Red County, Blue State

It hasn’t even been a week since election day!? In a historic win, the voters of Douglas County chose to expand to 5 county commissioners despite the current commissioners’s best efforts, which means big structural change is on the way, but not without a legal battle as to how those commissioners are elected. My guest today is a podcast favorite, Angela Thomas. Angela is the leader who spearheaded...

Let’s show up, DougCo. Locusts rise up! See you on the other side! How I voted/would vote the 2026 ballot. Contact me anytime: I’m newly on instagram, follow me there . email: emilysuyat@gmail.com on signal: @emilysuyat.87 Text or leave a message at 720-288-0147 Get full access to Red County, Blue State at esuyat.substack.com/subscribe

Prop 134 targets a tiny and vulnerable population: trans youth who play sports, specifically trans girls (assigned male at birth but identify as a girl). There are many problems with how Prop 134 is written, but the main one? Enforcement. The Christian right-wing group that backs this measure has not addressed this aspect. Will a birth certificate suffice (haha, Brigitte Macron and President Obama...

Anti-trans measures ( Propositions 134 and 135 ) are on the ballot this year, measures that claim to protect kids, but do they really? In this episode, we take a deeper look at Prop 135 , which seeks to prohibit a surgery that doesn’t happen in Colorado and may in fact deny medical care to kids who aren’t trans. Why? How? We’re breaking it down in this episode. My guest today is the mom of a trans...

If you’re fairly new to Colorado elections or are still a little fuzzy on why we have the Blue Book, TABOR book, and Ballot Question 200, this is your episode. I explain the Blue Book (it’s a big ol thing this year at 127 pages), the TABOR book, and present information on “Yes on 200” so you can make your own decision. Do I have an opinion? Moi??? Yes. So does my neighbor. Time to be the informed...

Hi! What a sh*t week for news! Let’s vote in some good people, shall we? My guest today is Dan Smith , candidate for Douglas County treasurer. What does a county treasurer do? Why is it important? Dan will explain it all, including why the county waiving $19 million in taxes for a data center probably should have had more public input and input from other Douglas County elected officials. If you’r...

Irene Bonham may be running as a Democrat but she joins us in a conversation about values that matter to most of us when it comes to public officials: integrity, accessibility, and transparency. Irene talks about why she wants a seat where she will be outnumbered and likely ostracized (if not worse), what smart growth looks like, the dangers of dark money and consolidated power, and dun dun dunnnn...

My guest Angela Thomas, leader of the 3 to 5 effort, tells us about the hearing last Thursday , who actually signed the 3 to 5 petition, and what the plan is to get 3 to 5 to pass November. She’ll also tell us how the 5 districts will be drawn if the voters choose to be represented by district. The news coverage of the commissioner’s interference with 3 to 5 was right on the money, so if you need...

The commissioners appointed themselves judge and jury over a ballot fight they started — and then wrote misleading language for their own competing measure. In this episode, I talk about the missing a “at-large” language in the commissioners’ stand-alone ballot measure, the 3-5 committee's protest, and what's at stake before Thursday's hearing. Come to the hearing if you can: September 3 at 3pm at...

Most ballot measures are just…put on the ballot. Not in Douglas County. On Friday, August 28, the three Douglas County commissioners added their own biased language to the citizen-led ballot measure that over 20k residents signed. On top of that, the commissioners plan to add their own separate competing ballot measure this Monday, August 31 . It’s quite unhinged. Listen to hear how it went down,...

Hi there! Candidate Christian Schilder joins me to talk about what a state legislator does, how infrastructure holds us together, housing, water, and his short stint on the Douglas County planning commission (get ready for some commissioner tea). Thanks for listening/watching! Watch this interview on youtube . Contact me anytime! email: emilysuyat@gmail.com on signal: @emilysuyat.87 Text or leave...

This is one of those interviews where you need to hear the voice behind the candidate. Every time I hear Eileen Laubacher speak, I am struck by her sincerity. In this episode, Rear Admiral Eileen Laubacher, Democratic candidate for Congressional District 4 (CD4) sits down to talk about water, AI, data centers, and the corruption that plagues both sides of the aisle. Her campaign has generated much...

It’s 89 days til election day, do you know where your ballot is? Don’t worry, you shouldn’t. Not yet. But in this episode, we’ll start gently approaching our ballots so we can make friends with it. Your ballot is going to be your BFF by November 3rd. Allow yourself to dream: What if we elected someone who actually wanted to hear from you and govern rather than spend taxpayer money posing for glamo...

