What dark money is trying to hide in House District 13

Dark money is trying to shape the June 30 Democratic primary for Colorado House District 13. Voters should ask what that money is trying to hide.

Outside money is already moving to help Chris Floyd. Colorado Mountain Progressives, an independent expenditure committee with no ties to any existing local nonprofit, is supporting Floyd in the Democratic primary. Despite its name, it primarily supports big-business-friendly Democrats in primary races. Reporting shows the group received major funding from One Main Street Colorado, part of the same big-business dark-money political network trying to shape Democratic primaries across Colorado.

Floyd has also benefited from other dark-money groups like American Future, Assuring Quality Healthcare Access for Colorado, and Colorado Affordability Project.

This dark-money network is tied to real estate, energy and utility interests, restaurant industry lobbyists, technology companies, and GEO Group, the private prison contractor that operates Colorado’s ICE detention facility. One Main Street Colorado calls itself a “business-backed” coalition but does not disclose its donors. That is exactly the problem.

The choice is not complicated. Consuelo Redhorse answered our questionnaire. Chris Floyd did not. Redhorse was clear about immigration, ICE accountability, housing, workers, affordability, wages, rent stabilization, and corporate and dark-money influence. Floyd chose not to answer.

Unlike the dark-money groups trying to influence this race, we are rooted in this community. Voces Unidas Action Fund and Voces Unidas de las Montañas are nonprofit organizations with an office in Frisco. We don’t hide who we are or what we stand for (fair wages, dignified housing, respect for immigrants, and accountability for our elected officials). We organize in Summit County with Latino workers and families who live here, raise children here, keep the mountain economy running, and feel the consequences when elected officials fail to act.

Affordability is not a slogan in House District 13. Families need lower costs, higher wages, stable rents, and housing they can actually afford. For years, we have been waiting for a different governor and more progressive legislators with the courage to address these issues. This is why it is important that voters know if our candidates will side with working families or with the apartment association, big data center interests, oil and gas, landlords, developers, and the lobbyists who keep blocking progressive policies.

Redhorse gave us specifics. Floyd did not.

Floyd’s refusal should concern all voters, but specially Latino voters. Her campaign website does not even mention “immigrants,” “immigration,” or “ICE.”

That omission is not small. One has to live under a rock to not know that ICE has already created fear and disruption in the High Country and has detained more than 20 Latino residents, including six workers near Dillon, two workers at Mexican restaurant and a long-time resident from Leadville. We have also lost Delvin Francisco Rodríguez, a Summit County resident who died in ICE custody during the second Trump administration.

If immigration is this personal for Latino communities in House District 13, voters deserve to know why Floyd avoided the issue. 

Floyd is endorsed by Speaker Julie McCluskie, Sen. Dylan Roberts, and Rep. Meghan Lukens. We have supported these leaders in the past, but their record this year raised serious questions about who they are willing to stand with when pressure comes from corporate and conservative interests. 

McCluskie cast the deciding vote for SB26-121, the now-law that forces immigrant farmworkers to work 56 hours before they get overtime pay. Lukens voted to move that same bill forward in committee and joined Republicans to pass it. Roberts supported it in the Senate too. Voces Unidas called it the first time in modern Colorado history that the state legislature proactively voted to take a right away from a specific group of workers: farmworkers, who are overwhelmingly immigrant.

Roberts also helped kill the No Kings Act, SB26-176, which would have allowed Coloradans to sue federal ICE agents for violating constitutional rights. That bill was one of Colorado’s clearest opportunities to create accountability when federal officials, including ICE agents, violate people’s rights.

SB26-070, a bill designed to create statewide guardrails for license plate reader systems like Flock cameras, died on the Senate floor because Democrats would not support it. Roberts voted against it in committee. 

This is the pattern: too many Democrats say the right things in public, then vote the wrong way when pressure comes from corporate lobbyists, conservative law enforcement groups, realtors, landlords, oil and gas, data center interests, and big industry.

This is why we are concerned about the outside dark money helping Floyd.

Roberts and Lukens are already part of the Colorado Opportunity Caucus, a Democratic bloc that has built close ties with corporate lobbyists. Reporting on the caucus’s Vail retreat showed lobbyists were offered a sponsorship menu to buy access to lawmakers, with packages going as high as $100,000 for an hour-long presentation and VIP events.

When lobbyists can buy that level of access, voters should call it what it is: pay-for-play politics.

One of the lobbyists at that retreat was Jason Hopfer. His clients include GEO Group, the private prison contractor that operates the ICE detention center in Aurora. GEO operates the facility where immigrants from our region are detained. 

A clear link exists between corporate dark money in Democratic campaigns and legislative decisions that prioritize industry interests over our communities. This is evident in our Voces Unidas Action Fund 2026 Legislative Scorecard, where McCluskie was graded a C, Lukens a C-, and Roberts a D- based on their voting performance.

As Latinos, we cannot afford another C or D Democrat. 

When the rent is too damn high and we can’t afford to live where we work, we need elected officials willing to side with workers, renters, students, immigrants, and working families. 

Latino voters should vote for candidates who support us, not those who make it harder for us to thrive. 

Vote in this primary. Hand-deliver your ballot before June 30.

Our political activity is people-powered. See for yourself: Voces Unidas Victory Fund (IE), Voces Unidas Small Donor Committee, Voces Unidas Political Action Committee (Colorado), and Voces Unidas Political Action Committee (Federal Hybrid PAC)