With the 2025 session underway, Colorado Politics caught up with House Majority Leader Monica Duran on her priorities and expectations. The answers have been slightly edited.

CP: What is your top priority for this session?

Monica Duran: As a survivor of domestic violence, I will continue to advocate and work on policies to protect crime victims and keep vulnerable Coloradans safe. I am also committed to making Colorado a more affordable place to live, specifically by supporting our workers and ensuring they have the tools available to them to thrive and a supportive work environment.

CP: What is your caucus’s top priority for this session?

Duran: Affordability: From investing in public schools to reducing the cost of housing, health care, higher education and child care, Colorado Democrats have delivered results for hardworking Coloradans. This session, we’re recommitting our efforts to make Colorado a more affordable place to live for all and create an environment where families have the support they need to thrive.

Public Safety and Gun Violence Protection: Colorado Democrats are focused on continuing the trend of decreasing crime rates by investing in proven crime prevention methods, like mental health and addiction services and creating good-paying jobs that Coloradans can build a life off of. As always, we’re committed to saving lives by keeping our communities safe from gun violence.

Protecting the Colorado way of life: Coloradans have made their voices clear — we have voted to protect our rights and freedoms and rejected attacks against the right to choose, the freedom to marry, our water and air, and our election system. We have done everything we can to protect these rights and freedoms in state law and the state constitution, and we are ready to respond to any attacks.

CP: Given the state’s budgetary constraints, how will you manage your caucus’s expectations and the governor’s expectations?

Duran: Although the December budget forecast was more promising than the one in September, it is clear that we will face difficult decisions in the years ahead. The Joint Budget Committee has been working closely with state agencies to better understand how we can craft a responsible budget, while maintaining our commitments to existing programs that help our most vulnerable. Members of the General Assembly know that we have a tight budget to work with this session, and I will work closely with them to ensure we can fulfill the commitments we have made to K-12 public education funding, affordable housing, and health care.

CP: How will you guide new members to avoid what happened in 2023, when several new lawmakers left due to what they called a toxic environment?

Duran: Between working on weekends and having tough discussions on the floor to having to make sacrifices in your life for committee work and stakeholding, the legislature can be a very tough environment. While there were two resignations after the 2023 session, we saw much better camaraderie and bipartisanship during the 2024 legislative session, and I think our celebration on sine die shows the progress we made. As the Majority Leader, I take morale very seriously and I will continue to do the necessary work to make the state House a positive workplace.

CP: What do you hope to accomplish by the end of the session?

Duran: The success of not only my own bills but our caucus priorities, like making housing, health care, child care, and higher education more affordable, making our communities safer, and protecting Coloradans’ freedoms. My job as the Majority Leader is to manage the scheduling of bills being heard on the floor, and I am committed to managing the calendar to the best of my ability to ensure that bills that will save Coloradans money and protect our most vulnerable will not die on the calendar due to time constraints.