On a Friday night at an Aurora shopping center, an adult day care center had been transformed into a temporary venue to train the next generation’s political hopefuls.
Around 40 people queued up to serve themselves helpings of Sudanese bread, lentil stew and beef samosas before taking their seats in front of their respective paper nameplates. Attendees wore suit jackets and button-down shirts, hijabs and keffiyehs, a type of Middle Eastern headdress.
They gathered to harness their experiences as immigrants and people of color, hone their political ambitions and consider vying for votes in future Colorado elections.
The training session was hosted by New American Leaders, a nonpartisan, national nonprofit focused on helping first- and second-generation immigrants — what it calls “new Americans” — run for political office. It’s part of a growing trend to incorporate more diverse perspectives into politics nationwide, shaping policies and advocating for communities.
The movement is seeing success in Colorado, with 13 of 22 new American candidates winning election last year. That included eight Democrats and three Republicans running for the state House of Representatives from countries as far away as Iran, Italy and the Palestinian territories.
Four candidates — two Democrats and two Republicans — also ran for the state Senate, with one from each party winning their primary races. One Democrat, Israeli-born Dafna Michaelson Jenet, won the general election.
And one of six new American candidates for Congress in Colorado — U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Lafayette, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Eritrea — won their elections, according to data from New American Leaders.
State Reps. Lorena García, D-Westminster, Ryan Gonzalez, R-Greeley, Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs, and Naquetta Ricks, D-Aurora, are among the first- or second-generation Americans elected or re-elected last year who are now serving at the Colorado State Capitol.
However, Colorado doesn’t rank among the top-performing states for new American candidates, said Shana Hardin, the organization’s director of research and data.
“There is a gap between the population in Colorado of naturalized citizens compared to their representation within (the) Colorado state legislature,” she said.
Last year, new American candidates ran for Congress in 37 states, with around 65% of first- and second-generation immigrants winning their state legislative races, according to findings by New American Leaders. The organization reports that, of those candidates, women won at a higher rate than men in the general election, at almost 57%.
“We’re seeing a lot of new Americans running for office, especially at the state legislative level,” Hardin said. “We know that state (legislature) usually works as a pipeline to other offices.”
In order to serve as president or in the U.S. Congress, candidates must be citizens. The same is true for roles at the state level in Colorado, including governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and state representative and senator.
Rep. Elizabeth Velasco speaks during a press conference at the Colorado Capitol building in Denver on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)‘Never thought I would be in politics’
Several current lawmakers utilized their training from New American Leaders to run their campaigns and, ultimately, win.
Velasco is the first Mexican-born legislator in Colorado. She’s currently serving her second term.
Born in Guanajuato next to a plastic factory, Velasco moved to the Vail area when she was 14. She recalls living in mobile home parks and earning money in the service industry to support her family.
“I grew up very poor in Mexico and had to make ends meet and help my family when we were here in the U.S.,” the Democrat representing Glenwood Springs said. “Never thought I would be in politics.”
During the pandemic, Velasco was part of a team providing language interpretation services at hospitals in the Roaring Fork Valley. Because they were considered contractors, Velasco said they weren’t provided with personal protective equipment, and she had to fight for their vaccine eligibility.
At the same time, Velasco noticed that the Latino community — which accounts for 30% of Garfield County’s population — made up the majority of the county’s COVID cases, at around 70%, she said.
“I just continued to see all these gaps and felt the urgency to run,” she said. “The local elected (officials) were not doing enough, and I felt like they’re going to let us die.”
Velasco listed several issues that are important to her: water quality in mobile home parks, language access in emergency alerts, protecting the environment, upholding constitutional rights for immigrants and boosting community resilience from climate change.
Statewide, voters “can relate to a lot of the experiences of new Americans: like, working really hard to make ends meet, caring for families, supporting community,” Velasco said. “Those are universal values of Colorado.”
Across the aisle in the Republican Party, Gonzalez is the son of Mexican immigrants. His mother, a permanent resident, hails from Guanajuato, and his father — now a U.S. citizen — is from Tijuana.
“I’m very proud of my heritage,” said Gonzalez, who now represents Greeley in the state House. “My parents came here for a better opportunity.”
Raised in the trailer parks of Fort Morgan, Gonzalez said he was the first in his family to graduate from high school and earn a college degree.
He was drawn into politics, identifying with Libertarian policies from early on. When Donald Trump was first elected, Gonzalez said, the president’s politics defied the status quo, which inspired him.
In the statehouse, he’s focused on addressing taxes, crime, education, energy, cost of living and the economy.
Gonzalez said he doesn’t like to play identity politics, though he’s faced flak for being a young politician and for being a Latino in the Republican Party.
