Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie wins reelection to final term in House District 13 race

Incumbent Rep. Julie McCluskie (D-Dillon) is on track to secure a final term to the Statehouse, according to preliminary election results as of 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. 

McCluskie, the Colorado House Speaker, is leading her opponent, businessman Dave Williams (R-Buena Vista), with just under 57% of the vote compared to Williams’s 43%. The candidates are running to represent House District 13 — which spans Chaffee, Grand, Jackson, Lake, Park, and Summit counties.

First elected in 2018, she became the first woman from the Western Slope to serve as speaker of the House in 2022. Prior to her time in government, she served in communication roles for the Summit School District and former Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia. 

During her time as speaker, she has helped her party secure policy wins on abortion rights, gun regulations, property taxes, and education funding. She has also leaned into her record of working with Republicans on some key bills, casting herself as a bipartisan lawmaker. 

Williams is a private home contractor and chair of the Chaffee County Republican Party. He has positioned himself as a moderate Republican and was among the group of local party leaders that voted unsuccessfully to oust the divisive, far-right state Republican Party chair who shares the same name. 

Despite the district’s Democratic lean, he said the tightening margins for McCluskie in previous races indicated he may be able to pull off an upset victory. Prior to redistricting in 2021, McCluskie won her 2020 and 2018 races with more than 60% of the vote. In her last race in 2022, she won by 56%. 

Cost of living emerged as a leading issue of the 2024 campaign, with House District 13 representing some of Colorado’s most expensive counties. 

McCluskie ran on a platform of delivering affordable housing initiatives to her communities primarily through the creation of state funds that have funneled millions into local projects. 

Yet she has also walked a tightrope on how involved the state should be in rural resort areas’ housing woes. While she supported sweeping land-use reform measures aimed at incentivizing more housing development in the Front Range this year, she stopped short of calling for those approaches in mountain towns. 

Williams criticized state housing efforts, maintaining that his approach to solving his district’s affordability challenges would be to leave it to the open market. He said state mandates, such as building codes aimed at increasing electrical energy, have only driven up housing costs. 

Other campaign issues for McCluskie included conserving natural resources, protecting water rights and bolstering funding for public schools. Williams’ platform included cutting taxes, loosening regulations on agriculture and defending gun ownership.