The Colorado Center Party is a minor third party in the United States state of

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, primarily centered around its second congressional district, promoting a

centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

political program. The party achieved minor party status in September 2023.

History

The party was founded by Steve Yurash, a

Never Trump The Never Trump movement (also known as #nevertrump, Stop Trump, anti-Trump, or Dump Trump movement) is a conservative political movement that opposes Trumpism and U.S. president Donald Trump, and in general, supports a return to a more rule ...

Republican, who left the Republican party in 2019 and spent two years working on forming his own political party. Yurash stated that "The Center Party is more left-leaning on the social issues and more right-leaning on the fiscal issues and crime," with the party being launched in January 2022 and stated that they aim to "bring civility back to politics" and "protect us from the far left and the far right," backing positions the party views as bipartisan and "common sense" with the party aiming to attract the 47% of Colorado's electorate that are registered political independents. The party officially got over 1,000 signatures in a ballot access petition and received minor party status in Colorado on September 7, 2023. As such, the party no longer needs to gather signatures to stand their candidates, removing one of the largest barriers to their participation in elections. In 2024 the party chose to only stand two candidates, Yurash for

Colorado House of Representatives The Colorado House of Representatives is the lower house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Colorado. The House is composed of 65 members from an equal number of constituent districts, with each distri ...

district 52, and Bernadette Tedesco for Adams County commissioner.

Election results

2022

Yurash stood for

Colorado's 2nd congressional district Colorado's 2nd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Colorado. The district is located in the north-central part of the state, and encompasses the Front Range northwest of Denver metropolitan area, Denver, mai ...

during the 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Colorado, centering his campaign around that " he party isfirmly firmly anti-crime and support our police to handle crime with civilian oversight, and we support more gun control." Yurash got 2,876 votes, or 0.8% of the electorate earning a distant third place, but performing better than the American Constitution Party and the

Unity Party of America The Unity Party of America is a national political party in the United States founded on November 4, 2004 with the slogan "Not Right, Not Left, But Forward!" The party has 45 state affiliates, one of which, Colorado, has ballot access. Additionall ...

2024

Yurash would contest the nominally unopposed

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

Yara Zokaie for the

' 52nd District. Yurash has primarily built his campaign on the fact there is no Republican in the race, leaving him as the only real opposition to Zokaie. Yurash's platform is largely just the opposite of Zokaie's, with Yurash supporting property tax relief, TABOR tax refunds, maintaining and supporting privatized utilities, no changes to the state's land use law, preserving Cash Bail, supporting

School choice School choice is a term for education options that allow students and families to select alternatives to traditional public schools. School choice options include scholarship tax credit programs, open enrollment laws (which allow students to att ...

, and protecting the 2nd Amendment. Yarush would earn 18,088 votes, or 36.7% of the electorate. The party also stood a second candidate Bernadette Tedesco for Commissioner of Adams County. Tedesco ran to "foster unity and collaboration" within the county, and claims to be a champion for the working class. Her platform calls for a "balanced" energy position supporting both fossil fuels and green energy, enhancing public safety, reducing homelessness, and a reduction of property taxes. Tedesco also ran against a nominally unopposed Democrat Kathy Henson and would come in second place with 52,667 votes or 37.65% of the electorate.

Positions

*Reducing illegal immigration by securing the

Mexico–United States border The international border separating Mexico and the United States extends from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from urban areas to deserts. It is the List of ...

. *Eliminating

cash bail In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In book-keeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-imm ...

and other prison reform. *Supporting abortion and women's access to abortion clinics. *Punishing polluters who willingly contribute to

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

Notes

References

{{Colorado political parties Political parties in Colorado 2022 establishments in Colorado Political parties established in 2022 Centrist political parties in the United States