Senate President James Coleman Delivers Opening Day Remarks

DENVER, CO – Colorado Senate President James Coleman, D-Denver, today delivered his Opening Day Remarks to kick off the 2025 legislative session. 

Below is a transcript of Coleman’s remarks as prepared for delivery:

Mr. Majority Leader, Madame President Pro Tempore, Mr. Minority Leader – friends, colleagues, loved ones, family – welcome to the Colorado Senate and welcome to the first session of the 75th General Assembly.

It’s an honor to stand before you all today. I’m humbled to share this space with you all, and I am particularly humbled to be in the company of our many special guests.

My beautiful wife Shayna is here. Shayna, we have been an incredible team for the past 23 years and I am so grateful for your trust, support, and your partnership in this next evolution of my time in the legislature.

My amazing twins, Naomi and James, are here. When I was sworn into the House in 2017, Naomi and James were small enough that both of them sat on Shayna’s and my lap. That’s not possible anymore, but I am just as grateful to have you both here today as I was to have you with me eight years ago. I am so proud of the young people you are becoming and I want you both to know that I do this work for you.

I also want to acknowledge my mother in law, Christa Wallce, who has known me since I was 13 years old. Thank you for allowing me to date your daughter, and thank you for welcoming me into your family.

My big brother Jerry is here. Thank you for being a role model in my life.

My grandmother was not able to attend today, but she has been with me through it all. She’s 91 years old. My grandmother would take me to church every Sunday, just five minutes from here. Her guidance, example, and love taught me courage and how to live my life rooted in faith.

For a long time, I’d go to Sunday school as well. Then, we’d go to church and she would have me present what I had just learned in front of the folks there. My public speaking career was forced on me at a young age – but I am so grateful for it, especially today.

My father and bonus mom are here. As long as we’ve had it, our relationship has been grounded in service. I have memories of being a young boy walking up and down Colfax, talking to people on the street who didn’t have a bed to sleep in that night and didn’t know where their next meal would come from – doing what we could to serve them. My father taught me how to turn my faith into action.

Today we’re also lucky to welcome a number of new faces to the Colorado Senate. Let’s give a warm welcome to all of our new members.

And, please join me in congratulating our newest members of the Senate, Senators-elect Iman Jodeh, Matt Ball, and John Carson.

Senators-elect Jodeh and Ball will officially join us later this week – we can’t wait!

And another welcome to the new members of our members’ families. Senator Roberts and his wife Sarah welcomed a new baby girl this summer, and Senator Bridges and his wife Anne Marie welcomed a baby boy during the midst of last session.

What a beautiful reminder of the future we are all building together.

I would also like to congratulate the many new faces of our Senate leadership team:

Senator Michaelson Jenet, our Senate President Pro Tempore. Senator, having served as President Pro Tem, my advice to you is to practice saying these 35 last names a few times. You’d be surprised how easy it is to draw a blank when you’re up here – especially when Senators Mullica and Roberts look so alike.

We’re also welcoming Senator Cutter, our Assistant Majority Leader;

Senator Hinrichsen, our Majority Whip;

Senator Roberts, our Majority Caucus Chair;

And Senators Bridges and Amabile, our fearless JBC members.

Majority Leader Rodriguez, I didn’t forget about you. You know, only someone who really loves this would willingly sign up to do it again. We’re glad to welcome you back to the leadership team.

And, congratulations to Senators Simpson, Byron Pelton, and Rich, who are serving their caucus in new leadership capacities.

Close watchers of the Senate may have noticed another big difference in the makeup of the Senate. Cindi Markwell has officially and finally freed herself from this desk and Esther van Mourik has graciously stepped up to fill her shoes as our next Secretary of the Senate. Esther, they’re big shoes to fill, but we have full confidence that you will shepherd us through these next 120 days and enable us to be efficient and effective during our brief time here.

And to the rest of your team, thank you for your hard work today and every day. We’re welcoming a few new members to our non partisan staff:

Justin Shofler, our new Reading Clerk;

And two new sergeants: Erin Robinson and Lee Vitgenos.

