Your monthly support provides voters the knowledge they need to make confident decisions at the polls. Donate today.
Kristi Burton Brown
Kristi Burton Brown (Republican Party) (also known as KBB) is a member of the Colorado State Board of Education, representing Colorado's 4th Congressional District. She assumed office on January 8, 2025. Her current term ends on January 14, 2031.
Brown (Republican Party) ran for election to the Colorado State Board of Education to represent Colorado's 4th Congressional District. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Brown completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Kristi Burton Brown was born in Livermore, California. She earned a law degree from the Oak Brook College of Law in 2009. Her career experience includes working as a policy director, constitutional attorney, executive vice president, and managing editor.[1] Kristi Burton Brown was elected by party leadership to serve as the chair of the Colorado Republican Party on March 27, 2021.[2] She left the position in March 2023.[3]
Elections
2024
See also: Colorado State Board of Education election, 2024
General election
General election for Colorado State Board of Education District 4
Kristi Burton Brown defeated Krista Holtzmann in the general election for Colorado State Board of Education District 4 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Kristi Burton Brown (R)  | 60.5 | 263,234 |
 | Krista Holtzmann (D) | 39.5 | 171,565 | |
| Total votes: 434,799 | |||
| = 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 State Board of Education District 4
Krista Holtzmann advanced from the Democratic primary for Colorado State Board of Education District 4 on June 25, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Krista Holtzmann | 100.0 | 45,458 |
| Total votes: 45,458 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Colorado State Board of Education District 4
Kristi Burton Brown defeated Saundra Larsen in the Republican primary for Colorado State Board of Education District 4 on June 25, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Kristi Burton Brown | 53.4 | 56,540 |
 | Saundra Larsen | 46.6 | 49,244 | |
| Total votes: 105,784 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Brown in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Kristi Burton Brown completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Brown's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
- School Choice Educational opportunities should be for everyone. Neighborhood, charter, private, and home schools are all valid ways to educate children. Colorado should respect the rights of parents to make the choice that’s best for their own children, and our state constitution should uphold the right to school choice that our laws already recognize. School choice creates more innovation and better outcomes for more children, and that’s why I’ll always support additional quality options and be a friend of charter schools.
- Accountability & Academic Standards Teachers, superintendents, and school board members should be held accountable for academic performance in their classrooms, schools, and districts. But, at the State Board of Education, it goes higher. The Board should push on the legislature and the State Department of Education to stop stunting academic performance by trying to force woke standards on schools instead of empowering teachers to impart real knowledge and basic educational skills to children. The Board should also communicate directly with parents and engage them in the process of setting standards. And, the Board must remember that one size does not fit all. Local school districts understand the needs of their families the best.
- Parents’ Rights Parents should have easy access to all curriculum, surveys, speaker lists, books, websites and any other content their children will be exposed to in school. Hiding information from parents usually means something is wrong. Empowered parents help their children succeed in life, and involved parents tend to increase their children’s academic performance. All education officials — including those on the State Board — should welcome parents, provide transparency, and encourage them to make their voices heard.
A: Here come the elephants!
Heather Book, member of the Elizabeth School Board
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 website
Burton Brown’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
School Choice Educational opportunities should be for everyone. Neighborhood, charter, private, and home schools are all valid ways to educate children. Colorado should respect the rights of parents to make the choice that’s best for their own children, and our state constitution should uphold the right to school choice that our laws already recognize. School choice creates more innovation and better outcomes for more children, and that’s why I’ll always support additional quality options and be a friend of charter schools.
Teachers, superintendents, and school board members should be held accountable for academic performance in their classrooms, schools, and districts. But, at the State Board of Education, it goes higher. The Board should push on the legislature and the State Department of Education to stop stunting academic performance by trying to force woke standards on schools instead of empowering teachers to impart real knowledge and basic educational skills to children. The Board should also communicate directly with parents and engage them in the process of setting standards.
Instead of reacting to tragedy every time there’s a school shooting, we should take necessary preventative measures. The data shows one of the best things any school can do is bring in well-trained school resource officers (SROs) who not only guard our children but also build relationships with them. Our children are safest when they are protected by adults they trust. I will advocate for more SROs in school districts across Colorado and for the state to do its part in funding them.
