First things first: I didn’t come to Colorado to run for office. I moved here at the age of seven because my parents decided to pack our life into the back of our car, and relocate us from New Mexico to the Denver area. My loud, working class, politically active family wasted no time setting down roots. In our house, involvement in local politics was the family sport, and attending town halls, rallies, city meetings, and canvassing events showed me that working class families like mine deserve to have a seat at the table.

Like so many people in Denver, I know that climbing the professional ladder isn’t easy. I started out my professional career as a fry cook, and then found myself working as a mail clerk at a large insurance company. Years of hard work and plenty of patience took me from the file room to a senior position within the firm. After my time in insurance, I took over business operations at Independence House, the re-entry organization my father started to help people positively rebuild their lives after incarceration. Along the way, I met my beautiful wife Deidre and settled down in Virginia Village, where we have lived for the last three decades with our two dogs and two cats. Our crew of pets have made sure to express their strong opinion on all things birds, squirrels and mail carriers, but haven’t indicated any strong feelings on zoning or bike lanes (yet)!

Though my family introduced me to local politics at a young age, my career as an elected official didn’t begin until 2018 when South Denver voted to send me to the Colorado Senate. As a lawmaker, I have written and passed bills into law that protect regular people from corporate greed. As the Chair of the Business, Labor and Technology Committee, I spent years putting tech giants, small business owners and labor union representatives in the same room to find the common sense solutions Coloradans deserve. As Senate Majority Leader, I focused on uniting our caucus of 23 diverse Democratic senators to lead our state forward. Regardless of my leadership role or title, my work often put me at the table between people who agree on almost nothing - except that they wanted to be heard before the rules were written. That is the skill I have built: not shouting louder or steamrolling, but identifying the common ground and finding a path forward between those who are on opposite sides of an issue.

I am not running to represent District 6 because I am looking for a loud microphone and an audience. I am running because Denver deserves a councilmember who shows up to the job like a good neighbor - consensus building, solutions oriented, honest, and tough enough to stay in the fight even after the easy applause lines have run out.

I can’t promise to fix things overnight. But as your councilor, I can promise that my office will be there when your street floods, when your small business needs a hand, or when city hall feels like a maze without a map. I can promise that I will fight for housing you can actually afford, streets that are safer, jobs with paychecks that help you pay for the things you need, and a local government that is honest and accountable to you. As your councilor, you can count on me to show up, listen, and do the work - the same way I have since working the file room.

Robert Rodriguez

Candidate for Denver City Council District 6