We promise there won’t be too many late nights or too much weekend work. Right, Mr. Minority Leader?

I have just a few more welcomes, if you all would be kind enough to bear with me.

I would like to welcome members of the Denver Ministerial Alliance – a group that has been instrumental in teaching me how to do work for community and social justice.

We are also blessed to be in the presence of several former leaders and history-makers in Colorado politics:

Penfield Tate and Leslie Herod.

And the Honorable Terrance Carroll, the first African-American to serve as Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives.

And, the man who taught me that strength, grace, and temperament make a good and fair leader. The Honorable Peter Groff, the first African-American to serve as Colorado Senate President, who is also joined today by his wife, Reverend Doctor Regina Groff.

Thank you for being the first, and thank you for making sure you weren’t the last.

Finally, I would be remiss not to mention a few of the leaders and loved ones who have gone before us, and who have had a deep impact on my life and my service to this state. 

The Honorable late-Gloria Tanner – the first African American woman to serve as a Colorado State Senator. And my senator when I was growing up in the district where I was born and raised, and now have had the honor of representing for the past eight years – Senate District 33.

And George Brown, another alumni of Senate District 33 and Colorado’s first African-American politician to win statewide office.

And finally, my mom. My mom voted for me when I first ran for office. She was with me at the very beginning of this journey and I believe she is here with me today. She always believed in me.

It’s amazing – she helped me to see the remarkable things we are all capable of when we have someone that believes in us, even just a little.

I am blessed to be cut from such a rich cloth. Blessed to have been brought up in a community abundant with leaders who were intent on breaking barriers and making history.

I am blessed by this family.

You will often hear me call us a family. When I say that, I mean it.

None of us can do this alone.

Our families, our friends, our constituents, our faith leaders, our colleagues, our staff, our partners in and outside of this building – each of the 35 of us sit at these desks with a team behind us.

A team that shares in our dedication and our hopes, dreams, and fears about Colorado’s future and our ability to shape it.

During my tenure, and as recent as the past six months, I have been blessed to have the opportunity to visit many of your districts. To see firsthand where you come from and gain a better understanding of you and your constituents' priorities.

From Senator Simpson’s 900 acre ranch in the San Luis Valley to my family’s annual trip to the State Fair in Pueblo to visit Senator Hinrichsen and his family, I learned a few things about this state, the people living in it, and the work we do in this building.

I learned that many of us share many of the same goals. We share the desire to build a Colorado where if you work hard you will have the ability and opportunity to earn a good living and support your loved ones.

I know that we can agree that we need to do more to meet Coloradans' economic needs. I know we can agree that everyone deserves a safe, affordable place to call home, that regardless of income or zip code you deserve a well-funded and resourced school that will prepare you for success, and that when you need to go to the doctor the bill won’t break the bank.

And I know we can agree that there’s more work to do. Though we may disagree at times on how we get there, I know that we share a commitment to building a Colorado where everyone has all they need to thrive.

I believe in our ability to recognize that commitment in one another, and I believe that we can truly be united in our shared vision for and our belief in a better Colorado.

But, this is not just a vision we share amongst ourselves. It is borne from the people of Colorado and it is upheld and carried out by us. The work we do all throughout the year, and the votes that we will take over the next 120 days, are in complete service to the people and to our state’s future.

Our country faces so many unknowns in the coming years. I understand that many of us in this room and in our state have fears and anxieties about what could, or could not happen.

However, there are a few things that we do know.

We know about the resilience of the Colorado people in tough times. We have an amazing ability to think critically about the conditions in which we live and ask ourselves how we can improve, not only for our own betterment but for our neighbors’ as well.

We know that we will stand up against hate and any efforts to scare us or divide us. Our diversity makes us stronger and in Colorado, we can and we will get in the way of threats to our neighbors’ safety.

We know that we live in the best state in the nation and that we have so much to be proud of. Our pride for Colorado ties each of us to its failure or success, and connects us all to one another.

We know – in this room – that we are all committed to serving our constituents and all of the people of Colorado by passing legislation that will tangibly improve their lives.

And this is what I’m most excited about. I’m excited to see all of our hard work turn into legislation that we’ll consider over the next 120 days.

