“I commit to you that I will show up, listen to you, and fight every day for you, our kids and our future.”

Carbondale attorney Karl Hanlon, running as a Democrat for the 3rd Congressional District, has spent a three-day tour of the district focusing on his rural roots and the issues impacting the rural communities he wants to represent. The 3rd congressional district seat in Colorado is currently held by congressman Scott Tipton. In 2011 Tipton defeated three-term democratic representative John Salazar, and has been re elected all terms since. Tipton’s political campaigns have appealed directly to the rural folk in the 3rd district that identify as republican voters. Considering Colorado demographics and psychographics, the 3rd district is made up by a majority of ranch owners of social conservative beliefs, with the exception of the overridingly liberal Pitkin County. These circumstances have made it difficult for a democratic candidate to get elected in the 3rd district.

Karl Hanlon grew up on a family cattle ranch in Jackson County, Colorado. He continued to study water law on the western slope at university and law school. He is committed to preserving Colorado for what makes it great. Hanlon has a strong stance on justice for people in rural communities that suffer from insufficient health care, and has recognized a lack of leadership in congress defending the decreasing quality of healthcare in certain parts of the 3rd district, and throughout the entire country. He also acknowledged in his campaign thus far that Colorado’s economy depends on maintaining public lands, rather than extractive industries.