Congressional Candidate Trisha Calvarese Talks Unions, the Economy, World Affairs, and More

Trisha Calvarese, a Douglas County resident and communications specialist, is running to represent Colorado’s 4th congressional district. A political newcomer, Calvarese comes from a long line of union workers and worked for the AFL-CIO as director of speechwriting. Calvarese sat down with the Colorado Times Recorder to elaborate on why she is running and answer questions on the economy, the environment, foreign affairs, and more. 

CTR: First off, can you begin by telling us a bit about yourself and what gave you the drive to run in the first place?

Trisha Calvarese: Yeah, absolutely. So I’m from the district through and through. I went to these amazing schools in Douglas County, Fox Creek, Crest Hill, and Highlands Ranch High School, and that led to a full academic scholarship at Johns Hopkins University, which I was just so grateful for. I ultimately was recently working in D.C. at the AFL-CIO as director of speechwriting during a very fascinating time, as well as at the U.S. National Science Foundation, that’s an independent federal agency, when life happened to me, both parents got sick at the same time. I’m an only child, so thank goodness for my union. I was in AFGE3403 [and] could drop everything, come home and think. Thank goodness for Medicare, [it] could provide that end-of-life care. So just going through that experience, I understand the parts of our care that are just so broken and economic challenges we’re all facing. I was thinking about it and then Dad, lifelong Republican, told me, ‘Okay, kiddo, you got to step up now, right? This is your community. You got to give everything back that it invested in you. So step up and run.’ So that’s exactly what I’m doing. 

Jobs and the economy:

CTR: I want to begin by asking you about the state of the economy and jobs. Knowing that you are a card-carrying union member, let’s start by talking about organized labor. According to a Reuters report from the beginning of the year, labor union membership is at a record low in the United States, yet we have also seen incredibly influential strikes from organized labor in the past few years. What role do you see organized labor as having in the changing landscape of the American workforce?

Trisha Calvarese: I think that they just did a study, it came out [on the] popularity of unions. They are more popular than ice cream. It’s something that people from both sides of the aisle believe in and agree on. It is the power of working people. It rebalances that economy. I think we’ve seen just the concentration at the top, it’s not a level playing field, and that’s bad for competition at large, small businesses, entrepreneurs. I think that the labor movement is going to have a very, very important role, especially in the AI era. So we’re going to see lots of technology, lots of changes. Unions are one of the best ways where you can kind of negotiate on the job those protections for workers and better empower workers to use those tools on the job to innovate. It’s very exciting. So I think that we’re seeing a revival in the labor movement. And it’s not necessarily your grandaddy’s labor movement. My grandpa was a Teamster, that was how my family ultimately got their toehold into the middle class. But so it’s those traditional industries, but also jobs of the future. I’ll tell you what, in Colorado-4 specifically, in my district, there are 21 counties. We border four states and there is no four-year college or university, no traditional four-year college or university. We have some amazing community colleges, but what we also have, the labor movement has one of the best training models in human history. It’s the apprenticeship model, it’s earn while you’ll learn. I love to point to IBEW 68, they have a great model. You become a journeymen electrician two years. Right out of high school, so you’re earning money. Two years, you’re a journeyman electrician, and then you can go to Metro State on top of it for free. That’s how we not only inspire a generation of engineers, it’s how we finance them as well.

CTR: Inflation has hit American households particularly hard, and while there is evidence that inflation is now falling, many Coloradans still feel the financial impact from the past year. What do you believe the federal government’s role should be in managing inflation and, if elected, how would you aim to ease the economic burden inflation has had on Coloradans?

