Candidates launch Democratic campaigns for State House Districts

By NATHAN DEAL

Nathan.Deal@gjsentinel.com

In 2024, the elections for both Colorado House Districts 54 and 55 were one-candidate affairs, with Republicans winning their seats unopposed.

That will not be the case this year.

On Friday night in a packed Good Judy’s in downtown Grand Junction, Orchard Mesa’s Brittni Packard announced her candidacy for District 55 (Grand Junction) and Palisade’s Mallory Martin announced her candidacy for District 54 (which includes the Grand Valley outside of Grand Junction, as well as Delta and Collbran areas). Both are running as Democrats.

Packard, whose background is in judicial work, and Martin, a small business owner who has helped organize events for Indivisible Grand Junction and No Kings, both pointed toward increasing costs and stagnant wages, access to healthcare, and affordable housing as the cornerstone issues of their respective campaigns.

“My generation was sold a lie,” Packard told attendees. “We were told that, if we went to school, we got a degree and we did what society expected us to do, we would be rewarded with opportunity. Still, many of us will never buy a house, we’ll never pay off our student loan debt, and it’s not because we didn’t work hard; it’s because the rules were written for someone else.”

“In a representative government, I am left looking around and wondering where my representation is,” Martin added. “Where are the people running for office who have had to choose between paying the rent or keeping the lights on? Who are those who couldn’t afford to keep their baby alive? Years later, the answer is clear to me now that I’m treading water and have a moment to breathe: they aren’t running for office because they can’t. They’re drowning.... So many of us are one incident away from disaster.”

Packard, 35, is running to oust Rick Taggart, the Grand Junction Republican who is running for his third term in the state house. Martin, 44, is running for the seat currently held by Republican Matt Soper, who will leave office due to term limits. There are two Republicans running for the seat: Express Employment Professionals Owner Nina Anderson and Delta City Councilman William Tedrow.

Both Democrat candidates gave their backgrounds at Good Judy’s, providing insight into why they’re seeking elected office.

Packard was raised by her grandparents because her mother was a teen mom who developed a drug addiction. In her

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Colorado House District 55 Candidate Brittni Packard, left, smiles while hugging HD 54 Candidate Mallory Martin as they announce their State House campaigns at Good Judy’s in Grand Junction on Jan. 30, 2026.

LARRY ROBINSON / The Daily Sentinel

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early 20s, Packard got custody of her youngest sister, and she also looked after her other siblings, all while working, having kids and going to school.

“During that time, I saw the ugliest parts of the child welfare and judicial system. I felt trapped, with no control at the whim of bureaucracy too many times to count. I fought hard to advocate for and protect my family’s best interests,” Packard said.

She graduated from Colorado Mesa University and worked with justice- impacted juveniles while connecting families to legal resources. She learned from this experience how many people have to overcome difficult circumstances and the need for those people to have resources available to them.

“I know what it’s like to struggle. I’ve stood in line at the food bank and had it handed over with checks, feeling embarrassed and sad that I couldn’t provide for my family. I worked hard to gain an education far beyond what my parents or grandparents ever achieved. There were days when I didn’t think I would make it, days I wanted to throw it all away and give up, but I didn’t, because I hold a lot of the same values that we hold in the Grand Valley: hard work, grit and tenacity to make sure that our children’s lives are just a little bit easier than ours,” Packard said.

“Those lessons most certainly don’t come from wealth or privilege. They come from lived experience, navigating systems that weren’t built with everyone in mind. My fight taught my something essential: systems don’t change unless the people demand they do.”

Martin talked about her traumatic experience with her oldest son. She went to see her doctor at 26 weeks pregnant, and the doctor determined she had preeclampsia, encouraging Martin to go to the hospital for blood pressure medication along with more tests and treatments for her unborn son’s lungs. Her son nearly died after he was born because of a blood clot in his lung, but Martin said “modern science” saved her son.

Over the following three months, Martin and her husband spent most of their time at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in Denver as their son was treated. This time ate into their planned time off and their savings. In order to receive an expensive prescription formula for their son so that they could take him out of the hospital, she had to go through the Colorado Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program.

“This was my first experience with welfare and I was ashamed, coming from a family who took care of themselves and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps; I had been raised to believe that needing help was a personal failure,” Martin said. “That program saved my baby’s life.”

Martin expressed dismay at the state of national politics, referencing “mothers ripped from their children, people killed at the hands of masked men, and a coordinated attack on our democracy and rule of law.” She said it is up to state officials to stand up to “creeping authoritarianism” while working to provide for the communities they represent.

“People have the right to medical care, a roof over their head, and nutritious food for themselves and their families. People in western Colorado deserve the opportunity to be safe and healthy. That means supporting small businesses, agriculture, safeguarding our lands and water, access to real affordable housing and healthcare for all,” Martin said. “It means fixing tax structures and corporate welfare. It means fighting against lobbyists and big-money donors so we’re free to make decisions for us: the people who live, work and play here in western Colorado.”

Martin elaborated on her local concerns in an interview with The Daily Sentinel.

“HD 54 is more rural. A lot of the voters I have talked to have been really concerned about hospitals closing. Delta Hospital has already lost providers. They have to come either to Grand Junction or go to Montrose for a birthing center. Every person deserves healthcare and access to it,” she said, referencing Delta Health’s shuttering of its labor and delivery unit last year. (A Daily Sentinel story on the closure can be read at tinyurl.com/5798d7ps.)

“One of the things I’m really interested in is a vacancy tax on homes,” she added on the topic of home affordability. “How can we charge these corporations who are just allowing homes to sit empty, which drives up the cost of rentals and housing?”

Colorado House District 54 Candidate Mallory Martin speaks to supports while announcing her house campaign alongside HD 55 Candidate Brittni Packard at Good Judy’s in Grand Junction on Jan. 30, 2026.

LARRY ROBINSON / The Daily Sentinel

Colorado House District 55 Candidate Brittni Packard smiles while announcing her house campaign alongside HD 54 Candidate Mallory Martin at Good Judy’s on Jan. 30, 2026.

LARRY ROBINSON / The Daily Sentinel