Stephanie Vigil

How does your experience make you qualified to represent the people as State Representative for District 16?

When I was elected to be our district’s representative in 2022, I pledged to fight for a solid foundation in life for every Coloradan and to leverage my working-class grit and resourcefulness to get things done. I’ve stuck to this promise by advancing legislation to solve our housing challenges, bringing more transit dollars to Colorado Springs, sponsoring nation-leading clean energy legislation, and passing first-in-the-nation laws for workers in the app-based gig economy.

I’m here to do the work, and I’ve proven myself to be an effective legislator, and I believe more than ever that a service background, especially in the hospitality industry, translates quite well to public office. Being able to work with difficult people, problem solve on the fly, and keep a cool head under pressure are really great skills for this work. I want everyone to know that you don’t need a resume stacked with government jobs or a law degree to be qualified for public office. We are all experts in our own experience, and it takes all kinds in this world.

What are your top policy priorities as State Representative for District 16?

Expanding housing and transportation choices remains a high priority for my office. Colorado is making historic investments in transit and drawing down once-in-a-lifetime Federal funds to get Colorado’s transportation system caught up with our Front Range population. It is crucial that Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region get our share of that investment, and I’ll continue to work with the administration, my legislative colleagues and our local government leaders to ensure our communities are well served by this tremendous opportunity.

I’m also interested in continuing to go upstream to improve public health and safety. From suicide deaths to traffic crashes, many of our biggest challenges truly are preventable. It is more effective and more affordable for all of us as tax-payers to prevent harm than to react to it afterward, and we can also avoid a lot of unnecessary loss and suffering.

What will your approach and thoughts on how we will address immigration issues facing our country and Colorado?

State legislatures don’t usually play a huge role on this topic, but with Republican leaders in other states trafficking migrant people to Denver and other cities, we have found ourselves with a higher degree of responsibility to support new arrivals. Increasing healthcare and housing assistance isn’t without cost to Colorado taxpayers, but the alternative would be devastating both economically and morally. For better or for worse, once displaced people find themselves in one’s community, we can’t just ignore what they’re going through, and the mass deportation that Trump and his followers are threatening isn’t the answer. There is no cause to pull the ladder up after ourselves, especially in a place where all but the fully indigenous are here due to relatively recent migration ourselves (about the last 170 years).

I was disappointed that Congress failed to pass the immigration bill crafted by a bipartisan coalition, apparently more because of politics than because of policy. We are definitely overdue for an updated approach to both border security and facilitating due process for asylum seekers. The best thing that welcoming states like Colorado can do in the meantime is be a humane and proactive part of the solution while awaiting thoughtful reform at a Federal level.

Coloradans are feeling the pinch for the cost of living because of skyrocketing inflation. What do you think needs to be done to help families?

Inflation at this point is actually at a reasonable and sustainable rate of about 3%, down considerably from the 8.5% spike when the economy rebounded from pandemic conditions. What is crushing working families the most is the upward redistribution of wealth from ordinary workers to the non-laboring investor class. Worker productivity just keeps going up, but wages never rise more than enough to tread water while corporate giants simultaneously jack up their prices and reward themselves with bonuses and stock buy-backs. The transfer of $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1% over the last couple of decades has created an outrageous consolidation of wealth and power.

We all do better when we all do better, and working people deserve to keep as much of the product of their labor as we can possibly secure for them. In order to get us to a place where the economy works well for ordinary working people, we have to curb this trend of corporate consolidation and put working people first. I do not take campaign donations from corporate special interests and stick up for working people by advancing legislation that ensures the future of work is just and that big tech is held accountable for its role in the way we work.

What role do you believe the state government has in addressing gun violence? What are your ideas on implementing gun policies?

I respect and appreciate the right to bear arms in defense of self, home, or property, consistent with Article II, Section 13 of the Colorado Constitution. My constituency is mixed on this issue, and I take bills related to firearms on a case-by-case basis. Generally speaking, I can get behind reasonable guardrails for the sake of safe and responsible ownership, but will occasionally oppose a bill that I don’t find especially useful to that end, or that may inadvertently cause undue hardship for some responsible gun owners (for instance, additional requirements on top of existing safe storage laws, which I’m concerned puts low-income gun owners in a difficult spot).

A big piece of the picture is that over half of firearm fatalities are self-inflicted, and we can do far more to prevent these tragic deaths. Suicides are preventable, which is why I will re-introduce a bill next year to bring opportunities for suicide prevention education into workplaces, including how to approach someone who’s at risk and accurate information about the role of access to lethal means.

Do you have any ideas on what can be done on the state level to increase affordable housing?

There’s no debating that we’re going through a nationwide housing affordability crisis, specifically a shortage of affordable options in enough locations to support housing for every budget. I strongly favor supply side solutions that contribute to abundant and diverse housing stock, and I’ve prime sponsored and co-sponsored bills that roll back onerous regulations on ordinary property owners and enable more gentle infill. Housing is inextricably linked to transportation policy, and an increase in housing types also helps us create more transportation choices, reducing the length of commutes and overall cost of living.

It’s also important to preserve existing affordable housing and protect renters’ rights to avoid displacement of households that rent. We’ve passed bills in recent years to make the playing field more level between landlords and tenants, and I’m eager to expand a program piloted here in the 4th Judicial District that prevents evictions via mediation and assists recently evicted residents in recovery. Housing is a basic necessity, and every time someone becomes homeless it’s a tragedy.