Trisha Calvarese: I do want to point to the trend and the remarkable fact that we’ve navigated a soft landing without seeing a recession by bringing the inflationary pressure down. I think now that the Fed has cut rates, that should also help. What we need is to look at what’s what’s driving heightened costs. Why are they high? I hear food over and over and over again, so [it] stands to reason to follow what’s up with food? Go to our growers. Go to our farmers. Go to our ranchers. I’ve been talking to them and [having] really great conversations where they’re saying, ‘Hey, we traditionally feel so disrespected. You know, people dismiss us as a bunch of kind of backwards people here on the on the plains.’ But they’re shepherds of our land and they feed our country. So literally going on the farm and being like, ‘Okay, where can we help cut costs? Where can we make it easier for you to grow?’ A corn cutter is $1 million and you got to pay it out. That’s a mortgage, right? But you pay a mortgage off in 30 years, whereas if you’re a farmer, you have to pay that corn cutter back in five years. That’s not fair. So there I think it’s the role of the federal government to figure where can we cut red tape for our growers, where can we make it easier so they can produce more food. To make that local, I think that’s [where] you’re really going to see a bigger push kind of writ large across federal government. I’m really excited to do that here in Colorado-4 to bring those place-based investments to the places that have been overlooked and left behind for economic development. But how do you even do that? You need that infrastructure first. So that’s why the bipartisan infrastructure bill was so important for basic things like roads that connect us or the Internet, to be able so that we can we can connect the markets, the growers with consumers and buyers.

CTR: Do you think there is the political will in Washington right now to help cut that red tape?

Trisha Calvarese: I think we need better representation, certainly. That’s why the person I’m running against [Rep. Lauren Boeber (R-CO)], I know she plays games with very, very serious issues like water. So we know that Rep. Boebert voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which had funding for our water infrastructure here in Colorado. She voted against it and then she earmarked, I think it was $10 or $15 million for a special project, put it in an omnibus bill, and then voted against the bill. We don’t know where she stands on water. We just know she stands for herself and she’s willing to play games. I’m running for the folks regardless of their politics, for people first, all of us, and to make sure that our growers can grow and to tackle the real issues.

The environment and climate change: 

CTR: Moving over to the topic of climate and energy. Colorado is currently the 4th-largest producer of oil and gas in the United States. With that said, with the rise of electric vehicles and various forms of renewable energy, America’s energy use has certainly diversified. How can Colorado remain a leader in energy production as we become less reliant on oil and gas?

Trisha Calvarese: The thing is, we don’t quite have the infrastructure to switch completely to renewables yet, so we need to build it. We need to continue to invest in it and we want to drive the costs down for those technologies. You have to look in terms of the macro-economics. We’re competing globally. So China right now has oversaturated their market with green tech, with solar panels, with wind, with EVs, with the batteries and all those pieces in the supply chain. We need to catch up. So we need to be manufacturing those pieces here at home today. We need to get going on that. We need to make it a lot more accessible. It’s really exciting. We’re starting to see the wind farms where people are realizing, ‘Man, these windmills are passive income. This is great.’ So I think that using the power of this office as a convener, both between the private sector, the public sector, to kind of find where there’s those pain points where we can unstuck things and just keep moving forward because there are so many opportunities. These are industries. These are excellent jobs. And we want to make sure that they’re made here in America and right here in Colorado-4. 

CTR: As a follow-up, what would you say to those who work in oil and gas who fear losing their jobs? 

Trisha Calvarese: I’m proudly endorsed by the United Mine Workers of America. Thank you very much. There’s a huge difference between a coal community and a coal company. I’ll tell you what, I have the pen. When Biden-Harris closed the Keystone Access pipeline as a speechwriter at AFL-CIO I got to draft labor’s response to the White House, and that was, ‘Labor will lead the transition to the clean energy future.’ We’ll build it, but it’s not going to happen on our backs and it’s not going to come at the cost of all the things we fought for to get those middle class jobs, because why are those oil and gas jobs good jobs? Because we fought to make them good jobs for our unions. And that’s we need the same thing available in the green economy. And that’s why we have to pass things like the PRO Act, because just because it’s a green job doesn’t mean it’s a good job. We want to make sure that it has the right to a union to those quality standards, benefits, and that you can support a family on it. So I say to those folks, ‘I have your back and I get it.’ We’re not going to ask you to pick up and move to Silicon Valley to become a coder. We need workforce plans in place before any kind of transition, and those folks are skilled right there. They’re very skilled at labor. There are different ways we can upskill them, from bridge to pension, but I’m going to keep them top of mind. I used to write for Richard Trumka, who’s a former president of the AFL-CIO, [who] was a coal miner. So I carry him in all the stories that he shared with me in my heart, I’m thinking that’s top of mind.

