Donna Walter is the Republican candidate for the Colorado House of Representatives, District 52, in the Nov. 3 election.
Walter has worked in the natural wellness field for 35 years and has 29 years of experience working at the Capitol, according to her website.
“Colorado has been the wonderful place I call home,” Walter’s website reads. “As a legislator, I will ensure that Colorado remains the wonderful place that brought my family here in the first place.”
The issues Walter’s campaign highlights on her website include health care, education, economy, environment and transportation.
For health care, Walter writes that she “can offer experience, insights and serious solutions instead of endless political fighting.”
“Education must work for families in urban areas, rural areas and our suburbs. It must work for girls and boys alike. It must work for the gifted and talented, those with special needs and all children in between.” -State House candidate Donna Walter’s website
On her website, Walter states that Colorado lawmakers claim to have reduced health care costs by 20% but there is no proof that bills went down for state residents. Instead, Walter says, lawmakers raised hospital costs.
In regards to education, choice for parents and students is important to Walter, because “education is not one size fits all.”
Walter’s website says that Colorado needs to provide vocational and job skills training along with “affordable quality higher education.”
“Education must work for families in urban areas, rural areas and our suburbs,” Walter’s website says. “It must work for girls and boys alike. It must work for the gifted and talented, those with special needs and all children in between.”
On her economy page, Walter says that she has experience running a business and that state lawmakers should not decide which businesses and jobs matter and which don’t.
Walter advocates for common sense environmental policies, according to her website. Walter claims that Gov. Jared Polis’ growth policies worsen air quality and create more traffic congestion, which in turn worsens air quality.
For transportation, Walter wants to put transportation infrastructure first and fix roads instead of creating mass transit options like high-speed rail.
In July, Walter sued Larimer and Boulder counties, Fort Collins and the state of Colorado over their mask mandates, according to The Coloradoan.
On Walter’s website, she says mask orders are harmful and ineffective. Her website says that masks restrict oxygen and can increase respiratory infections.
The Digital MEdiC program at Stanford University says that neither surgical nor cloth masks reduce oxygen, but “some masks mean you have to put more effort into breathing if you wear them for a long time.”
Walter’s website says that, according to science, “healthy uninfected people don’t need masks because they’re not infected; healthy asymptomatic people don’t need masks because masks are ineffective at filtering the particles associated with a negligible risk.”
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone two years old and older wear a mask when around people who do not live in the same household, in public and in situations where social distancing cannot be maintained.
“Masks are recommended as a simple barrier to help prevent respiratory droplets from traveling into the air and onto other people when the person wearing the mask coughs, sneezes, talks or raises their voice,” the CDC website says. “This is called source control.”
Walter declined to be interviewed by The Collegian for this story.
Colorado ballots mailed out Oct. 9 and can be dropped off at ballot locations around the state through 7 p.m. on election day. Ballots that are mailed in must be sent in time to be received by 7 p.m. on election day.
Serena Bettis can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @serenaroseb.
