Three GOP Governor Candidates Target High Country Housing Crisis

The wind off the Continental Divide doesn’t care about your property taxes. It cuts through the flannel and the wool, indifferent to whether you’re a first responder or a teacher. But for the folks living in the High Country, that cold is just the backdrop to a warmer, more urgent problem: they can’t afford to stay.

Housing in Colorado’s mountain communities is broken. The crisis isn’t just about supply; it’s about who gets to live here. And as the June 30 Republican primary for governor heats up, three candidates are betting their campaigns on fixing it for the Western Slope.

Scott Bottoms, Barbara Kirkmeyer, and Victor Marx are the names on the ballot. They’re all vying for the same seat. And they’re all arguing that Denver has forgotten how to listen to the mountains.

The question is simple. Why is it so hard for a nurse or a rancher to buy a house in the same county they work?

Bottoms says the answer is government. He calls it "excessive fees, mandates and red tape." He argues that Front Range-focused bills ignore rural realities. High construction costs. Environmental rules. Limited land use flexibility. He wants to slash the regulatory burden. He advocates cutting property taxes. He pushes to streamline permitting. His pitch is straightforward: reduce government overreach, and housing becomes attainable again. He’s talking about local control. No more one-size-fits-all mandates from the capital.

Kirkmeyer is looking at the data. Specifically, the Colorado State Patrol. Joint budget committee discussions show a 50% vacancy rate in the High Country. Why? Home prices scare away potential recruits. Firefighters are facing the same squeeze. Kirkmeyer didn’t just talk about it. Last year, she sponsored legislation. It’s now law. It expands access for first responders to downpayment assistance programs through the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority. She wants to modernize those programs. Many were designed when current housing prices were unthinkable. She also wants to repeal recent statewide energy efficiency requirements. Those requirements add $60,000 to the price of a new home. That $60,000 hit applies whether you’re building near the Oklahoma border or at 10,000 feet in Leadville.

Marx is sitting with the people. He’s talked to teachers. Nurses. Ranchers. They can’t afford to live where they work. He calls it heartbreaking. He blames Denver politicians who write policy like mountain communities don’t exist. He calls the crisis a "regulatory crisis." He promises to cut the red tape driving up construction costs. He wants to end unfunded mandates that force counties to raise local taxes. He seeks flexibility for mountain communities to build workforce housing.

The short version? All three blame regulation. All three blame Denver. But they’re offering different tools to fix it.

Bottoms wants to slash taxes and cut red tape. Kirkmeyer points to specific programs she’s already enacted. Marx focuses on local flexibility and ending unfunded mandates.

It’s worth watching how they define "local control." Is it just less interference from Denver? Or is it the ability for a town like Leadville to manage its own zoning without state interference? The candidates say it’s the latter. They say the current system forces rural counties to pay for state mandates without the revenue to back it up.

The housing crisis isn’t going away. It’s getting worse. And until the cost of building a simple house drops below the cost of a new truck, the High Country will keep losing its working class.

The primary is June 30. The voters in the valley will decide which version of "fixing" it they believe.