CTR: This summer saw several particularly devastating wildfires across the state of Colorado, now more than ever, Coloradans are experiencing the consequences of climate change firsthand. If elected, how can Congress address the needs of the American Southwest as our communities will likely continue to be hit by natural disasters?

Trisha Calvarese: We’ll listen to our first responders, to our firefighters, who asked for certain things like a raise or certain models where you can image the fires and you can work better to prevent them. That was in the budget Lauren Boebert voted against. So I’m going to make sure who are the people on the frontlines of climate change? What are those people? What [do] those jobs look like and what can I do to support them? Making it easier for our firefighters who are risking their lives and using technology for good. Again, we’re in this AI era, and I know there’s a fire cast technology that came from my agency, National Science Foundation, that’s actually helping fight these wildfires… So making sure folks have everything that they need. Being intelligent about it, too, of what kind of pieces can we get into place now that are already working, where we’re seeing mitigation, whether that’s where we’re moving away from water intensive crops, scale that up and then [saying] ‘Let’s get creative — there’s some tech we need that doesn’t quite exist.’ Carbon capture, sequestration. We have some demonstration projects on the eastern plains seeing how those work and scale. But really we do need a transition. It’s an exciting time. It’s a challenging time as well, but there’s a lot of opportunity. 

Immigration:

CTR: Immigration has divided American political parties in this election cycle. I want to begin by asking you, in your ideal world, what would our immigration system look like?

Trisha Calvarese: Immigration is a full system, and we’ve focused a lot, I think, on the border issue, which — there was a bipartisan border bill that included more resources for the people who work on the border and Customs and Border Patrol who actually asked for more resources. That was in that bill with bipartisan support. Lauren Boebert voted against it because Donald Trump told her to, so that’s why we need to we need to work together to get very serious about immigration issues. At the same time, how did we get through the pandemic? With migrant labor folks working in those meatpacking plants, people taking care of families. I haven’t been on a farm yet that says, ‘I’m for it. Round them up and deport them all, people.’ What we need [is] migrant labor. We absolutely need it, but nobody should be exploited because of their documentation status. That hurts everybody. That drives down employment opportunities for everyone. So we need to get those people out of the shadows onto a pathway. Enforce our borders, enforce our standards, and make sure it’s legal, and then let’s look at the root cause. Why are folks leaving South America? Because their economies have been decimated because they’re short on food. If we can be growing more food, maybe we can be exporting it. Actually that has switched — we used to export more agriculture products than we imported, and that’s actually gone in reverse because of some policies. So it’s a comprehensive thing and we need to look at it and we need to look at it humanely. We certainly do not need to be spreading rumors on the internet and fear-mongering about it, which is exactly what Lauren Boebert does. I’ll tell you what, it really kind of makes the stakes very clear to me, because people will come up to me who are citizens and they tell me all the time,’ Lauren Boebert cannot win. I am scared if she does.’ And that’s the whole point. That’s what she’s running on. And we’re not going to let fear win.

CTR: Colorado’s 4th District contains parts of Aurora and, as you likely know, Aurora has recently been thrust into a national spotlight over the activity of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that APD reports as having 11 active members. While their presence in Aurora is disturbing, there has been a high degree of misinformation and disinformation surrounding their presence in the city. What role should our elected representatives have in combatting this misinformation?

Trisha Calvarese: Well, I mean, certainly let’s not be spreading disinformation and rumors and lies for political gain. Let’s start there. Like step one, to listen to the people who are doing the actual job again. Customs and Border Patrol asked for more resources in this bipartisan bill. So that would have been very helpful. It’s so important to differentiate. There is a difference between immigrants, between Venezuelan immigrants and between gang members, and just putting everybody in one category is dangerous and dehumanizing. We’re trying to stick to the facts. We’re trying to stick to reality and the biggest issues in our district. Nobody’s worried about their pets getting eaten by immigrants, I’ll tell you that. Nope. Not one person has told me they’re worried about that. 

Foreign Affairs:

CTR: Now turning to global affairs, I would like to get your thoughts on some of the global conflicts the US is involved with. According to a report by Reuters, 40,000 Palestinian civilians have died as a direct result of Israeli operations since war broke out in Gaza, many of whom have been women and children. Considering the condemnation from the international community and the staggering loss of life, is there any point where the U.S. government should reconsider military aid to the Israeli state?