Guess who’s back, back again…it’s Crowsnest. The proposed development in unincorporated Douglas County has been rejected by Parker and Castle Pines and now the developer is seeking to amend Douglas County’s Comprehensive Master Plan so it can land there. The first step is submitting an application with the planning commission. I’ll explain what the process is, what happened at the July 20, 2026 pl...

My super-smart friends Julie Ort, Kim Carroll, and Bridget McEowen join me again to follow-up episode 71 about John Adams Academy’s (JAA’s) request for a $200k grant from the county’s school safety fund when Douglas County School District public schools received $80-$90k each. The commissioners were set to pass the drone funding through the consent agenda for their friend Ellie Reynolds (the JAA c...

Today I’m with my super smart friends Bridget McEowen, Julie Ort, and Kim Carroll. We’re catching up on the latest Douglas County news, which is that both John Adams Academy and the Douglas County Economic Development Corporation are set to receive major taxpayer dollars. What do those two orgs have in common? Commissioner crony Ellie Reynolds at the helm and an absence of research and data. As my...

This week we are talking about a possible statewide ballot initiative that is about TAXES [insert scary music]. But don’t worry! Chris deGruy Kennedy, president of the Bell Policy Center joins me today to talk to us about Initiative 195: Graduated Income Tax . Tax policy is complicated and confusing but Chris is going to break it down for us because Initiative 195 can bring much needed revenue to...

If you’re in Douglas County, you may have heard of Convict Coffee in Parker. People love it. Like, LOVE IT. Everyone wants to meet there despite it being tucked away out of sight in a strip mall off of Parker Road by Natural Grocers (Vitamin Cottage for the old timers). As a customer, I have been curious about this business for a long time and decided to do something about it. This interview is fu...

Howdy, partners! Today we’re talking about the Rocky Mountain Voice Freedom Festival , which is being held on June 26-27 on the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Castle Rock. The commissioner claim that it is a nonpartisan event but to anyone with a brain cell, it’s a big MAGA love fest. Also, what is the Rocky Mountain Voice ? Let’s dive in. Contact me anytime, I’d love to hear from you. email: emily...

You all asked the best questions! That lead to even more questions! And commissioner hypocrisy! Buckle up. Then vote. If you have a moment, rate and review Red County Blue State on Apple Podcasts . Click on the link and scroll to the bottom to rate and review. Don’t miss the one star review by a guy who wants me to move to “Boulder, Denver”. No thank you :) Contact me anytime— email: emilysuyat@gm...

Oh boy there are a lot of dates in here so HANG WITH ME because it comes together in the end. This is Part 3 of 3, where we discuss the county approaching an outside organization to pay for George’s luxury travel. This org, which is a nonprofit, says “great!” without asking any questions. So many ethical problems, not to mention the potential fraud when a county official buys a refundable ticket....

As we learned in Part 1 of this series, Douglas County Commissioner George Teal doubled his VIP ticket to Dubai by making it refundable just days before his trip. This is a problem. Did George actually fly the tickets that he booked, or did her get a refund? It’s should be an easy question to answer, but George won’t reply. Things just aren’t adding up. Listen to find out why. Contact me anytime:...

What we suspected has been confirmed, and the price of George Teal’s plane ticket to Dubai is so inflated that feels like a middle finger to taxpayers. In this episode, we’re getting very detailed: we’re talking about the extravagant flight that no normal business would allow, let alone a county government; the rules/policies Commissioner Teal broke, and the twist that I didn’t see coming (but sho...

The petitions to expand the county commission are out and about! Community organizer Angela Thomas is back to talk about what it means, why it matters, where to find a petition, and how to volunteer. I also tie this to a topic that’s been on everyone’s minds—data centers and their voracious water and energy needs. Last, a local podcast you’ll want to hear if you have a kid who’s struggling in scho...

Brooke Bernstein, president of Douglas County Pride , joins me today to talk about Pridefest on May 17 in Parker’s Salisbury Park. We talk about what Pridefest looks like in Douglas County, why there was no Pridefest in 2025, and how allies can support Douglas County Pride (hint: show up to Pridefest!). I take a short trip to bummer town to talk about how anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric is still alive here....