Early Bird

Highlights from U.S. Senate candidate fireside chats 

Stephany Rose Spaulding and Michelle Ferrigno Warren lay out policy priorities.

By Matt Watson

January 30, 2020

The U.S. Senate candidate fireside chats at Metropolitan State University of Denver continued this week with Stephany Rose Spaulding and Michelle Ferrigno Warren visiting Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

Faculty Senate President Katia Campbell and student Nancy Esquivel hosted the chat with Spaulding, a Colorado Springs Democrat who teaches at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Spaulding expressed her support for access to affordable education, food and health care as well as clean energy. She said equity should drive legislation and that policy shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all, pointing out that it wouldn’t do much good to give all the attendees a pair of 7-inch stiletto heels.

“If we walk in the room and give everybody the same thing, it doesn’t mean that changes their reality, their access to resources or their ability to move about in society. Equity is: I walk in the room, I ask you what you need and then provide the kind of shoes that you might need,” she said.

Watch Spaulding’s fireside chat.

Michelle Ferrigno Warren, a Denver Democrat and nonprofit leader, shared with Campbell and student Derek Brekken that her top priorities in order are immigration reform, climate change and equity in health care, education and affordable housing. She says it takes everyone working together to solve those issues.

“I’m an idealist. I actually believe that we can move good public policy forward if we create a big enough table where everyone’s voice is invited and we can shape what we want to see happen together,” she said. “If we’re going to face the 21^st-century challenges that we have … we can’t go it alone. We are going to have to put leaders in place that know how to build bridges with people who do not look like them and don’t think like them.”

Watch Warren’s fireside chat and check out the upcoming dates in the series below:

Upcoming dates in this series:
Trish Zornio | Feb. 11, 2-3:30 p.m. | RSVP here
Andrew Romanoff | Feb. 17, 1-2 p.m. | RSVP here
Lorena Garcia | Feb. 24, 2-3 p.m. | RSVP here
Diana Bray | Feb. 25, 1:30-2:30 p.m. | RSVP here