James Walsh (Colorado)

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

James Walsh

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

April 4, 2023

Education

Bachelor's

Duke University, 1989

Graduate

University of Colorado Denver, 1996

Ph.D

University of Colorado Boulder, 2010

Personal

Birthplace

Butler, Pa.

Religion

Non-practicing Catholic

Profession

Educator

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Campaign Instagram

James Walsh ran for election for Mayor of Denver in Colorado. He lost in the general election on April 4, 2023.

Walsh completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

James Walsh was born in Butler, Pennsylvania. Walsh earned a bachelor's degree from Duke University in 1989, a graduate degree from the University of Colorado Denver in 1996, and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2010. His career experience includes working as an educator and a social worker. Walsh has been affiliated with United Campus Workers and the Romero Theater Troupe.

Elections

2023

See also: Mayoral election in Denver, Colorado (2023)

General runoff election

General runoff election for Mayor of Denver

Michael Johnston defeated Kelly Brough in the general runoff election for Mayor of Denver on June 6, 2023.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michael Johnston (Nonpartisan)	55.2	89,889
		Kelly Brough (Nonpartisan)	44.8	73,097

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 162,986
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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General election

General election for Mayor of Denver

The following candidates ran in the general election for Mayor of Denver on April 4, 2023.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michael Johnston (Nonpartisan)	24.5	42,273
✔		Kelly Brough (Nonpartisan)	20.1	34,627
		Lisa Calderón (Nonpartisan)	18.1	31,164
		Andy Rougeot (Nonpartisan)	11.5	19,927
		Leslie Herod (Nonpartisan)	10.7	18,506
		Chris Hansen (Nonpartisan)	4.8	8,309
		Deborah Ortega (Nonpartisan)	4.5	7,739
		Ean Tafoya (Nonpartisan)	1.6	2,700
	Submit photo	Terrance Roberts (Nonpartisan)	1.0	1,757
		Thomas Wolf (Nonpartisan)	1.0	1,747
		Trinidad Rodriguez (Nonpartisan)	0.7	1,240
	Submit photo	Aurelio Martinez (Nonpartisan)	0.4	755
		Al Gardner (Nonpartisan)	0.4	725
		James Walsh (Nonpartisan)	0.4	722
	Submit photo	Renate Behrens (Nonpartisan)	0.1	184
	Submit photo	Robert Treta (Nonpartisan)	0.1	169
		Abass Yaya Bamba (Nonpartisan) (Write-in)	0.0	24
		Jesse Parris (Nonpartisan) (Write-in)	0.0	11
		Paul Fiorino (Nonpartisan) (Write-in)	0.0	5
	Submit photo	Matt Brady (Nonpartisan) (Write-in)	0.0	4
		Marcus Giavanni (Nonpartisan) (Write-in)	0.0	1
	Submit photo	Danny F. Lopez (Nonpartisan) (Write-in)	0.0	0

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 172,589
= 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.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Sylvia Herring (Nonpartisan)
• Kwame Spearman (Nonpartisan) (Unofficially withdrew)
• Anna Burrell (Nonpartisan)
• Alex Valdez (Nonpartisan)
• Sean Gallegos (Nonpartisan)
• Kenneth Simpson (Nonpartisan)
• Alex Cowans (Nonpartisan)
• David E. Stevens (Nonpartisan)

Campaign themes

2023

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

James Walsh completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Walsh's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a Political Science Professor at the University of Colorado Denver, where I have taught for the past 25 years, specializing in Labor, Immigration, and Community Organizing. I founded an all-volunteer organic community theater eighteen years ago called the Romero Theater Troupe. I was raised in a large Irish Catholic family in western Pennsylvania, attending Duke University on a wrestling scholarship.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Denver Workers First. Wage Earners in our city deserve to be paid enough to afford to live here.
• Universal Basic Income. By providing a guaranteed income to those at or below the poverty line, we offer a direct and immediate solution to the housing crisis, drastically decrease the number of unhoused neighbors, and have an impact on crime and mass incarceration
• Harm Reduction: All public health and safety issues should be viewed through the practices and philosophy of Harm Reduction.

Community Question Featured local question

Did the COVID-19 pandemic change your approach to local policy issues? If so, please give us an example. If not, why?

Yes, it opened my eyes to making street spaces more open to pedestrians and less car-dominated.

Community Question Featured local question

Do you believe crime rates are changing? Where do you get your crime rate data from? Would you make any changes to existing public safety policy?

I accept that covid led to an increase in crime due to increased desperation, but I reject the idea of beefing up and re-militarizing police departments. Civil Rights movements are often followed by Law and Order backlashes and we need to be cautious in allowing this to harm low income communities.

Community Question Featured local question

Do you think the downtown area is healthy? What is your definition of a healthy downtown? What changes, if any, would you like to make?