Trisha Calvarese: Israel absolutely has a right to defend itself. October 7th was horrifying. We would have stepped up and defended ourselves. At the same time, those women and children, exactly like you’re saying, have a right to exist as well. Both the Palestinians and the Israelis have a right to exist. I believe in a two state solution. Exactly to your question — you don’t want to believe everything that you’re just seeing on the Internet, right? So I would say once I’m in Congress and you have access to information that’s already been vetted, that has been coming from our military. I would look at that and then make a decision from there. I’m not just based what’s on the Internet of what I know or don’t know, I would say that I would want to know from the intelligence community and then make a decision from there. I want to know more, too, about our technology and how our technology is being used at play that we’re developing as well.

CTR: And in regards to the Russo-Ukrainian war, your opponent, Rep. Boebert, has been a vocal opponent of US foreign aid going to Ukraine. Where do you stand on the aid America has sent to Ukraine and how do you respond to your opponent’s stance on the matter?

Trisha Calvarese: I’m really, really concerned that the Department of Justice named two R.T. connected Russians as part of a plot, an influence campaign on American soil with Tenant Media. We know Tenant Media paid Tim Pool, that’s all public. And Lauren Boebert was still on Tim Pool. I have never been on any show with anybody ever connected to anybody on R.T., I could tell you that much. I think that supporting Ukraine is critical. It is critical to democracy. It is critical to the ideals of democracy and what America stands for. I absolutely support Ukraine, and I think it is very, very terrifying that Lauren Boebert has not. And she’s helping Russia more than she’s helped America. Let me put it that way.

General Questions: 

CTR: You are currently running to represent Colorado’s 4th Congressional District which covers the Eastern half of the state. The 4th is also the most conservative district in the state with a partisan lean of 13 percent. So what made you want to run for this office considering how much of an uphill battle this will be for someone of your political leanings?

Trisha Calvarese: I reject the premise. My political leanings are aligned with the hard-working people of Colorado’s 4th Congressional District. I’m an old-school, labor Democrat who believes farmers and ranchers are vital to national and economic security. I was raised by conservatives who taught me traditional family values like the dignity of work, to honor those who serve, and to always respect our elders. 

Last fall, mom called to tell me she had terminal pancreatic cancer. She’d been caring for my dad, who had been battling kidney cancer. With both parents facing terminal illnesses, I returned home to Highlands Ranch to provide end-of-life care for both my parents. 

My dad’s union pension covered his treatment. Medicare provided the end-of-life care they needed in the comfort of home and gave us precious time together. Thanks to my own union, AFGE 3403, I was able to drop everything to be there for that final labor of love for my parents. I’m running for the care and dignity of all families and the economic opportunities currently missing in Colorado’s 4th. 

Before he died, Dad told me to run. That meant a lot, especially from a guy who voted Republican his entire life. Lauren Boebert voted against lowering prescription drug costs, including the ones that extended my dad’s life, and I can’t let that stand. 

Lauren Boebert’s extreme agenda and divisive rhetoric don’t reflect the values or the priorities of the hardworking people in this district. She has consistently voted to shut down the government, threatening economic damage, and yet, if re-elected, would be eligible to draw a pension funded by you and me. That’s why we’ve built so much momentum and it’s why polling shows we can win.

CTR: In your opinion, what is the most important issue to the people in your district in the 2024 election?

Trisha Calvarese: It’s the economy. That means addressing the costs of living, income opportunities, and access. In terms of costs, care remains high, if it’s accessible in the first place. In fact, many communities in our district are stranded in a care desert. My story begins with access to rural health care. My parents lived in Sterling, Colorado, where my dad was the City Attorney, and my mom was a childcare provider. My mom needed emergency surgery to remove an ectopic pregnancy. It saved her life and made mine possible the next year. We ultimately moved to be closer to care. 