I’m excited about the opportunities we’ll have to learn about one another’s ideas about how to tackle our state’s challenges head on and find real, lasting solutions.

We have our work cut out for us.

Coloradans continue to feel the pinch of high prices of housing, health care, and basic necessities. This year, we will continue our efforts to cut costs for Coloradans and ensure that every Coloradan has the opportunity to earn a good life.

From increasing affordable housing options to expanding access to high-quality health care, there is work to do.

Today, we’ll introduce Senators Exum and Bridges' bill to increase the availability of modular housing, Senators Winter and Marchman’s bill to give child care centers a helping hand, and Senator Roberts’ bill to give local governments another tool to address their unique housing challenges.

We will also work to ensure that Colorado is a great place to do business and ensure that it is a great place to be employed.

That’s why Majority Leader Rodriguez and Senator Danielson are bringing forward a new bill to support the workers who make our state and our economy run.

And it’s why we’re going to work alongside our partners in the business community to streamline processes to make it that much easier to create new jobs and support our local economies.

We must be a state where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Where if you work hard, you can earn a good life for you and your family.

We also must be a state where we can go to the grocery store, our kids can go to school, and we can live our lives without fear of violence.

In recent years, we have worked to build safer communities all across Colorado. From supporting first responders to passing commonsense gun violence prevention laws, we are committed to evidence-based solutions that will keep Coloradans safe.

Today, we will introduce Senator Sullivan’s bill to better enforce our existing law banning high-capacity magazines. For the past six years we have been blessed to have the leadership of Senator Sullivan, who has committed his life to make Colorado communities safe from gun violence of all kinds. 

This year, we will also work to build trust between our communities, law enforcement, and institutions responsible for upholding justice. Through existing investments in public safety and new voter-approved funding sources, we will work together to support survivors of crime and violence.

We’re focused on building communities safe from violence and safe from the health and environmental impacts of climate change. We’re building a safer future for Coloradans.

As we consider the beautiful state that we live in, we take great pride in our mountains, trails, rivers, open spaces, and our amazing sunsets. We go to great lengths to protect and sustain them, as we should. They make us who we are.

Even greater than those amazing things are the gifts that are our children. We must be a state where every child is guaranteed a high-quality education that prepares them to live well and realize their hopes. That isn’t the reality now. We still have important work to do to make sure every Colorado school is well-resourced and our education workforce is strong. 

The Colorado that we hope for must have a K-12 system that ensures equitable access to high-quality learning options within zip codes that have been historically and presently failed. In Colorado, there are pockets of our state where we have a lack of high-quality options that I think of as “education deserts”. Families shouldn’t be waiting to get into a great school, we must be doing all that we can to ensure that they are in one now. They have waited too long! That will change with us.

I stand here as Senate President, a Black boy from Park Hill that some imagined would never be anywhere near this place, but here I am. Because of my faith, family, and the opportunities yielded to me by a high-quality education, I am Senator James Coleman. There are tens of thousands of children like me waiting for us to see their promise and to make fulfillment possible. We can and we will.

This year, we will work hard to defend the investments we have made in our students, teachers, and classrooms. Just last year, we came together and we took the monumental step of eliminating the Budget Stabilization Factor. We do not want to backslide on that progress.

We face a challenging budget year. There are difficult decisions ahead that will place new strain on many of the services that Coloradans rely on.

We must deliver a responsible, balanced state budget – Coloradans are counting on us.

I want to thank Senator Bridges, Senator Amabile, and Senator Kirkmeyer for their leadership on the Joint Budget Committee and their diligence in the hours and hours of work that have already taken place.

This is not glamorous work. Grandstanding isn’t going to balance our budget. We have no choice but to work together to do what’s best for Coloradans and protect the critical services so many rely on.

Those things are just a start. Those are just a few of the bills we can anticipate and challenges we’ll need to overcome. 

There will also be unknowns. We are days away from an administration that ran on division and fear, and promises that could turn our systems and our communities on their head.

We do not yet know how this will manifest in federal policy. But we know we are prepared to respond.

