Elisabeth Lawrence picked to continue serving as Summit County commissioner
Incumbent Elisabeth Lawrence will retain her place on the Summit County Board of Commissioners. Lawrence will continue to represent District 1, which includes the town of Breckenridge.
Lawrence, who ran as a Democrat, was first appointed as a commissioner in January 2019 after Dan Gibbs left the position to become the executive director of the state’s Department of Natural Resources. She was then elected to the position in 2020.
This election, Lawrence defeated challenger Allen Bacher, a board member with the Summit Chamber of Commerce and an adjunct professor at Colorado Mountain College.
Lawrence received 66.13% of the vote as of 9:30 p.m., according to data from the Colorado Secretary of State’s office.
“I’m thrilled to continue to work for the voters of Summit County,” Lawrence told the Summit Daily after the race was called. “We have a lot going on right now and a lot to do, and I want to keep the momentum going.”
In a column for the Summit Daily News, Lawrence said that affordability, housing and accessible child care will be her focus as she continues serving as a Summit County Commissioner.
“Having relationships with our representatives at the state and federal level is incredibly important, and I will continue to foster those,” Lawrence wrote. “Summit County might have a small population, but as one of the top tourist destinations in the state and home to the most visited national forests in the country, we serve a much larger population. This work requires collaboration and advocacy to ensure support for needs like housing and infrastructure and recreation, and that includes wins like our newest national monument.”
For almost two decades, Lawrence has emphasized her work on creating affordable child care. She serves on the governor’s task force focused on a new Department of Early Childhood and on the Colorado Shines statewide workgroup to revamp the quality standards used across the state.
“My three main focus areas are going to be continued work in child care, open space and trails — what that means for accessibility for our entire community — and then lastly, capital projects,” Lawrence said on Election Night. “The county has a ton of capital projects going on over the next couple of years. Now, we need to make sure that our voters know and our residents know all these great projects are done to make their lives better.”
Lawrence has lived in Summit County for over 20 years. Her other community involvement includes being a board member at the Summit County Chamber of Commerce, High Country Conservation Center, Breckenridge History, Early Childhood Options, Breckenridge Creative Arts, Colorado Counties Inc. Summit High School Accountability Committee, Summit Medical Center High Altitude Research Committee and chair of Summit County Wildfire Council. She is also a member of Father Dyer Church in Breckenridge.
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