We are continuing our profiles of progressive candidates running for office this year, hoping to bring change to their communities and move their districts, states, and country forward with progressive policies that benefit the many, not the few.

Today we are profiling Kyra deGruy Kennedy (she/hers), a bisexual millennial community organizer, running for the Colorado House of Representatives. Kyra currently works as a business and political consultant, advising a wide range of organizations. As a former healthcare worker, Kyra has influenced a number of legislative efforts in Colorado pertaining to healthcare, and is most passionate about enacting single-payer healthcare, ensuring that healthcare be treated as a basic human right and not a system that profits off the ill health of patients, including mental health, reproductive health (including legalized abortion), and lower prescription drug costs. Kyra also supports transitioning away from fossil fuels (including in vehicles), reducing access to firearms, and protecting labor, worker, immigrant, tenant, and democratic rights.

© Kyra deGruy Kennedy for State Representative

Where are you based?
I live in Lakewood, which is just west of Denver on the way to the mountains, with my husband and our toddler, Lennon. We really love it here. We’ve built a little suburban farm with goats, chickens, dogs, cats, and gardens where I grow vegetables and fruit, and it only takes about 10-15 minutes to get to downtown Denver or any number of great hiking trails and open spaces. We’re also right off Colfax, so we’re a part of the West Colfax Art District/40 West Arts (which if you haven’t checked out, you should!) and live right on the light rail line, so the community we’re a part of is really special.

What position are you running for?
I’m running for the Colorado State House in District 30, which includes the city of Edgewater and all of East Lakewood to the border of Denver.

How would you briefly summarize your platform?
My platform is all about building a Colorado where every person, regardless of relative privilege, has the opportunity to live their definition of thriving. I’ve spent a lot of years working on anti-poverty policy and programs, and the more I’ve dug into the interventions that have positive outcomes, the more I’ve realized that we need policymakers who truly understand how to build effective complex adaptive systems. So much of what policymakers do is run one-off programs attempting to address a current acute need, (which, of course, is important) without seeing the full picture of the person whose need we’re trying to meet, or the full picture of the problem we’re trying to solve for. So, like I’ve been doing for the past decade as a policy leader on the advocacy side, I plan to keep taking on the big fights, like protecting abortion access and the planet from climate change, while at the same time, actively building new systems that are rooted in equity.

What inspired you to run?
When I was a kid, I was the victim of sexual violence and spent many years navigating PTSD, attempted suicides, substance use, and homelessness. Due in large part to those struggles, I’ve had extensive first-hand experience into many of the systems that only effectively serve the most privileged of us. Since getting my life together, thanks to my amazing family and community, I’ve dedicated my life and career to building new systems, with equity in the center. Prior to my current role as the Executive Director of Co-Thrive (formerly the Collaborative Community Response Initiative), I was directing the work of a policy and advocacy nonprofit that trained, and passed policies to improve the lives of young adults furthest from power, privilege, and economic opportunities. On the days where I felt overwhelmed with the collective grief and deep fatigue that are so frequently associated with politics right now, these young people gave me life. Helping them find their voices and use the power of their lived experience to change policies that affected millions of Coloradans built a reserve of hope inside of me. Things are objectively dark right now, which some would argue is a reason to not run for office, but for me, it’s exactly why we need people who have open hearts, strong principles, and deep experience in how to actually make progress for the people of our state running for office.

What change are you hoping to bring to your district and country?
Democracy, like so many things right now, is fragile. People are struggling to even pay attention to what’s happening in the world and in our community because our problems are compounding, and the solutions feel either inadequate or out of reach for the average human. And yet. What I see over and over and over again is the incredible resilience, beauty, and strength that comes with building community around a shared mission. My hope for our country is that we collectively choose to pay attention, and that we do the hard work of softening our defensiveness and our polarization. That we choose the shared mission of protecting and strengthening what is left of our democracy, so that we actually have a structure that enables us to keep fighting for progress. A democracy in which the people are not engaged is not a democracy. And in order to address any of the major issues we’re currently facing, we desperately need one. In my district, like in so many across Colorado, folks are struggling to afford their basic needs including housing, healthcare, food, and childcare. Too many of us are affected by gun violence. Our climate catastrophe is creating more disasters while some corporations continue to destroy our land, air, and water. In my primary, I’m up against an opponent supported by oil and gas, polluters in our community, big pharma and corporate PACs. So, in addition to policy experience, lived experience, and a willingness to do the hard work of building community, I hope to share power with the people of this district. To stay in the fight for everyday working people, people furthest from power, people struggling to get by, and to show the folks who want to buy this election that together, we are stronger than them. We just have to come together.