We stand ready to defend the Colorado we love. A Colorado that values freedom – freedom over our bodies, freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water, freedom to exercise our sacred right to vote.

We will build on the protections that guarantee the freedom to make decisions about your body. This year, voters reaffirmed their support for their freedom and decided to constitutionally protect the right to reproductive health care and abortion.

We will fight for our progress that preserves our beautiful outdoors, cleans up our air, and conserves our water.

We will defend a Colorado that values diversity. We know that our communities are stronger when we stand against hate and show the country that Colorado is a place for everyone.

In some cases, we will have to wait and see to respond to decisions coming out of Washington. In other cases, we will stand ready with proactive measures that will ensure our freedoms.

That’s why today we will introduce Senator Gonzales’ Colorado Voting Rights Act to protect access to the ballot box for every voter and shield Colorado from any effort to dismantle the Voting Rights Act.

I hope that we can do this together. That we can show Coloradans that we hear them and that we are here for them. Let’s do this the Colorado way, not the Washington way.

Because we don’t do this work for the folks in DC.

We do this work for Colorado. 

For the single-mother, like my mother, raising kids and doing her best to secure a quality education for them and keep them safe and healthy in the neighborhood they call home.

For New Coloradans – fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries and seeking refuge in a place that offers opportunity and a prosperous future. 

We do this for our ranchers and our farmers – who are adapting in real time to a rapidly changing economy and climate.

For the owners of the family restaurant around the corner – who enrich our communities through their culture and their food, provide good jobs, and help drive our economy.

For every single Colorado student – who all deserve to go to school and grow up safe from gun violence and in a state that takes their futures with the seriousness they demand.

We do this work for Colorado, in service to Colorado.

Here in this building, we do this work with one another, and in service to one another.

We have one hundred and twenty days. One hundred and twenty days where we can choose to do the work.

We can choose to listen. Look, I know what I know. I don’t always know what the person sitting next to me knows. None of us should assume that we do.

We can choose to make ourselves present. Return phone calls and texts, sure. But choose to pick up the phone first too. Choose to be proactive in this work.

We can choose to make our work approachable. Each of us can invite and welcome Coloradans into this unique, imperfect – sometimes dull, but never boring – democratic process. We should show up in our districts, get to know our constituents, and if you can, choose to do so in your colleague’s district as well.

We can choose to support one another in this challenging work. We must foster a culture where everyone who comes into this building – from Senators to nonpartisan staff to caucus staff to our legislative aides – knows that they are supported and that we have their back, just like they have ours.

We can choose to wake up early – maybe not quite as early as I do – and we can choose to stay late. However, we can also choose balance. We must take care of ourselves – because the truth is, we need all of you to make this thing work.

We can choose service. And sacrifice. We can choose hard work.

We can choose to invest in each other’s success. To learn about each other’s policy. Offer our expertise, our district’s perspective, and welcome others to do the same for us.

Let us continue to do what we do best in the Senate. Slow down, be deliberate in our policymaking and thoughtful in our conversations. Let us think not only about seeing our bills get signed, but think a few years down the line about how they will be implemented and how they will impact the people of Colorado.

Let us lead in the ways we know we need to.

We must not give into the desires of vitriol and division. I know that we can elevate the work above our egos and spend every day we have here with intention.

I look forward to the next several months and serving you all as your President. Dare I say – I’m excited.

I have been lucky to witness amazing Senate leadership in my predecessors Leroy Garcia and Steve Fenberg. Similarly, Minority Leader Lundeen has set an admirable example of leadership, fairness, and decency.

I promise to learn from their examples, and to serve and support you all as best as I am able.

And, I promise to learn from Colorado’s examples of miraculous leadership and trail-blazing spirit. From Aunt Clara Brown to Barney Ford, our history is so rich. We have been a beacon of light for the country and I truly believe we still can be.

Over the next several months, it is on us to sustain this heritage of trail-blazing. We cannot be afraid or shy away from the work we have to do.

But I know we won’t. We are made for this moment.

I am excited and I am energized for the work ahead – and I hope you are too.

Colleagues, let’s do this.

Thank you.