2020 Election Watch: Colorado, Oklahoma, and Utah Primaries

Meet the Run for Something Endorsed Candidates with State and Local Primaries on June 30

It’s the last day of June and we have six candidates running in primaries in Oklahoma, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Utah! Today’s primary candidates are running to make big changes in their community: In Colorado, Alexis King is competing for District Attorney, looking to bring an equitable lens to the judicial system. Activist and educator Joél-Léhi Organista is running for Salt Lake City School Board pushing inclusive policy that center the stories and lives of BIPOC students.

Learn more about today’s candidates and, if you have to go to the polls, make sure you exercise your right to vote safely.

Candidates

Colorado

Alexis King
Colorado District Attorney, 1st Judicial District

Alexis King is running to be the next District Attorney for Colorado’s First Judicial District, an office never held by a woman. Alexis served as a prosecutor in the First Judicial District for a decade where she built a reputation as an ethical prosecutor and collaborative leader. Alexis spearheaded progressive programs to keep kids out of the justice system and detention facilities. She served as the lead human trafficking prosecutor in her District and an expert voice for Colorado. Alexis’ dedication to collaborative work took her to the bench. As a magistrate, she was a key player in bond reform efforts to address the over incarceration of people facing poverty, mental illness, and addiction.

Alexis is running to continue her work on prosecution alternatives, bond reform, and transparency, while ensuring her community is protected from those who exploit and harm vulnerable people. Alexis began her career in a non-profit serving survivors of intimate partner violence and is currently an attorney for survivors of gender based violence in schools. She lives in Golden with her spouse and two children.

John Ronquillo
Colorado State House, District 40

John has dedicated most of his life to public service as a volunteer, community activist, working in applied policy analysis and advocacy, and in the classroom as an instructor of future public servants. A professor at the University of Colorado Denver, John resides in Aurora–Colorado’s most diverse city–and as a member of the Colorado House of Representatives he hopes to address serious inequities in housing, health care, student debt, and civil rights and social equity, among many other issues facing Coloradans today.

Massachusetts

Vivian Webster
Mansfield School Committee

Vivian is a social worker, mother of two and a local leader. She is founder and director of a non-profit catering to at risk families running for Mansfield School Committee.

Upon graduating with a degree in Business Marketing, she worked as a market research director until she ultimately realized she did not have the greatest work/life balance. Putting family first, Vivian made a career change dedicating her time to those who needed a hand up in life.

Vivian offers a unique perspective on the strengths and weaknesses on how the district helps the neediest kids as a parent of students that have used special education services and as a woman of color who went through the METCO program.

As someone who works with at risk families, Vivian has first hand knowledge of how we can do better, on issues including disciplinary issues and cultural competence training.

Oklahoma

Jo Anna Dossett
Oklahoma State Senate, District 35

Jo Anna is a young parent and public educator. Although service in the U.S. Peace Corps took her briefly from her city of birth, her goal was always to return to Tulsa to establish a career, home, and family.

She certainly achieved it: as a public educator, Jo Anna has devoted 15 years to teaching English Learners throughout Tulsa. Whether with youngsters by day, or adults in the evening, her passion for equipping students with the language tools they need for success has become her trademark. During those 15 years, Jo Anna has earned a master’s degree in her field, been named a school district teacher of the year, and maintained high levels of engagement and leadership positions in her local education foundation, and local and state teacher associations.

Whether serving on local school bond committees, mentoring early career teachers, lobbying legislators, or pounding the pavement for Tulsa school board and legislative candidates, Jo Anna’s energy toward the betterment of her community is limitless. When elected, Jo Anna will be a fierce advocate for public education funding and teacher-led reform, access to affordable and comprehensive healthcare, and reduction in Oklahoma’s excessive incarceration rates.

Mauree Turner
Oklahoma State House, District 88

Mauree (she/they) is a born and raised community organizer whose focus is in justice system reform. Their experience growing up in Oklahoma with an incarcerated parent, a single-parent household, and a product of Oklahoma’s public education system is not unique, but a story thousands of Oklahoman’s share. Mauree works directly in holistic justice system reform, LGBTQ+ equity justice, religious freedom, and cultural sensitivity. Their life’s works is geared towards fighting for and maintaining the civil rights and liberties for all who enter America and has worked with the NAACP, CAIR, ACLU as well as a number or grassroots organizations. Mauree is a Black, Queer, Muslim, Womxn from Oklahoma Running to be the next Representative of Oklahoma City’s House District 88, one of Oklahoma’s most liberal districts.

While attending university, Mauree was able to reconnect with their father, in doing so they were able to take a closer look at Oklahoma’s industrial prison complex and how it fails communities and families from the start — especially when companied with Oklahoma’s failing public education system and diminishing access to integrated healthcare. With their background in community organizing, Mauree became a state organizer for the ACLU of Oklahoma’s Campaign for Smart Justice. In doing direct policy advocacy, they realized how common their story is, and why the people directly impacted need to be in the position to correct our broken system. Their life’s motto is ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’.

Utah

Joél-Léhi Organista
Salt Lake School Board, Precinct 1

Joél-Léhi was born in Mexico City, Mexico, and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. Joél-Léhi has spent over a decade leading in educational issues across the country. Joél-Léhi did all his public schooling in the Salt Lake School District (SLSD), where he graduated from West High School in 2010 with the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma.

Joél-Léhi is an educator that has taught at Horizonte within the SLSD. He teaches a decolonized leadership course at the University of Utah and has been an appointed member of the Utah State Board of Education’s Equity Committee. He’s currently the National President of the Education for Liberation Network, a nonprofit of predominantly youth, educators, and parents of color organizers for education justice issues. Named as one of Utah’s 20 in their 20s by Utah Business; Joél-Léhi is a social entrepreneur that created the EdTech startup Machitia, which is the space for educators to share best practices and transformative lesson plans.

When Joél-Léhi was 18 years old, he was invited to present at the United Nations IV World Congress on Child and Adolescent Rights. He co-founded the National Student Bill of Rights Movement and is the LULAC National Vice President of Youth with the largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization in the country. He knows Spanish, English, Japanese, Portuguese, and Nahuatl.