What do you consider to be your major accomplishments so far?
I’ve been working in policy change for over a decade as a policy nonprofit leader and activist, and I’ve worked on the passage of over 50 bills that have become state law. I’ve had the privilege of working on the bill that codified the right to abortion in our state, bills that have protected our community from gun violence, bills creating more access and affordability to physical and mental healthcare, bills and ballot initiatives that have funded our k-12 and higher education systems, bills that started the process of moving from a criminal penalty system to a criminal justice system, bills that have funded affordable housing and basic needs for folks who are struggling, and bills that have protected our climate. I can’t wait to see how much more we can do for the people of Colorado.

What do you feel are the most important issues right now, why, and how do you plan to tackle them?
As I mentioned earlier, many of the issues my district is facing (housing, economic mobility, workforce shortages, gun violence, mental health struggles, etc.) are mirrored across the state. The organization I currently run is working with communities across Colorado that are all serving very different populations and are in very different parts of the state. We have rural, frontier, suburban, and urban communities, and although a handful of the issues we hear from communities are specific to geography, most of the problems folks are facing are universal. What we’re doing on the ground in our communities, (including right here in my district working with the Jeffco Action Center) is flipping the traditional models of care on their heads. We’re putting the person in the center, with a culturally competent Companion/Coach and helping them identify what thriving means to them. The Companion works for what we’re calling a Commons, rather than working for an insurance company, a clinic, or an organization. The Commons is a formalized collaborative between community-based leadership and organizations, primary care, mental & behavioral healthcare, public health, and all the social services the population (and more importantly, the person) needs to thrive. What we’re seeing over and over again is that when the right supports are in place, the organizations aiming to serve people are collaborating rather than competing, and the silos between spheres are bridged, people are getting healthier, happier, and we’re saving taxpayer money by investing upstream. My hope is that I’ll win my election and be in the position to make person-centered policy be the norm, so that before a person gets evicted, we have structures in place that catch them, resource them, keep them housed and help them flourish.

America is extremely divided these days. How would you hope to bridge that divide with your constituents to better unite Americans?
I’m a bit of a unicorn in the progressive political space because I grew up in the Bible Belt in Alabama, so I’m related to, friends with, and love a number of Republicans. I think the key for bridging division right now has a lot to do with working on ourselves. I once had a therapist who taught me that every time I feel triggered by something or someone, that feeling is pointing me to something inside of me that needs to heal, not something inside of them that needs to change. This is easier said than done, but when I’ve heeded that wisdom, I’ve been able to see the inner goodness that I believe is in all of us (even if it’s well hidden), and it helps me remember our shared humanness, even if our opinions are diametrically opposed. I think what’s made me effective at policy work is a willingness to listen deeply, and work on myself when I feel dismissive, reactive, or like I have all the answers. I’ve seen the power of leading this way, and the beauty that comes from the willingness to have tough conversations, and I think my constituents are more than capable of walking shoulder to shoulder with me in this work.

How do you see your unique identity and background to be an asset to you in office?
I think people who have lived experience like mine, and like so many others who have struggled, are exactly the people who should be changing policies to make life better for folks. Exposure to and understanding of what is broken is a very important part of fixing something, and it’s something we, as humans, don’t often spend enough time on. We too quickly diagnose the problem and then find ourselves solving for the wrong thing.
I’ve also been doing this work for a long time with the mindset of failing forward. I previously mentioned I’ve worked on the passage of over 50 bills that have become law, but I’ve also worked on a heck of a lot of bills that have failed. And every time we lose, I learn. So, I’ve done a lot of learning, and I get more effective every time. I’ve built the trust, relationships, and emotional stamina that usually takes a few years to build, so I’ll know what to do on day one.

What is your motto in life?
I have a practice that I learned from my dad where I capture the wisdom I hear in my daily life in what he’s coined “Rules of the Road”. We now both have these compendiums of little bits of wisdom, and depending on what’s happening in my life, the ones that resonate change. Right now, as the primary breadwinner for my family, mom to a wild and wonderful toddler, and running a very competitive primary campaign, I have three sticky notes stuck to my computer:

“Resistance takes 70% of your energy. Take it back” — Kia Miller (my yoga teacher)

“You have to protect your mind from negativity. It corrodes your sense of self and your trust in life.” — Kia Miller

“You gotta raise the money to win. The world is generous. Ask for what you need.” — this one is me, trying to talk myself into doing fundraising call time in between work meetings.

Where can we find out more about you?
My website is https://www.kyraforcolorado.com/
My candidate facebook is https://www.facebook.com/kyraforcolorado
My candidate Instagram is https://www.instagram.com/kyraforcolorado/
And you can email me at kyra@kyraforcolorado.com

Our Favorite Progressive Candidates in 2024 - Kyra deGruy Kennedy, Colorado House of Representatives, District 30