I believe downtown is recovering nicely from the pandemic. A healthy downtown for me is one where every resident is welcome and treated with dignity, one where tourist dollars are not the determining factor for police conduct. Downtown can be a space where all feel welcome.

Community Question Featured local question

How important is it to involve residents in the government’s decision-making process? What plans do you have regarding resident involvement in this process?

Very important. I intend to find new avenues of inviting members of vulnerable communities to policy-making spaces. This includes unhoused neighbors, gender non-conforming individuals, and undocumented workers.

Community Question Featured local question

How should record requests from the public be handled? Do you have any policies around transparency and accountability you want to enact?

FOIA and CORA are wonderful examples of public right to transparency. Requests should be expedited more than they are currently.

Community Question Featured local question

How would you address crime and public safety? Do you have a different stance than current city council policy?

I would massively expand STAR and related programs to include experts on substance use and cultural norms and traditions. This involves reimagining how policing is a form of service instead of use of force.

Community Question Featured local question

How would you balance the needs and desires of existing business and housing communities with new development? Would you take gentrification and displacement into consideration when planning neighborhood development?

already answered above

Community Question Featured local question

How would you set priorities and develop plans in a way that will reflect community values and goals?

I will be in close touch with neighborhood associations, community and cultural leaders, and arts-based organizations to bring new voices to policy-making spaces, particularly those directly impacted by policies.

Community Question Featured local question

What do you think about the city's current approach to public safety? Would you take any different positions?

I would massively expand the STAR program to include cultural leaders and substance use experts and de-emphasize use of force in police training.

Community Question Featured local question

What do you think about the city's environmental health? Would you make any changes to current policy?

Yes, I would incentivize use of EV's and E-bikes, expand bike lanes and make RTD free. I would also press for environmental regulations to be strictly enforced.

Community Question Featured local question

What plans do you have regarding infrastructure?

I intend to invest a great deal of resources into an expanded network of bicycle and other non-carbon emitting forms of transportation and to make RTD free of cost.

Community Question Featured local question

What plans do you have regarding the police department? Would you make any changes from current policy?

Police training needs to be about de-escalation tactics and cultural and economic competency. This means finding ways to focus training on getting help into communities and situations where officers with guns are not required.

Community Question Featured local question

What policies would you have implemented in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic? Why did you select those policies?

I would have implemented a masking mandate and incentivized but not mandated vaccinations. I select these policies because they are the sound science-based approach to an epidemic.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Immigrant Rights, Worker Rights, Harm Reduction, Reparations to address the racial wealth gap, an expanded network of protected bicycle lanes in our city

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to my parents and how they navigated existing one income with 7 children. They lived a dignified life.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

Salt of the Earth

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Integrity, breadth of experience, hopefulness

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

Humility, Consistency, Compassion

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

To listen to all communities, to grow, to act with humility and not arrogance

What legacy would you like to leave?

I would like to serve the city as someone who is on the streets among the people, learning from them, not serving from above the people.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

I remember watching one of the first rockets to the moon take off on a black and white television. I was 3 years old.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I worked from the age of 13-17 picking vegetables on a vegetable farm. This was very difficult work physically and paid "under the table."

What is your favorite book? Why?

People's History of the US, by Howard Zinn. This book broke the mold and the grip that imperial/white supremacist history had in our society.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Springsteen, The River

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Finding my voice, learning who I am and becoming that person

A mayor is a leader in his or her city. What does that mean to you?

A Mayor shapes public policy and is also a visionary for a city. This means that they set the tone for the city's civic culture and welcoming nature.

If the mayor in your city is a member of the city council and there's a city manager appointed to handle the day-to-day administration of the city government, what do you believe should be the mayor's top priority in office?

Top priority should be getting resources directly into the hands of those in need, without strings attached.

If the mayor in your city is not a member of the city council and oversees the day-to-day administration of the city government, what do you believe is the ideal relationship between the mayor and city council?

There needs to me a more balanced relationship between the Mayor and City Council than currently exists. I would like to see a weaker Mayor in Denver, one that can be checked by City Council.

What do you love most about your city?

Denver is a city where people reimagine themselves and were cultural layers are vast and beautiful.

What do you perceive to be your city's greatest challenges over the next decade?

The massive wealth gap among our residents where many cannot afford to remain in the city.

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between your city and the state government?

Cooperative with a share vision of serving every member of society, housed and unhoused, documented and undocumented, mainstream or nonconforming

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between your city and the federal government?

Same as above. Local law enforcement have no business assisting with ICE activities that target our residents.

Tell us your favorite joke.

can't think of a good one

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the mayor's office and law enforcement?

Law Enforcement should take direction and tone from the Mayor.....with the focus on respecting human rights.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

workers and students across this city.

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.

Note: Community Questions were submitted by the public and chosen for inclusion by a volunteer advisory board. The chosen questions were modified by staff to adhere to Ballotpedia’s neutrality standards. To learn more about Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection Expansion Project, click here.

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Candidate

Mayor of Denver

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