Dems Fighting for Rural Colorado

Across the country, rural folks are increasingly trending Democratic. Maybe that's because of the seriousness with which Democrats have reached out to these communities, but maybe it's simply because the party continues to put the interest of people ahead of the special interests.

Case in point: Colorado.

Both houses of the Colorado General Assembly are led by the Democrats, who recently completed their legislative session ahead of schedule and under budget. Andrew Romanoff, speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, recently wrote about the success they've had in the Pueblo Chieftan and highlighted some of the work they did that's important to rural families:

We enacted more than a dozen other measures to energize our rural economy. Southern Colorado’s delegation led the way, sponsoring bills to free renewable energy equipment from sales and use tax, expedite the construction of power transmission lines and preserve water quality. [...] And we approved grant programs to bring both medical equipment and medical providers to rural Colorado.

There's more, as the Denver Post points out:

Another measure, Senate Bill 242, creates advisory councils to help eliminate racial, ethnic and rural health disparities.

African-Americans, Latinos and rural residents are contracting diseases more often and dying at faster rates than whites and urban dwellers, said bill sponsor Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver.

The bill also formalizes the state office of health disparities, which works to assess the causes of disparities and find solutions.

Ending racial and rural disparities in diabetes alone would save the state $80 million each year, Ritter said.

These are the kinds of innovative approaches that are creating new alliances inside the Democratic Party as we expand our base to new areas -- in all 50 states.