Justin Kurth is a Marine Corps veteran, a former 911 dispatcher, and a public servant who has built his career around showing up when people need help. He has spent his life answering when others called — first as a Marine, then as the voice on the other end of the line when Coloradans dialed 911, and most recently as the federal representative for communities across this region.

Justin was born in California and raised in Nebraska before his family moved to Colorado in 1994, when he was nine. He grew up in Colorado, graduated from high school here, and entered the Marine Corps Delayed Entry Program on August 24, 2001 — eighteen days before September 11. He served on active duty from 2002 to 2007 as an Air Command and Control Electronics Operator (MOS 7234), stationed at Twentynine Palms in California's Mojave Desert. There he ran Range Control — call sign BEARMAT — directing movement across a 932-square-mile training area and the R2501 restricted airspace, leading shift crews through unit transit, live-fire training, bombardment clearance, and MedEvac operations. He left the Corps as a Sergeant and continued his service with the Wyoming Air National Guard from 2007 to 2013, completing air traffic control training.

After the Marines, Justin joined the Colorado Springs Police Department, where he spent nine years as an emergency dispatcher and Communications Training Officer. He answered the worst phone calls of people's lives — the wrecks, the overdoses, the fires, the moments when families needed help and couldn't wait. That work shaped how he sees public service: show up, stay calm, and get the job done while the world is on fire.

Justin returned to school in 2022 to complete a Political Science degree at CSU Pueblo, where he was awarded the first of two fellowships in space policy. His Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress fellowship research on international space policy and anti-satellite weapons tests was published in the 2021–2022 Fellows Review.

Service to Colorado's 7th Congressional District

From January 2023 through April 2025, Justin served as Regional Director for U.S. Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen. He managed the aerospace and defense portfolio for the office — work that earned him a Congressional senior staff Space Force Fellowship and took him across the country to see the aerospace infrastructure being developed coast to coast. He also managed the U.S. Postal Service and ATF portfolios, helping constituents throughout the district navigate federal agency bureaucracy and saving postal customers thousands of dollars in fees.

On rural Colorado issues, Justin built stakeholder relationships with the Arkansas Basin Roundtable, the South Platte Basin Roundtable, and the regional water conservancy districts that protect the headwaters of the state. He also worked with Park and Teller county governments to align National Forest fire mitigation efforts during active wildfire response.

Across two appropriations cycles, Justin helped secure more than $69 million in federal funding for SD4 — including $50 million for the John Griffin Regional Reservoir in Cañon City, $5 million for Colorado's wildfire preparedness and FireGuard satellite-detection pilot, $4 million for Teller County wastewater expansion, $3 million for the Town of Alma's wastewater plant, $1 million for the Chaffee County Sheriff's Headquarters, plus FY24 appropriations supporting affordable housing, county road repair, rural workforce training, and water and sanitation infrastructure across Chaffee, Custer, Fremont, Lake, Park, and Teller counties.

Family

Justin met his wife in 1998 at YoungLife's Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista. They married in 2003 and moved to Twentynine Palms together when Justin reported to active duty. They have two adult children. PLACEHOLDER: Confirm whether Justin's wife and children would like to be named on the campaign website.

Justin settled his family in Fremont County in 2011, where he has lived and worked ever since. PLACEHOLDER: Confirm specific town in Fremont County.

Community Service

Justin is currently serving on the Royal Gorge Chamber Alliance Board, a role he began in January 2026. He most recently served as Chair of the Fremont County Democratic Party. PLACEHOLDER: Confirm Fremont County Democratic Party chair start and end dates.

Earlier civic involvement includes mentoring the campus Democratic Party organization at CSU Pueblo, canvassing for then-candidate State Senator Nick Hinrichsen, and completing two internships with Stand Up Republic — a cross-partisan organization focused on protecting democratic institutions.

Why Senate District 4

Justin's commitment to SD4 reflects something he saw in the Marines and on the dispatch floor — practical, hardworking people who are tired of being talked past. SD4 is the headwaters of Colorado, home to nine state correctional facilities, the Florence Veterans Community Living Center, and some of the most stunning country in America. It's also the part of the state most often forgotten when policy gets written on the Front Range.

Justin believes the district needs a senator who has lived these problems — and who will fight for the people here the same way he fought for callers on the worst day of their lives.

Justin's path to public service was forged in three demanding environments — and each one taught him something he will carry into the Senate.

The Senate does not need another politician learning the job on the taxpayer's dime. It needs someone who already knows how to serve.

Decisions about Senate District 4 are made every day by people who will never feel the consequences. Veterans at the Florence Veterans Community Living Center are watching federal reimbursements get cut while Washington argues. Working families in Cañon City and Salida are being priced out of homes their kids grew up in. Rural police, firefighters, dispatchers, and corrections officers are leaving SD4 for Front Range pay because the state refuses to close the gap. Ranchers and small farmers are being taxed off land they have worked for generations.

Meanwhile, the people Coloradans send to Denver too often seem more interested in scoring points against the other side than in actually delivering for the communities they represent.

Justin is running because rural Colorado is done being treated like a flyover. SD4 has power — economic, cultural, environmental — and that power deserves to be flexed in Denver, not left on the table.

In Justin's Words

"Our rural businesses and families are hurting, and it is chipping away at our communities. Yet, those we send to Denver are more interested in sticking it to their fellow Coloradan than helping them, just because of a political label. I'm tired of our rural communities' POWER being left on the table, treating it like a four-letter word."

"We need to see our RURAL POWER flexed in Denver — especially when it comes to protecting homes from wildfires, communities from crime, rural jobs from fleeing to the Front Range, our rivers from buy-and-dry practices, and our schools from closing."

A Record of Delivering for SD4

Justin's case for SD4 is not built on promises. It is built on a record of moving federal resources to the communities he now wants to represent in Denver. As Regional Director for Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen from January 2023 through April 2025, he managed the aerospace and defense portfolio, earned a Congressional senior staff Space Force Fellowship, and built stakeholder relationships with the Arkansas Basin and South Platte Basin Roundtables and regional water conservancy districts.

Across two appropriations cycles, Justin helped secure more than $69 million in federal funding for SD4 — including $50 million for the John Griffin Regional Reservoir in Cañon City, $5 million for Colorado's wildfire preparedness and FireGuard satellite-detection pilot, $4 million for Teller County wastewater expansion, $3 million for the Town of Alma's wastewater treatment plant, and $1 million for the Chaffee County Sheriff's Headquarters. He also worked the FY24 cycle to deliver appropriations across Chaffee, Custer, Fremont, Lake, Park, and Teller counties for affordable housing, county road repair, rural workforce training, and water and sanitation infrastructure.

Those wins were not partisan favors. They were rural infrastructure investments that protect water, fight wildfire, and support local law enforcement — exactly the kind of work the state legislature should be doing more of for SD4.

A Practical Agenda for a Real Place

This campaign is not built on slogans. It is built on a platform with five priorities and three additional planks, each one responding directly to what SD4 residents are facing right now. Justin will work with anyone who wants to make this district stronger. He will push back against anyone — Democrat, Republican, or independent — who wants to use SD4 as a bargaining chip.

The full platform covers everything from veterans care to aerospace — but three priorities drive this campaign because they affect SD4 every single day.

The Bottom Line

SD4 does not need another senator who will treat this district like a flyover seat between Front Range and Western Slope politics. It needs someone who has worn a Marine Corps uniform, picked up the phone at 2 a.m., and walked federal grants across the finish line for the towns out here.

Justin is running because that is the senator SD4 deserves. And it is the senator he is prepared to be.