FRONT RANGE - Colorado has been making national news as of late, with Denver serving as the epicenter of political demonstrations and protests, and a portrait in the State Capitol drawing President Donald J. Trump’s ire. 

“Colorado, you have always been in the forefront of the civil rights struggle. I’m glad to see that you are taking your place again right in the front lines," 93-year-old civil rights activist Dolores Huerta said to a large crowd at the Capitol on Latino Advocacy Day, Monday, March 17, 2025. 

Huerta has spent a lifetime advocating for Latino rights. She started by organizing for migrant farm workers in 1962. She helped to create similar movements across the country, and her presence and involvement bolstered the Crusade For Justice campaign, started by Rodolfo Gonzales in Denver in 1967. 

Before she marched with hundreds of attendees to the steps of the Capitol, Huerta gave a speech at the Grand Hyatt, decrying President Trump’s executive orders and policies that greatly affect Latino Americans.

Latino Advocacy Day was organized by Vocas Unidas de las Montanas and the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights. 

On Thursday, March 20, thousands flocked to the State Capitol for the No More Cuts protest, organized by the Colorado Education Association. Local teachers, parents, and students rallied, many wearing red shirts or sweaters printed with the words “Red for Ed,” to denounce Governor Jared Polis’ proposed budget cuts to state education. 

Polis, in attempting to address the state’s $1.2 billion shortfall in its $40 billion budget, has proposed many cuts, including one for “Building Excellent Schools Today,” a grant program offered through the state’s own Department of Education. Polis has also suggested changing the funding metrics for school districts.

Currently, funding for Colorado schools is determined by a count of students, currently using a 5-year average for student enrollment to make that determination. Polis and lawmakers are recommending using only a single-year student count, which he believes would yield more accurate accounting and ultimately save the state money.  

Closer to home, the Boulder Valley School District believes that the state’s attempts at budget destabilization, coupled with the district’s declining student enrollment, could result in a loss of nearly $5 million in funding. 

The state’s proposed budget cuts to education come on the heels of the Trump Administration’s attempt to dismantle the federal Department of Education (DOE). An executive order, released the same day as the protest, seeks to permanently close the DOE and return the authority of educating America’s youth to the states. 

“Unfortunately, the experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars —and the unaccountable bureaucracy those programs and dollars support— has plainly failed our children, our teachers, and our families,” the executive order reads. It is ironically  titled “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities.”

“Closing the DOE would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them. Today, American reading and math scores are near historical lows. This year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that 70 percent of 8th graders were below proficient in reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in math. The Federal education bureaucracy is not working.”

On Friday, March 21, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders visited Colorado in two different stops on their tour, “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here.”

Their Colorado tour started at noon in Greeley, where over 10,000 gathered in the Bank of Colorado arena at the University of Northern Colorado. 

After live music from Rootbeer Richie and the Reveille, a local woman, Victoria, gave a powerful speech about the impact that the actions of the Trump Administration and Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE/Musk) have had on her life, as a mother of children who require special medical attention. 

Victoria detailed her life, often driving cross-country in order to bring her child to medical appointments with specialists. She expressed the fear and anger that has overcome her since Medicare and Medicaid have come under attack by the federal government.

“I challenge you to spend one single week with me and see how damn hard it is,” she said passionately, drawing loud cheers from the packed crowd. “How dare you make a decision about what my children’s future will look like when they’re my children.” 

An executive director for an organization that fights for workers’ justice, before introducing Ocasio-Cortez, spoke against Governor Polis’ efforts to eradicate the Worker Protection Act.

He also spoke to the theme of the rally, protesting against the exploitation of workers’ rights by major corporations and billionaires like Musk and Jeff Bezos, stating that Democrats need to “crack down on the oligarchs that have seized our country and stolen the American dream from us.” 

Ocasio-Cortez had a blunt message for Musk: “Get out of our healthcare,” she pronounced, to cheers from the audience.  

“I think the distance between us is a lot shorter than we think,” Ocasio-Cortez said, before detailing her early life waiting tables in New York City. “We share in the frustration and the heartache that comes from watching those in power actively tear down, or refuse to fight for, everyday working Americans like us. 

“Our political system is ill-prepared for this abuse of power,” she said, citing the many perceived injustices being perpetuated by the Trump Administration and DOGE/Musk. “In fact, much of our system enables it, starting with the role of money in politics.

“But we are not powerless in this moment. The last thing they want us to realize is that the division that is actually hurting our country the most is how endless greed is costing the lives of everyone else.” 

