As of Thursday morning, five candidates had submitted statements ahead of a Dec. 28 vacancy committee meeting to select a new representative for state House District 64.

Kimmi Lewis, R-Kim, held the seat from 2017 until Dec. 6, when she died of cancer at age 62. State law provides for a political party’s central committee to form a vacancy committee to select a candidate of the same party as the person who vacated the seat.

The declared candidates have backgrounds ranging from prior elected experience at the local level to none at all. Some have a military background, and the majority are ranchers. A few of the men touted their longstanding ties to the Republican Party, while one of them vowed to connect younger people to the GOP. Multiple candidates said that they were the one best-suited to continue Lewis’s legacy.

House District 64 encompasses the Eastern Colorado counties of Baca, Bent, Crowley, Elbert, Kiowa, Las Animas, Lincoln, Prowers and Washington. The district, one of the largest, is one of only two to border three states.

Committee representatives will meet at the Elbert County Fairgrounds in Kiowa beginning at noon. House District 64 Central Committee Chairman Bob Lewis said that although people have submitted letters of interest, doing so is not mandatory and the committee will take nominations from the floor.

Colorado Politics sent a brief questionnaire to all five declared candidates asking about their policy priorities and their plans to run for a full two-year term in November. Only two candidates responded, and their statements are noted below.

Richard Alonso Holtorf lives near Akron and is a cattle rancher and farmer. He served in the military for 29 years, including 12 years on active duty and two combat deployments to Afghanistan. He is a life member of the National Rifle Association and the former president of the Washington County Farm Bureau. He wrote that he is an English-to-Spanish volunteer translator at the county court.

On Thursday, Holtorf outlined multiple policy proposals he would like to pursue in the Legislature, including tax deductions for cellular and broadband expansion in rural Colorado.

“One of the things I would like to do is propose a bill that would economically incentivize our Internet service provider companies and our telephone, cellular phone companies by creating economic incentives to build more architecture to support high-speed Internet and communication,” he said.

Holtorf would also like to raise speed limits on rural roads where safe; promote “economically-viable” renewable energy while defending traditional, carbon-based sources; and expand tax credits for medical professionals who work in rural Colorado.

“You would be able to have some tax incentives developed that would help promote wage equality with your peers that are working in the urban corridor making higher wages,” he said.

While Holtorf did not have specific plans to find additional revenue for transportation infrastructure or public education, he “absolutely believe[s] that there is more money required to support funding education and transportation. Most of the school districts are clamoring because they don’t have full funding.”

He added that he does not have any plans to run for a two-year term in November whether or not he is selected, calling such decision-making “premature.”

Mack Richard Louden lives in Las Animas County and is a rancher and a former commissioner. He also served as acting county administrator during what he described as a harrowing time in which the county reduced hours of service to cut costs.

“This was very sobering, but it gave me valuable experience wearing two hats,” he wrote. “Las Animas County had a vibrant natural gas industry which was virtually destroyed by regulations imposed by the state.”

Louden also cited his experience on the Las Animas County Weed Board, Economic Development Board and the Branson School Board. He said that he had worked with Kimmi Lewis for 30 years, including on issues of conservation easements and the proposed expansion of Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site. He is president of the Land, Water and Food Alliance, which advocates for rural Colorado and the agriculture industry.

On Friday morning, Louden said that he was not ready to talk about what his legislative priorities would be if selected. “I’ve got to get elected first. Need to talk to leadership in the House to see what’s already on the table. I’ve got some ideas.”

He added that he would like to work on the issues that Lewis was handling prior to her death.

Keenan Orcutt lives on his family’s cattle ranch in Rush, which appears to be just outside the district boundary in El Paso County. (Party chair Bob Lewis said that to his knowledge, Orcutt lives in the district.) He wrote that he served in the Marine Corps and is a life member of the National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners of America.

Orcutt believes he is the best candidate to continue the work of Kimmi Lewis by “fighting for the rural people of Colorado. Now more than ever we need a strong voice from rural Colorado to remind the metropolitan area that we are still here and that we still get a vote.” He also hopes to “show younger voters that the Republican Party can and will address what matters to them.”

James “Jim” Vigil lives west of Trinidad and is a member of the Colorado Farm Bureau. He wrote that he is a Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam and taught at Trinidad State Junior College. He is a former Las Animas County commissioner and is secretary of the Colorado Parks & Wildlife Commission.

Vigil advocated for teaching that “the best tool for management of wildlife is hunting. If eliminating hunting were to occur — we would have spreading of diseases and starvation.”

His statement also mentioned his role in an energy efficiency upgrade at the Trinidad Courthouse. “I found a state sponsored program that would replace the furnace and other energy efficiency items without it coming out of the taxpayers’ pockets,” he wrote. The renovations “also helped to reduce water usage now and for the future.”

Scott W. Wills is an Elbert County resident since 1997 who touted his participation in local Republican Party functions. His statement mentions that he served as the county party’s chairman from 2008 to 2015 and as an intern for former U.S. Rep. Hank Brown in 1984.

“I still get emotional during the playing of the [National] Anthem,” Wills wrote. At age 14, he said he was “devastated” when President Jimmy Carter won the 1976 election, but “I got to vote for my hero, Ronald Reagan, a few years later. … That’s when I became a Republican.”