Candidate Interview: Phil Weiser — CO Governor

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• Transcript

  Hi, my name is Phil Weiser. I’m running to be Colorado’s next governor. I am currently serving as Attorney General, where, as an elected public servant, I’ve been able to serve Colorado, addressing a range of critical issues from the youth mental health crisis and the opioid addiction crisis to how we protect our water and public safety. As governor, I’ll be able to bring these experiences, take on the challenges that Coloradans are facing with affordability. So many people feeling squeezed, whether housing, healthcare, child care. Build a better future for our kids, including how do we improve our public education system? And how do we build an economy that works for everybody, where people can build thriving businesses and build a better future? The three points I just mentioned addressing affordability challenge on housing, on healthcare is something I will lean into. We’ve got extensive plans at philforcolorado.com in my Colorado Blueprint that talks about how I would do that. Secondly, our kids are suffering right now. A lot of kids are not set up to be successful. We can do a lot better starting from early childhood all the way to career skills. We can, and with my leadership, we will build a better future for our kids. And finally, I’ve been a leader in our business community founding organizations like Startup Colorado, the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network. I’m going to take that leadership, take that support, and help us build an environment where people can build thriving businesses here. We are not building enough starter homes because currently the permitting fees for starter homes are as high as they are for mansions. We got to change that, making it cheaper and easier to build the starter homes we need. I will spearhead that effort when I’m Colorado’s governor. Colorado has failed to take action on social media companies who are acting in ways that harm our kids. We have literally had legislation vetoed that would address some of how the social media companies have acted in harmful ways. I’ll make sure we change our policy and we hold social media companies to account. As for defending Colorado policies, I’m going to defend Colorado’s right to our sovereignty and our mail-in elections. And I’m not going to allow a lawless and bullying administration to change how we conduct elections, which is a model for the United States. As Attorney General, one of the efforts I’ve led on is how I can change our law enforcement curriculum to have more of an emphasis on emotional awareness and emotional intelligence, and also to be more active learning as opposed to just learning in a classroom. What I did initially was set up that reform or that change effort within the existing infrastructure, with the existing team that oversees curriculum. That was a mistake. I’ve now remedied that by creating a new division to create the new curriculum, not to have it created within the old division. Coloradans need to change how we approach water. Water needs to be treated like a precious commodity, and it’s going to require changes from all of us. Some of these won’t be popular, but it’s necessary. I will lead on this change on how we manage water as Governor, bringing people together to find better solutions, including how we can conserve water, how we reuse water, and how we store it. Watching the Denver Nuggets.