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Cecelia Espenoza
Cecelia Espenoza (Democratic Party) is a member of the Colorado House of Representatives, representing District 4. She assumed office on January 8, 2025. Her current term ends on January 12, 2027.
Espenoza (Democratic Party) is running for re-election to the Colorado House of Representatives to represent District 4. She declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled on June 30, 2026.[source]
Biography
Cecelia Espenoza was born in Murray, Utah. Espenoza earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Utah in 1979 and a law degree from the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law in 1982. Her career experience includes working as a attorney, judge, and professor. She has been affiliated with the Round Table of Former Immigration Judges, Denver Cafecito, and University of Utah alumni board.[1]
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2026
See also: Colorado House of Representatives elections, 2026
General election
The primary will occur on June 30, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. Additional general election candidates will be added here following the primary.
General election for Colorado House of Representatives District 4
Douglas Mangeris is running in the general election for Colorado House of Representatives District 4 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
| Douglas Mangeris (L) | ||
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 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Colorado House of Representatives District 4
Incumbent Cecelia Espenoza is running in the Democratic primary for Colorado House of Representatives District 4 on June 30, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Cecelia Espenoza | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2024
See also: Colorado House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Colorado House of Representatives District 4
Cecelia Espenoza defeated Jack Daus in the general election for Colorado House of Representatives District 4 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Cecelia Espenoza (D) | 78.9 | 32,315 |
 | Jack Daus (R) | 21.1 | 8,623 | |
| Total votes: 40,938 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Colorado House of Representatives District 4
Cecelia Espenoza defeated incumbent Tim Hernández in the Democratic primary for Colorado House of Representatives District 4 on June 25, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Cecelia Espenoza | 53.2 | 5,589 |
| Tim Hernández | 46.8 | 4,920 | ||
| Total votes: 10,509 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Colorado House of Representatives District 4
Jack Daus advanced from the Republican primary for Colorado House of Representatives District 4 on June 25, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jack Daus | 100.0 | 1,047 |
| Total votes: 1,047 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign finance
Endorsements
To view Espenoza's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Espenoza in this election.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Cecelia Espenoza has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. If you are Cecelia Espenoza, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.
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2024
Cecelia Espenoza completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Espenoza's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Going back to the fields to fight for justice, I began my career as a migrant attorney. In 1990, I became the first Latina law school professor in Colorado, teaching Evidence, Criminal Law and Immigration and supervising students in the Criminal Law Clinic. I then moved to San Antonio Texas to teach at St. Mary's University. I was appointed by the Clinton Administration as an Appellate Judge on the highest Immigration Court in the country. When I was purged from that position for political reasons I served as a Senior Counsel at the Department of Justice with Top Secret Clearance. I was the Records Officer, Privacy Officer and Senior Freedom of Information Act counsel.
Since leaving the federal government I have spent countless hours as a volunteer for the Denver Democratic Party: Chairing the Platform and Diversity and Inclusion committees; developing a code of conduct for the county; and serving as the Captain of House District 4B where I have led Get Out the Vote, Fundraising and Monthly meetings. I seek to serve all of the residents of House District 4 with leadership, tenacity and experience.- Housing: Affordability, access and tax relief are areas where I will work to improve housing. To address the root causes we must change land-use laws, expand public/private partnerships, and incentivize the building of safe, affordable housing.
- Education: Our school system needs to successfully provide every student in Colorado with a world-class education. We have to make the right investments in student success through technological innovations, making sure our school buildings are modern and safe, and paying our teachers the salary they deserve.
- Healthcare: I believe that healthcare, including mental health and reproductive freedom is a basic human right. We need to do everything we can in Colorado to increase access, lower prices and ensure that women and members of the LGBTQI+ community have access to healthcare.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Colorado scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
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Candidate Colorado House of Representatives District 4 |
Officeholder Colorado House of Representatives District 4 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 27, 2024
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Tim Hernández (D) |
Colorado House of Representatives District 4 2025-Present |
Succeeded by - |