“On the GOP side, there’s not a lot of diverse and proper reflection of representation of the people in Colorado, in my community,” he said. However, “I think the Republican Party is, in fact, a big tent party — we just don’t make a big deal about it.”
On Ricks’ end, she uses her platform as a Democratic lawmaker representing Aurora to advocate for education, economic equity, immigration, small businesses and consumer protections.
It took Ricks a few tries to secure her role as an elected official. After taking part in political training in 2013, she ran for the University of Colorado Board of Regents the following year and lost the race. Then, in 2017, Ricks placed third in her bid for the Aurora City Council.
Still, she said Trump’s rhetoric about migrants pushed her to keep trying.
“There were underserved voices that were not being heard,” Ricks said.
She won her seat in the statehouse in 2020.
Ricks migrated from Liberia after a bloody military coup took place in 1980. Her mother’s fiancé worked in the country’s government, and soldiers came to their home to find him, Ricks said. They interrogated her mother for hours at gunpoint, she said.
Once the militants located him, he was dragged out and later shot by a firing squad, Ricks said. She was 13 at the time.
Ricks and her mother fled to Chicago, then resettled in Colorado. She grew up in Aurora. There, Ricks said, at least one in every five people is either a first- or second-generation American.
“We have to show the value that immigrants bring to Colorado,” Ricks said.
First and second-generation Americans participate in a New American Leaders political training session at 2nd Home Community in Aurora on Friday, March 7, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)Aspiring politicians and community activists
Jessica Delos Reyes, the communications director for New American Leaders, watched over attendees at the Aurora training session in March.
It was the nonprofit’s Ready to Lead program for the Southwest region, which educates immigrants, along with Black, Indigenous and other marginalized people, on how to utilize their unique experiences in civic leadership.
“It’s really to get people in the door and finding their leadership strength in their stories and their lived experiences,” Delos Reyes said.
Micaela Parker, 27, was among those present at the training program. She is already rising through the ranks of Denver’s political scene.
She serves as a senior adviser to Colorado Senate President James Coleman after working as his senior legislative aide. In February, Parker was also elected to fill the role of secretary for the Democratic Party of Denver.
“It’s important that it’s young and Black and Brown leaders leading us, especially in Denver,” said Parker, who identifies as Black and Afro-Latina.
She aspires to one day run for office in Denver.
Ana Barraza, 34, is an aspiring immigration attorney with her eye on future political endeavors.
She first moved to the U.S. from a rural community in Sonora, Mexico, in 2008. As Barraza’s family tried to adjust to a new country and learn English, “we faced discrimination, poverty and injustice,” she said. “But (my father) decided to have a better future for us.”
Barraza has worked as a migrant recruiter and advocate at the Colorado Department of Education’s Migrant Education Program, which serves immigrant children and their families, and as a newcomers coordinator at Denver’s Department of Housing Stability. Motivated by policy issues like immigration and health, Barraza — a Democrat — hopes to support migrants and the broader community in Denver through politics.
In the state legislature, “we can create those opportunities for the success of a lot of the immigrants,” she said. That’s why she wants to run for the state House in 2026.
However, not everyone at the New American Leaders training program was set on joining the ranks of elected officials. Instead, Rokhiya Ngom, 25, feels called to advocacy work and wants to serve as a liaison between her community and politicians.
Ngom considers herself politically unaffiliated. She voted for a third-party candidate in the November election.
“But I definitely want people who look like me to run,” she said.
Reham Abdunabi, left, participates in a New American Leaders political training session at 2nd Home Community in Aurora on Friday, March 7, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)Related Articles
El Paso, Weld counties — along with Aurora — are removed from DHS’s list of immigration ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ Kristi Noem said an immigrant threatened to kill Trump. The story quickly fell apart Feds detain immigrant family at Denver courthouse amid new Trump strategy Leadership shakeups at agency tasked with carrying out Trump’s mass deportations agenda Supreme Court lets Trump strip legal protections from 500,000 people, exposing more to deportationBorn in the U.S., Ngom — who is half-Moroccan and half-Senegalese — grew up in Morocco. Her family eventually moved to New York City. There, she learned about the country’s historic periods of slavery and apartheid, Ngom said. It helped spur her current mission to fight oppression in the U.S. and abroad.
About two years ago, Ngom decided to move to Denver because of its liberal leanings and its mountains — just like her North African homeland.
Locally, she’s focused on issues including community safety from police violence, homelessness, climate change, affordability and food access. Ngom said New American Leaders provided her with more tools to serve as an advocate.
“To me, what matters to community is community,” Ngom said.
Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( ‘New Americans’ are winning elections in Colorado. Other immigrants want to follow suit. )
Also on site :