We have a huge rural health care challenges. Too many people are struggling to get access to basic medical services, and costs are skyrocketing. I have seen these challenges firsthand. I’ve been out to Melissa Memorial Hospital in Holyoke. The farmers and ranchers out there needed access to care, so they built a hospital. But here’s the problem, people are calling 911 and getting turned away. They need another ambulance. That ambulance costs $300,000, and there’s funding for it. But Lauren Boebert isn’t showing up for these communities in our state. She’s not trying to address these challenges, instead, Lauren Boebert is focused on banning abortion, and she’s taken money from Big Pharma and then done their bidding, voting against efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. 

We need someone in Congress who will work for us, not for themselves. I’ll fight to increase funding so rural hospitals and clinics can provide essential services, and I’ll push for expanded telehealth options. 

CTR: If elected, are there any particular goals you would have for your time in office?

Trisha Calvarese: My goal is to strengthen America’s middle class with common-sense solutions to the challenges facing our district. I want to secure funding for rural healthcare, protect reproductive rights, and support our veterans. I’m also committed to lowering costs for families, whether it’s through affordable housing initiatives or making healthcare more accessible and affordable. We need paths to good family-supporting jobs that meet people where they are. My focus will be on delivering real results that improve the lives of everyone in our community, not on political grandstanding or partisan bickering.

CTR: Recently a short-term spending bill averted a partial government shutdown, but Americans have seen several showdowns that could have led to a government shutdown now. How can our congressional delegation work to push through partisan showdowns to ensure our federal government can continue to function?

Trisha Calvarese: Congress needs more leaders who are willing to put people over politics. A government showdown is a disservice to the American people. Boebert’s approach has been reckless and irresponsible—we need leaders who will focus on stability and results, not chaos.

Ballot Intiative Questions: 

In regards to the ballot initiatives, we were interested to see you weigh in on these issues. 

CTR: In regards to proposed Amendment 80, the constitutional right to school choice, where do you stand on its definition of school choice? More broadly how do you interpret the amendment and what it would mean for Coloradans?

Trisha Calvarese: I’m a graduate of Douglas County Public Schools, and I’m concerned that Amendment 80 could undermine our public schools, especially in rural areas where resources are already stretched thin. I think families should have options for where their kids go to school, but I believe public dollars belong in the neighborhoods and community schools. We need to ensure that every child has access to a quality education, regardless of where they live or their family’s income. This amendment risks widening the gap between well-funded schools and those struggling to provide basic services, and I can’t support that.

CTR: On Amendment 79, how do you feel about enshrining a right to abortion into Colorado’s constitution, as well as if you were elected what actions would you take on the matter at a national level?

Trisha Calvarese: I am proud to be endorsed by COBALT and I fully support Amendment 79. Every woman should have the right to make her own healthcare decisions, free from government interference. This issue is personal to me—my mom had an ectopic pregnancy when I was a child, and without access to safe, legal abortion care, her life would have been at risk. Extremists like Lauren Boebert want to take away the ability of doctors to provide lifesaving care in situations like that. At the national level, I would fight to codify Roe v. Wade into law to protect reproductive rights for all Americans. It’s about ensuring that every person has the freedom to make the decisions that are right for them and their families. We can’t let politicians play politics with women’s health and lives.

CTR: The first bill your opponent introduced during her time in the 118th Congress was to prohibit federal taxpayer dollars from going to Planned Parenthood. Where do you stand on the federal government providing funding to organizations like Planned Parenthood?

Trisha Calvarese: I strongly support federal funding for healthcare organizations that provide essential healthcare services like cancer screenings, birth control, and STD testing that many in our community rely on, especially in rural areas where healthcare options are limited. Lauren Boebert’s attacks on Planned Parenthood are just another example of her extreme, out-of-touch agenda that does nothing to help the people in our district. I’ll fight to ensure that everyone has access to the healthcare they need, without political interference.

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Colorado’s 4th congressional district spans the eastern half of the state, including Douglas County and Loveland. The district has the most conservative lean in the Colorado delegation. The district was formerly represented by Ken Buck who resigned in March and is now represented by the former mayor of Parker, Greg Lopez. In November, Trisha Calvarese (D-Highlands Ranch) will face off against Lauren Boebert (R-Windsor), who has represented Colorado’s 3rd district on the Western Slope since she unseat Scott Tipton in 2020. The Boebert campaign has not responded to Colorado Times Recorder’s interview request.