Parents should have easy access to all curriculum, surveys, speaker lists, books, websites and any other content their children will be exposed to in school. Hiding information from parents usually means something is wrong. Empowered parents help their children succeed in life, and involved parents tend to increase their children’s academic performance. All education officials — including those on the State Board — should welcome parents, provide transparency, and encourage them to make their voices heard.
Your State Board of Education member should be present to hear your concerns. When I was State Republican Chairwoman, I made a promise to visit all 64 counties, and I kept that promise. CD4 knows that I consistently showed up to hear from citizens. That’s a track record I’ll continue on the Board of Education. I’ll be willing to come to your schools and hear how I can best be a voice for your teachers, principals, school board members, parents, and kids — because you can’t represent people you don’t talk to. [4] |
” |
| —Kristi Burton Brown’s campaign website (2024)[5] | ||
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.
2016 Republican National Convention
Burton Brown was an at-large delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Colorado. Burton was one of 30 delegates from Colorado initially bound by state party rules to support Ted Cruz at the convention. Colorado's delegates were later released since Cruz withdrew from the race.[6][7] Cruz suspended his campaign on May 3, 2016. At the time, he had approximately 546 bound delegates. For more on what happened to his delegates, see this page.
Delegate rules
At-large and congressional district delegates from Colorado to the 2016 Republican National Convention were elected at district conventions and at the state convention. 2016 Colorado GOP bylaws did not require delegates to pledge their support to a specific candidate. If a delegate chose to pledge his or her support, however, Colorado GOP bylaws stipulated that the delegate was bound to the candidate to whom he or she pledged their support on their intent-to-run form through the first round of voting at the national convention unless released by the candidate or if the candidate's name was not placed on the nominating ballot.
Colorado caucus
- See also: Presidential election in Colorado, 2016
In August 2015, the Colorado GOP cancelled its presidential preference poll, which was scheduled to coincide with the Republican caucuses on March 1, 2016. According to The Denver Post, the Republican executive committee "voted to cancel the traditional presidential preference poll after the national party changed its rules to require a state's delegates to support the candidate that wins the caucus vote." Colorado Republicans still sent delegates to the Republican National Convention in July 2016. District-level and at-large delegates (34) were bound according to the preferred candidates indicated on their intent-to-run forms. RNC delegates (3) were unbound, meaning that they did not have to pledge their support to a given candidate.[8] Though Republican precinct caucuses were held on March 1 in Colorado, Colorado Republican National Convention delegates were chosen at district conventions and the Colorado state GOP convention in April.[9] Colorado Republican Party rules required participants in the district conventions and statewide convention to have participated in the precinct caucuses.[10]
Delegate allocation
Colorado had 37 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, 21 were district-level delegates (three for each of the state's seven congressional districts). Thirteen delegates served at large. In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as delegates to the Republican National Convention.[11][12]
In 2015, the Republican Party of Colorado decided not to conduct a presidential preference poll in 2016. As a result, according to the Republican National Committee, all delegates were bound according to the preferred candidates indicated on their intent-to-run forms. RNC delegates were unbound, meaning that they did not have to pledge their support to a given candidate.[11][13]
See also
| Colorado | State Executive Elections | News and Analysis |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
External links
|
Candidate Colorado State Board of Education District 4 |
Officeholder Colorado State Board of Education District 4 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 4, 2024
- ↑ The Colorado Sun, "Kristi Burton Brown elected as next Colorado GOP chair, vows to bring 'a new generation of leadership'," March 27, 2021
- ↑ The Colorado Sun, "Kristi Burton Brown won’t seek another term as Colorado GOP chair after Republicans’ 2022 losses," December 20, 2022
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ kbbforcolorado, “Issues,” accessed June 18, 2024
- ↑ The Journal, "Colorado delegates back Cruz over Trump," July 20, 2016
- ↑ Colorado GOP, "CO GOP 2016 State Convention Results," accessed April 25, 2016
- ↑ The Denver Post, "Colorado Republicans cancel presidential vote at 2016 caucus," August 25, 2015
- ↑ Colorado GOP, "Caucus/Assembly/Convention 2016," January 19, 2016
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedwsj - ↑ 11.0 11.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016
- ↑ The Denver Post, "Colorado Republicans cancel presidential vote at 2016 caucus," August 25, 2015
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Debora Scheffel (R) |
Colorado State Board of Education District 4 2025-Present |
Succeeded by - |
 |
State of Colorado Denver (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |
