Stephanie Luck formally announced her candidacy on Saturday to be the Republican candidate for state House District 47.

“When I think of my students and look at what is happening in Denver, I am compelled to act,” Luck said in a statement. “If my former students approached me in twenty years asking, ‘Where were you when the state was infringing on our property rights, when they were attacking family, free markets and fundamental freedoms? Where were you when they were stealing our heritage and our future?’ I want to be able to say, ‘I was fighting.'”

Luck, a resident of Penrose in Fremont County, taught sixth grade for one year at a charter school. She has a law degree and has been the president of the Penrose Chamber of Commerce and a board member with Fremont County Communities that Care. She also spent seven years living and working abroad, and describes herself as “a builder” on her website.

“Though with a background in law and policy, I rarely build with hammers and nails; instead my tools consist of ideas, words and plans that together have the power to shape environments where people can thrive,” Luck wrote.

She previously campaigned for the open Senate District 2 seat in 2018, but lost to Dennis Hisey, R-Fountain.

House District 47 encompasses Fremont, Pueblo, and Otero counties. In 2018, Democratic Rep. Bri Buentello narrowly won over Republican Don Bendell. She was the first Democrat to win the district since Rep. Buffie McFadyen reached her term limit in 2011. Since the 2010 election, multiple Republicans held the seat until Buentello’s victory.