Ocasio-Cortez also called out Greeley’s Congressman Gabe Evans, as well as Lauren Boebert, for their positions regarding the recent federal budget vote, which presented cuts to Medicaid “by proxy,” as Ocasio-Cortez labeled it. 

“I hear you have a rep who hasn’t done a town hall,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I think you deserve better. Maybe he hasn’t been showing up because he voted to cut Medicaid; in fact, every single house Republican voted to cut Medicaid.” 

Congressman Gabe Evans’ office responded by stating: “Democrats may not know what their brand is right now, but Congressman Gabe Evans knows his.

“Gabe Evans is fighting for lower costs, safer communities, and making the American Dream possible for all Coloradans. His commonsense approach stands in stark contrast to AOC and Bernie Sanders’ radical, out-of-touch rhetoric.”

Sanders began by stating he believed there were at least 100,000 in attendance in Greeley, and on the subject of their tour’s theme, joked that he has been talking about the threat of oligarchy for a few years, and that the rest of the world was finally catching up.

“You have to be dumb and blind to not see what’s going on,” Sanders said, warning that oligarchy was right next door to authoritarianism.

“Today we have a president who is undermining our constitution every single day; who is threatening freedom of speech and freedom of assembly,” Sanders continued, describing Trump taking the fight to the federal judges who continue to block his unconstitutional executive orders. 

“What Trump is doing is saying ‘we don’t like that ruling, we’re going to get you impeached.’ Billions of Americans have fought and died to reserve American democracy, and we’re not going to let you take it away from us,” Sanders proclaimed. 

Sanders described the oligarchs to be wary of, stressing that Bezos, Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg own “more wealth than the bottom half of American society,” and that the growing class disparity in the country was due to their greed. He equated that greed to an addiction.  

“It is more than a shame, it is unacceptable,” Sanders said about the gap between the rich and the poor in America. “We are the richest country in the history of the world; there is no excuse for working class people dying seven years earlier than the rich.”

Sanders highlighted his goals, which he hopes are the Democratic Party’s goals: to provide free college tuition, to raise the minimum wage, to expand social security, to give women bodily autonomy, to stem global warming, and to give teachers higher wages.   

“In the richest country in the history of the world, we’re going to fight for and create an economy and a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%.”

Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders, following their stop in Greeley, held a rally at Civic Center Park in Denver. It began at 4 p.m. with live music by Freedom Singers and Xiuhtezcatl, and went on past 6 p.m. The Denver rally was reported to be attended by more than 34,000 people.   

On Monday, March 24, a rally was held outside the Aurora ICE detention facility for Mexican activist Jeanette Vizguerra.

Vizguerra was detained by ICE one week prior to the rally due to her immigration status. After a Denver District Court judge’s ruling, she will not be deported,. 

The local branch of the American Federation of Government Employees, a union for federal workers, organized at the Plaza of the Americas in Denver on Wednesday, March 26. The rally gathered outside the Environmental Protection Agency’s offices to protest DOGE/Musk’s attempts to reduce the agency through funding and job cuts.

And on Sunday, March 30, several organizations, including the Common Ground People’s Collective, are planning to gather upwards of 4,000 people at the State Capitol, from 12 to 4 p.m., for International Trans Day of Visibility. 

More protests are planned for Denver in upcoming months, some hyper-focused on specific issues, and others planned to put repeated pressure on national and local representatives, including weekly protests outside Republican Congressman Gabe Evans’ office. These are being organized on Reddit, under the sub r/DenverProtests.

Lastly, Governor Polis and the Colorado State Capitol have come under scrutiny by President Trump—not over policies, but regarding the president’s distaste for his official portrait. 

Despite Polis being named by President Trump in a social media post that derided the portrait, it was originally commissioned in 2018 by a Republican coalition. It was funded by a GoFundMe campaign created by the Colorado Senate President at the time, Kevin Grantham.

More than $10,000 was raised, and celebrated Colorado Springs artist Sarah Boardman, who has produced presidential portraits for Barack Obama and George W. Bush, was hired to create Trump’s portrait from a reference photograph. 

Reportedly, creating the official portrait included a legislative process to choose the reference photograph for the portrait. 

Boardman’s previous statements regarding her artistic style highlight her ability to allow only neutral feelings on a subject to influence her portrait work. She has yet to comment on Trump's recent social media posts expressing displeasure with her work.  

House Democrats gave a statement to the press that the portrait would be removed at the behest of Republicans.