A teacher who cannot afford to live near the school where she works. A small business owner unable to keep good employees because housing and healthcare insurance is too expensive. A senior on a fixed income worried that one more increase in taxes, groceries, utilities or healthcare will break their budget. Over the past year, I’ve heard all of these voices and more on the campaign trail. While each story is unique, they all rhyme with the same sense of concern: wondering whether the Colorado mountain communities they love still have a place for them.

I am running for the Colorado State House because I believe they should.

My name is Chris Floyd. I am a lawyer, a former judge and county attorney, as well as a neighbor who has called this district home for almost 13 years. I did not come to public service through politics. I came to it through lived experience and community work.

I grew up one of five daughters of a single mother, and my early life included foster care, housing insecurity and economic hardship. Those experiences shaped how I see government: not as an abstract debate, but as a tool that should help people find stability, opportunity and dignity.

In Leadville, I opened my law firm to provide affordable legal services to small businesses and nonprofits. As the first woman to serve as Leadville’s municipal judge, I focused on restorative justice and practical solutions to difficult problems facing our residents. As Lake County Attorney, I worked to protect taxpayer dollars, improve local government operations and help move community priorities forward.

That is the same approach I will bring to the Capitol: practical, honest and focused on results for our rural and mountain communities.

The most urgent issue facing our district is the cost of living, driven in large part by the shortage of attainable housing. This crisis touches nearly every other challenge we face. When workers cannot live where they work, schools, clinics, emergency services, restaurants and local businesses all suffer.

We need a serious housing strategy that fits mountain and rural realities. That means expanding workforce housing, supporting public-private-nonprofit partnerships, helping first-time homebuyers, protecting renters and giving local governments the tools they need to address the housing shortage.

Affordability also means protecting and expanding rural healthcare, including mental health services, and ensuring our public-school health centers are adequately funded. No Coloradan should have to drive hours for basic care or wait until a health problem becomes an emergency. I will prioritize support for our clinics, healthcare providers and health centers.

Our economy depends on small businesses, outdoor recreation, agriculture, tourism and the workers who keep these communities running. I will support investments in broadband, infrastructure, job training programs that help train the next generation of workers for good jobs close to home, and local business stability so our towns can grow in ways that strengthen local families instead of pricing them out.

We also must protect the land, water and outdoor economy that make this district special. Drought, wildfire risk and climate change are not abstract issues here. They affect ranchers, outfitters, ski areas, local businesses, homeowners and everyone who depends on clean water and healthy forests. We need to ensure that our mountain communities’ voices are heard and investments made in wildfire prevention, water conservation, watershed protection and development of climate-resilient local economies.

Most of all, I want to be a representative who listens. House District 13 is diverse, independent and, despite ranging across six counties, deeply local. We will not always agree on every issue, but we can start with shared values: safe communities, affordable homes, good schools, accessible healthcare, preservation of our public lands, responsible budgets and a government that treats people with respect.

I am not running to be the loudest voice at the Capitol. I am running to be an effective voice for the people of HD13.

If elected, I will show up, listen, do the work and fight for a Colorado where the people who teach our children, care for our families, protect our communities, and make our mountain towns work can still afford to call this place home.

Chris Floyd is a candidate in the Democratic primary for Colorado House District 13, which spans Chaffee, Grand, Jackson, Lake, Park and Summit counties.