Interview with Savannah Wolfson

RBC | As a mother of two, Savannah Wolfson’s love for her family clearly motivates her desire to serve constituents of Colorado’s 26th House District (formerly HD57). She is running against Republican opponent Glenn Lowe in this month’s primary election on June 28.

Wolfson and her family moved to Colorado in 2016 following what she describes as “a difficult time” in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“There was a lot of crime, we were actually robbed after we tucked in our kids at night, and had an invasion, and we actually saw the robbers, and had no way to defend ourselves,” explained Wolfson. That event, along with others while living in Milwaukee motivated a political and geographical shift for Wolfson.

“I started looking into a firearm because it took the police five hours to show up,” she said, attributing the slow police response to them being “defunded.” Ultimately the experience led her to look into owning firearms for the first time, which is when she also became disillusioned with the Democratic party because they “did not want me to have the best tools on the market to defend myself and my children.”

In 2016, Wolfson and her family moved to Oak Creek, Colorado, in Routt County. She said they wanted a place where they could be “in touch with nature and God.”

SCHOOL CHOICE & EDUCATION

Wolfson started looking into charter schools due to poor performance of available public schools while living in Wisconsin, another issue in which she said she faced opposition from the Democratic party. She also homeschools one of her kids, meaning her advocacy for school choice is doubly motivated by personal experience and desire to do what’s best for her children. “I focus on this issue of school choice because as a parent, I know that my two kiddos are different, and that every child is different and has different needs, so one school is not one size fits all for every family and every child,” said Wolfson, adding, “What I am advocating for is the parents to have total control over their kids’ education.”

She also points to the issue of teacher recruitment/retainment as an education-related issue she wants to address, primarily by increasing teacher pay. Wolfson says the increase could, and should, be done without increasing taxes, and instead restructuring existing school district budgets to pay Colorado teachers better.

AFFORDABILITY

Wolfson said one of the things that motivated her to get into the race was finding out that her representative voted for a gas tax increase that was being used in part to fund green energy projects. “That to me felt like we are picking new paint colors for the dining room while the roof is caving in on a lot of families,” she said, noting, “I am the only candidate in this race who has taken a public pledge not to raise taxes and fees, and uphold the taxpayers’ bill of rights.”

Wolfson believes strengthening TABOR could also improve affordability.

In regards to housing costs and shortage of available housing, Wolfson believes that “the private market can’t take care of this efficiently on its own,” due to building restrictions. She also criticized the idea of use tax dollars to build affordable housing. “For me the issue is government intervention that has restricted the private market from taking care of this problem.”

CRIME & SAFETY

Staying on a theme of allowing people to “solve their own problems” without the government, Wolfson discussed ways to address what she feels are rising crime levels in the state. “We are soft on crime here,” she said, describing the experience of a friend who had been a domestic violence victim, and later needed a firearm for protection. In the same vein Wolfson criticized the use of personal recognisance bonds, and “letting people out over and over.”

RURAL ISSUES

“I think a lot of people up here think the Front Range is controlling our politics and our way of life,” said Wolfson, noting that she chose not to move to a suburb for a reason, preferring the “agricultural lifestyle.” Criticisms of “people on the I-25 corridor” levied by Wolfson ranged from wolf reintroduction to meat boycotts to energy jobs and hostility toward agriculture.

“I want to be the person in the room who is the voice for the families who actually live here, and when someone has a ridiculous suggestion I wanna be the one who pipes up and says ‘as someone who has spent a lot of time on ranches, this is how your suggestion would impact the rancher on the ground.”