Democrat Chris Kennedy has put his name in for speaker of the House for the 2023 General Assembly. This is not the time for another man to get that job. Our state has enough men running things, including the governor, state Senate president and all statewide offices except secretary of state. Move over, fellas. A Democratic woman should wrangle the House roost.

Why, as if the reasons aren’t obvious?

First, women are the large majority of voters in the Democratic party. According to the Secretary of State’s registration figures for September, there are 215,000-plus more active women voters than men in the Democratic party. There’s not one county in the state where men exceed women as Democrats. That’s out of 1,191,720 active Democratic voters. In other words, Democratic women outnumber men by almost 20 points, or roughly by a 60-40 split.

Second, women’s priorities aren’t the same as men’s. Most prominent concerns for women include: protecting children; restoring the neighborhood in public education; environmental safety; a just and fair judicial system; employment and pay equity; security from gun violence; and universal health care, including the reduction of maternal mortality and insuring women’s health rights. These issues require the same bold action as KC Becker, former House speaker, took in sponsoring SB19-181 putting human and environmental protection and safety as the top priority with oil and gas development.

It’s especially important that House leadership stand together for public K-12 education and neighborhood schools, including increasing funding for teachers and school support staff. During the last decade, the party has split over the state’s standardized testing system, school and district performance criteria, and publicly-elected governance models, as opposed to unelected charter school boards receiving public money while operating independently of public scrutiny. House leadership should stand for prioritizing neighborhoods, communities and public oversight, as well as academics, to ensure a strong public education system. State Senate leaders haven’t offered leadership in this arena. Women representatives in the House should fill that void.

Here are some women legislators who, based on their records and experience, can get after these issues as House speaker and in other leadership roles. They can push their Democratic colleagues forward. They have at least four years’ experience in the House of Representatives, and as a cohort they can change it up in the General Assembly. Leslie Herod isn’t on this list because she’s running for Denver mayor. Others are already in influential positions as committee chairs.

Rep. Adrienne Benevidez is Speaker Pro Temporare in 2022 House leadership. From Adams County, she knows the threats of pollution from industrial sources. She sponsored a water quality regulation bill to push the state’s water quality commission to do its job to protect all communities, especially disproportionately affected low-income citizens, from poor water quality. She sponsored bills to improve delivery of mental health services in and outside of the justice and correction system, and she tackled the annoying and criminal challenges of catalytic converter theft. Benevidez has previous experience as an attorney and director of two state agencies.

Rep. Monica Duran from Wheat Ridge in Jefferson County is a public education, public safety, employment equity and animal protection advocate. Her roots are in the grass as an early advocate against out-of-control suburban development. She’s been a policy leader as a Latina activist in the Democratic Party and in Jefferson County. Her seven House bills from 2022 cover the bases, including services for veterans, post-secondary student success follow-up, employment and job retention services and, very important in today’s political climate, protection for elections officials. She’s served on many local Wheat Ridge boards as well as on the Jefferson Center for Mental Health. It’s her local, down-to-earth perspective that benefits Colorado’s Democratic leadership cadre as she performed her co-majority whip duties in the 2022 session.

Rep. Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez from north Denver is a child health, public education, juvenile justice and public safety advocate. Her regular job is director of the Denver Collaborative Partnership that brings non-profit, city and state resources together to get Denverites, especially children, resources and support in their times of need. She graduated from North High School and Colorado State University. She’s committed to public neighborhood schools as the foundation of local community and opportunity. She ran and passed bills for services for low-income households, healthy meals for students, fairness and legal support for kids in the justice system, protection from air toxins, and the inclusion of tribal governments in state government programs. Her interests are broad, deep and bold.

Rep. Cathy Kipp from Fort Collins has taken on a wide range of legislation with quiet and effective determination. She ran and passed thirteen House bills, eleven of which were bipartisan. Her interests include improving high school graduates’ opportunities, helping juveniles through the justice system, protecting tiny-home and mobile-home consumers, monitoring prescription drug pricing, protecting children in dependency and neglect cases, saving insect pollination, securing educator data privacy, putting the state on a single “time” program, and protecting public schools from unjust and inaccurate standardized-test-based-performance ratings. She was a technology professional and a school board president. She works across the aisle and has a progressive record. Her results are the outcome of a leader.

These women legislators, as examples, can press the acceleration buttons on public policy to move the House toward legislation that will pull us up as a state. It’s time. For women. To lead.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.