ELBERT COUNTY NEWS Printed this article about Kimmi Lewis on April 25, 2016
When Kimmi Lewis left her home on April 8, bound for the Republican
State Convention in Colorado Springs, she had no intention of running
for office. But by the end of the day, she found herself accepting a
nomination from the assembly floor to challenge fellow Republican Tim
Dore — the incumbent who is seeking re-election to the District 64 state
House seat — in the June 28 Republican primary.
“We are truly
freedom fighters. That's what we've had to be down here,” Lewis said. “I
just felt like it was time that somebody stepped up and challenged Rep.
Dore. I made a split-second decision. I had thought about it. I wasn't
the only one. There were several of us who were thinking about running,
but no one put their name in.”
Lewis, from the area around the
tiny town of Kim in southeastern Colorado, lives on the ranch where she
grew up, which she and her late husband bought from her father in 1992.
“I'm still a rancher, a cow-calf producer. We raised our six children here,” Lewis said.
A
graduate of Trinidad State Junior College, Lewis describes herself as a
lifelong Republican who began volunteering with the party at the age of
18. Though she has not previously run for a public office, she served
the Las Animas Republican Party as secretary, vice chair, and chair from
1994 through 2012. She also served as the chair of the Las Animas
Republican Women.
Involvement for Lewis does not stop at the
party line. She is a founder and past president of the Colorado
Independent CattleGrowers Association and a past president of the
Arkansas Valley Cattlewomen, and she served as the National Private
Property Rights Chair for R-CALF USA for three years.
Though a
strong supporter of the military, she was instrumental in achieving a
funding ban that stopped the Department of Defense's eminent domain
expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site into local ranch land.
Without money appropriated, the Army was not able to buy the land.
“They finally backed off, and we always worry that the threat is still there,” she said.
When
the National Park Service attempted to create one of the country's
largest National Heritage Areas, encompassing seven southeastern
Colorado counties, Lewis and her fellow ranchers fought again and
stopped the NHA.
“We just don't like the federal government over
the top of us,” she said. “I believe the heritage area was a form of
takings. I believe that eminent domain was another form of takings, and
we constantly are threatened by nongovernmental organizations and groups
that have a way of some type of takings. You have to be very vigilant,
and that's what we've done.”
In 2009, Lewis completed the
Leadership Program of the Rockies, an institute that develops and trains
leaders in public policy and the political process, but she did not
stand for election.
At the beginning of 2016, Lewis found herself
at a crossroads when she was asked to once again fill the role of
secretary of the Las Animas Republican Party. Though she agreed to fill
the position, she viewed the job as an essential learning opportunity
for future party leaders.
“There's a lot of people that need to
be doing those jobs, and I felt like I needed to step forward, because
of the leadership that I have shown,” she said. “I needed to be stepping
on up the ladder rather than backing on down.”
Lewis sees a lack
of leadership as one of the primary reasons for her challenge to Dore,
who lives in northwestern Elbert County, and she and her supporters are
excited by the challenge. Though she has not created a first-year wish
list her concerns center on water and expanded broadband internet for
the southeastern counties.
“I think that water is the most important thing we can talk about,” she said. “We have to find a way to preserve it.”
Lewis
says that even if she loses the primary in June, she will lose with her
“head up high,” because she thinks her challenge to Dore will encourage
him to spend more time in the southeastern part of the state.
“I feel like regardless of whether I win or not, it will be better for all of us in eastern Colorado.”
