assault weapons. The bill was ultimately killed in its first Senate committee hearing.

“I believe that for an assault weapons ban to be effective, it needs to happen at a federal level,” Lukens said. “I had concerns about how passing an assault weapons ban at the state level actually increases people’s want to purchase assault weapons, and they would have to purchase them in Utah or Wyoming or any of our bordering states.”

The bill also banned purchases and not possession, which she said was another “gap” in its language.

 “I received more constituents reaching out to me asking me to vote no on that bill more than any other bill over the past two years at the state Capitol,” Lukens said.

While Lukens voted against this and a bill that would have required firearm liability insurance in 2024, “there were a number of very reasonable gun violence prevention bills that we did pass at the state Capitol that I did support,” she said.

In the 2024 session, Lukens voted in favor of all eight pieces of gun-related legislation that were signed into law. This included laws that authorize state investigations of gun crimes, prohibit carrying firearms in spaces like the Capitol and schools, change the requirements for concealed carry permits and more.

“I know that this is a really horrible problem that we have in the United States,” Lukens said. “So supporting common-sense gun violence legislation and prevention is very important to a large amount of constituents as well.”

Lukens outpaces Butler on funding, spending

Lukens’ campaign contributions and spending have significantly outpaced that of Butler.

As of Sept. 30, Lukens had raised just over $135,500 and spent around $43,800, while Butler had raised just over $16,000 and spent around $12,000, according to state campaign finance records.

Lukens’s donations come from 571 unique donors, with those who have contributed less than $1,000 donating an average of $134 to the campaign. She has had eight donations exceed $1,000. Her largest donations have included:

·  $6,200 from the Public Education Committee

·  $6,000 from the Colorado Professional Fire Fighters Small Door Fund

·  $6,000 from the Colorado American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations Nonpartisan Small Donor Committee

·  $2,500 from Colorado Wins Small Donor Committee

·  $2,500 from UFCW Active Ballot Club Education Fund Colorado Small Donor Committee

Butler has received donations from 34 unique donors, with those who contributed less than $1,000 donating an average of $125 to the campaign. He has had five donations over $1,000. His largest donors have included:

·  $7,000 in two contributions from the Routt County Republican Central Committee

·  $3,000 in two contributions from the Moffat County Republican Central Committee

·  $2,000 from the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners Political Action Committee

Ballots will be mailed Oct. 11. Election Day is Nov. 5.