Justin Kurth is a Marine veteran, former 911 dispatcher, and Democratic candidate for Colorado State Senate District 4. He served as a Sergeant (E-5) in the Marine Corps and spent nine years as a dispatcher and Communications Training Officer at the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Justin was born in California, raised in Nebraska and Colorado, and has lived in Colorado since 1994. He settled his family in Fremont County in 2011 and is married with two adult children.

Justin served on active duty in the Marine Corps from 2002 to 2007 as an Air Command and Control Electronics Operator at Twentynine Palms, leaving as a Sergeant. He continued his service with the Wyoming Air National Guard from 2007 to 2013, then spent nine years with the Colorado Springs Police Department as a dispatcher and Communications Training Officer.

Justin earned a Political Science degree from CSU Pueblo and holds two fellowships in space policy — a research fellowship through the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, and a Congressional senior staff Space Force Fellowship earned while serving as Regional Director for Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen from 2023 to 2025.

Justin is running for Colorado State Senate District 4. The district covers Fremont, Chaffee, Park, Teller, Lake, and Custer counties — a rural and mountain region that includes the headwaters of the Arkansas and South Platte rivers, the Florence Veterans Community Living Center, and nine state correctional facilities in Fremont County.

SD4 was redrawn after the 2020 census into its current rural and mountain configuration. The seat is currently held by a Republican incumbent up for re-election in 2026.

Decisions about Senate District 4 are too often made by people who will never feel the consequences. Justin has watched veterans get cut off from earned care, housing get priced beyond what working families can afford, and rural first responders forced into mandatory overtime.

Justin is running because SD4 needs a senator who has lived these problems — and who will fight to fix them with practical, not partisan, solutions.

Yes. Justin is the Democratic candidate for Colorado State Senate District 4. He believes Colorado's rural and mountain communities deserve a senator who shows up, listens, and delivers results.

Justin's approach is practical rather than partisan. He supports policies that work for SD4 regardless of which side proposed them, and he is willing to challenge any party — including his own — when politics gets in the way of what the district needs.

Justin believes Colorado must protect the Veterans Community Living Center in Florence and every facility that serves those who served. He supports statutory minimum staffing standards tied to resident acuity, plus a state funding backstop if federal reimbursements fall short.

He also supports academic partnerships with Pueblo Community College and CSU Pueblo to build a durable workforce pipeline for veterans care facilities across the region.

After nine years as a 911 dispatcher, Justin knows the staffing crisis firsthand. He supports a statewide rural compensation floor — state funding to close the pay gap that drives officers, firefighters, EMS, and dispatchers from SD4 to higher-paying Front Range departments.

Justin also supports redirecting Colorado Department of Corrections overtime spending toward sustainable baseline staffing, and a sustainability fund to address the rural fire district gap.

Colorado lost 11,700 jobs in 2025 — the first decline outside the pandemic since 2010. Justin's plan attacks the deficit through three reforms: reducing state regulatory burden on rural small businesses, workforce development tied to real SD4 employer demand, and state investment in last-mile broadband.

He believes rural Colorado cannot wait for Washington to solve a Colorado problem, and the state has the tools to act now.

Justin believes housing mandates without cost relief have priced working families out of SD4. Corrections officers, nurses, and teachers shouldn't have to commute from another county because Cañon City or Salida priced them out.

He supports a direct construction cost offset — rebate, tax credit, or low-interest loan — for working-class homebuyers and small rural builders, plus workforce housing tied to local hiring in healthcare, corrections, and education.

Senate District 4 is the headwaters of Colorado — the Arkansas River starts in Lake County, and the South Platte runs through Park County. Justin will defend SD4's water from buy-and-dry schemes by Front Range cities, building on the stakeholder relationships he established with the Arkansas Basin Roundtable, the South Platte Basin Roundtable, and the regional water conservancy districts during his time at Congresswoman Pettersen's office.

He supports federal authorization for the Wild Horse Reservoir in Park County and helped secure $50 million for the John Griffin Regional Reservoir in Cañon City as Pettersen's Regional Director.

Long-time ranching and farming families shouldn't be taxed off the land they've worked for generations because urban buyers discovered their county. Statewide rate reductions don't fix resort-inflated valuations.

Justin supports a valuation protection mechanism that shields agricultural classifications and long-term rural residents from migration-inflated reassessments. The protection runs through existing county assessor infrastructure — no new bureaucracy required.

SD4 counties carry enormous federal land percentages with no tax base to match. Roads deteriorate, fire departments go underfunded, and Washington's annual budget fights should not decide whether Park County roads stay open. Justin worked directly with Park and Teller county governments to align National Forest fire mitigation efforts during his time at Congresswoman Pettersen's office.

He supports a state General Fund backstop if federal PILT reimbursements fall short, plus expanded state investment in rural fire department capacity and defensible space programs to address wildfire as the year-round threat it has become.

Colorado is the nation's second-largest aerospace economy — 55,000 direct jobs and $23 billion in federal contracts. Justin brings rare credentials on this issue: he managed the aerospace and defense portfolio for Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen, earned a Congressional senior staff Space Force Fellowship that took him across the country to see aerospace infrastructure firsthand, and previously held a Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress fellowship for published research on international space policy and anti-satellite weapons tests.

Justin supports state-level retention incentives for aerospace suppliers, opposes proposed NASA science budget cuts that would eliminate Colorado contracts, and will work to anchor supply-chain manufacturing jobs throughout the SD4 corridor.

Economic opportunity, veterans care, and first responder pay. Colorado lost 11,700 jobs in 2025, the Florence Veterans Community Living Center is at risk from federal cuts, and rural police, fire, EMS, and dispatchers can't compete with Front Range pay.

Justin's full platform expands to housing, water, agriculture, federal lands, and aerospace — but those three priorities drive the campaign because they affect SD4 every day.

The official committee is Justin Kurth for Colorado, with Justin Kurth as registered agent. All contributions are processed through ActBlue and subject to Colorado state campaign finance law and contribution limits.

You can donate online at secure.actblue.com/donate/kurthforcolorado. Every contribution — large or small — helps us reach voters across Fremont, Chaffee, Park, Teller, Lake, and Custer counties.

Campaigns run on volunteers. Whether you can knock doors, make phone calls, host a small gathering, or put up a yard sign, the campaign needs help across SD4.

PLACEHOLDER: List currently recruited volunteer opportunities — canvassing, phone banking, event hosting, yard signs, voter registration drives — and the sign-up method or form.

Colorado's 2026 primary election is Tuesday, June 30, 2026. The general election is Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Colorado is a mail-ballot state — every active registered voter receives a ballot by mail roughly three weeks before Election Day.

Voters can also cast ballots in person at a Voter Service and Polling Center. Check your registration status, update your address, and find polling locations through the Colorado Secretary of State's office at coloradosos.gov.

The campaign welcomes questions, feedback, and conversation from voters across Senate District 4. Use the Contact page on this website to send a message directly to the Justin Kurth for Colorado team.

PLACEHOLDER: Confirm preferred contact channels — campaign email, social media handles, mailing address for committee correspondence — once finalized.