PUEBLO — Diane Mitsch Bush announce on Thursday that she is a candidate for the United States House of Representatives in Colorado’s District 3, a seat currently held by Republican Scott Tipton.

Mitsch Bush, a state legislator from Steamboat Springs, said her main motivation for entering the race is Congressman Tipton’s vote to support President Trump’s plan to gut the U.S. healthcare system. She said the House version that Tipton voted for in May would increase the number of uninsured Americans by 23 million, more than 270,000 of them Coloradans, and force huge price increases on older Americans while bankrolling big tax breaks for the richest 2 percent.

“It makes no sense to redistribute wealth to the wealthy,” Mitsch Bush writes. “But that’s the stand Scott Tipton takes, time after time. The people of Southern and Western Colorado can no longer afford to be represented by someone who votes to take away our healthcare and line the pockets of rich folks.”
She also invited comparisons of her legislative record to the incumbent’s.

“In six years as a congressman and two years as a state legislator, Scott Tipton’s list of legislative achievements is very short,” Mitsch Bush noted. “As I tour CD-3 In the coming months, I will be highlighting my long record of public service, because it shows that I sweat the details and I get things done.”

Mitsch Bush has been a member of the Colorado House of Representatives since 2013, representing Routt and Eagle counties. She is chairwoman of the Transportation & Energy Committee and vice chairwoman of the Agriculture, Livestock & Natural Resources Committee. She is also chairwoman of the Transportation Legislation Review Committee and a member of the Water Resources Review Committee – two panels that meet when the legislature is not in session to come up with bipartisan solutions to issues of statewide concern.

Her tenure in the state legislature has earned her a reputation for transparency, objectivity, effectiveness, accountability to her constituents, and her ability to work across the aisle.

“I will bring that same dedication to our nation’s capital,” she asserts. “It’s time to turn Congress into a body that works for the people, not against them.”

As a Routt County commissioner from 2006 to 2012, Mitsch Bush was heavily involved in transportation issues and is a champion for sustainable development, dedicated to creating new jobs while protecting the quality of life and environment that drive the economies of our mountain communities. She served on the Routt County-Steamboat Springs Vision 2020 task force, the Steamboat Springs Development Advisory Group, the Routt County Planning Commission, the City-County Growth Management Advisory Group and the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority board of directors.

She also served on the executive, transportation and tourism committees of Club 20, the Western Slope’s leading advocacy and political organization.

Mitsch Bush was an award winning sociology professor at Colorado Mountain College and Colorado State University, and earned B.A. summa cum laude and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from the University of Minnesota.

Mitsch Bush and her husband, Michael, live in Steamboat Springs. Michael is retired after 35 years as a co-manager of a ski and bike tuning and repair shop.