| My name is Mike Weissman and I'm a resident of Aurora. I was elected to represent House District 36 in November, 2016 and re-elected in November, 2018 and 2020 and am currently serving my 3rd term as our state representative. It has been a great honor to go to work for the people of our district these past three years.
I am proud to call Aurora my home because as Colorado's most diverse city, Aurora reflects America as a whole. And I love living in Colorado because our state's combination of outdoor beauty and cultural vibrancy is unmatched by any other. Like many Coloradans, I love spending time outside- working in the garden, running, hiking a new trail or mountain, or riding a bike along Arapahoe County's trails and paths.
Three of my four grandparents were first-generation Americans. Their parents came to the United States to escape poverty and lack of opportunity. My father's father put himself through college and then through medical school. My mother's father entered the workforce to help support his family before finishing high school. But they both worked hard to create opportunity for their children - my parents.
Their story reflects the basic promise of the American Dream - that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can get ahead.
I am honored to serve in the Colorado House of Representatives to help keep that promise as vital for current and future generations as it was for my parents and grandparents.
Public service and community involvement are values I learned from my parents and grandparents at an early age. My grandmother was a tireless advocate for senior citizens in the small town where she lived. My mother volunteered for years in the public school district where I grew up. My father and both grandfathers served in the U.S. Army.
I studied economics because economics is where hard reality meets values to inform many of the important decisions that inform how our society works. Later in life I went back to school to study law because law is the language in which our public policy is written. To me, both economics and law are tools to advocate for broader opportunity.
I've worked in technology, helping small organizations achieve their goals with a minimum of complexity and expense. I've worked to protect our public lands and to keep our air and water clean and safe. I've worked to protect rights of all citizens to exercise their fundamental right to vote.
As a volunteer on Arapahoe County's Citizen Budget Committee, I gained an appreciation of the challenges of delivering basic services people expect - like public safety and job training - with limited funds.
Over the past 15 years, I have watched Aurora make great progress, like the development of the University of Colorado Health Sciences campus along Colfax, the revitalization of businesses along Havana, and the opening of the RTD A and R lines. I've also seen our community face some tough challenges, like the foreclosure crisis that hit Aurora harder than most other cities and the rapid increase in the cost of housing and the cost of living in recent years.
I strive to put these experiences to work as your state representative for District 36. |