At just 27 years old, Rep. Ruby Dickson is the youngest state legislator in the Colorado Capitol. 

A Colorado native, Dickson grew up in the Denver metro area attending public schools and performing the national anthem at Rockies games. She earned a master’s degree in economics from Oxford University just over a year before returning to Colorado to win her first-ever political race. She was elected with 56% of the vote to represent House District 37 in November. 

The Greenwood Village Democrat quickly made a name for herself during the 2023 legislative session, successfully passing all seven bills she prime-sponsored, including legislation banning local housing growth caps – a core part of the Democrats’ affordable housing plan for the year. 

With her first legislative session in the books, Dickson sat down with Colorado Politics to discuss the past year and how she legislates for the future. 

Colorado Politics: What inspired you to run for office?

Rep. Ruby Dickson: I grew up in Colorado in a family that struggled a lot financially and with some other issues. I wanted a career that I could use to help make sure other kids didn’t have to go through those same difficulties, that I could use to help families like mine. That’s why I originally became an economist. My day job is in charity where I work with philanthropic foundations on poverty and climate change, those kind of issues. I decided to run for office after working in that field for a while, talking to a lot of different people in that line of work, and coming to the realization that some of the problems we were working on had policy solutions. Once I looked into it a little further, I realized I could run for my local House seat myself, and I thought I should give that a try.

CP: What is it like being the youngest lawmaker in the legislature? Do you feel the generational difference in any aspects? 

Dickson: I was pleasantly surprised by just how diverse Colorado politics actually are. I was under the impression that all of my coworkers would be old, white, retired people. And there’s definitely a fair amount of those people, but I think it’s amazing how many people of every age group that we have, and so many different genders and races and cultural and economic backgrounds. It’s really been less of a divide than I was expecting.

That said, I’ve definitely gotten a lot of specific reactions to me being the youngest person in the legislature. Being a young woman, I think, is a unique experience. There are a lot of people who express joy at seeing a young woman able to represent my community and say that’s something we need to see more of. But it’s not always easy being the only person of your demographic in the room. … People don’t always expect a young woman to be in a position of power or authority. I have had some interactions where people are not immediately aware that I have the background and expertise that I have, and I have to make it known that I do know what I’m talking about and I am here to represent my community regardless of how young I look. But so far it hasn’t been too much of a problem. It’s more of an adventure than anything else.

CP: What is the importance of young people like you getting involved in politics?

Dickson: Young people are under-involved in politics at every level, from voting to volunteering to running for office to just staying engaged with legislation. Having people in our cohort who are deeply involved in this stuff lets other people know that this is for them. It affects them and they are welcome to engage in it just as much as anybody else. It’s also great to have people in there that have skin in the game in terms of focusing on our future and policies that will continue to impact the people of Colorado long into the future. I’m glad to be able to represent that perspective. I would like to make sure my interests and the interests of people that come after me are represented. That’s why I’ve been working so much on, for example, climate policy and housing policy, to make sure we all have a good place to live and grow old here in Colorado. 

CP: Speaking of your policy work, you were one of only 12 lawmakers this year to pass all of their prime-sponsored bills – and one of only three first-year lawmakers to do so. What is your approach to passing legislation?

Dickson: I was really proud to have passed all of my bills this year. A lot of that just came from working hard on those bills and only moving forward on something once I was confident that I could get it through. I also tried to work on things that had multiple reasons why I thought they were important, so I could talk to every legislator and try to convince them on the merits of why a certain bill should be passed. All seven bills that I introduced were ones that I thought were really important, both to follow through on the promises I made my community last year, but also to improve the lives of every Coloradan. 

Outside of the Capitol building, I tried to have conversations with people across the ideological spectrum and with every community group and expert that I could think of to inform the policies we’re making. When I say I moved forward on bills I was confident in, that doesn’t just mean I was confident people in the legislature would like it, but that I was getting feedback from the community that these were good things to do for people. Talking to as many people as possible, from as many backgrounds as possible, is crucial to understanding the impact of what we’re doing and minimizing mistakes. 

CP: You were also one of only two lawmakers this year who had no bipartisan prime-sponsorship on any of their bills. What are your thoughts on bipartisanship in policy work? 

Dickson: I think bipartisanship is really important. The fact that Colorado is a state with a pretty broad swath of ideological representation means that we have to make sure that we’re considering those different ideas in every decision we make. I supported a lot of bipartisan legislation that many of my colleagues did. I would love to have sponsored some bipartisan bills of my own this session. It didn’t work out that way due to a variety of factors and some stars not aligning in terms of people having the availability to work with me. But I do have very good relationships with many of my colleagues across the aisle and I’m looking forward to working with several of them next session, hopefully on some cool stuff. … I’ve been really excited about the relationships that I’ve been able to build with so many of my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats. 

CP: You made a pretty significant impact on the session, from sponsoring the ban on housing growth caps to being named by Gov. Jared Polis as one of three first-year lawmakers he was particularly impressed with this year. How would you describe your first session overall?

Dickson: In one word, a whirlwind. It was a crazy learning experience to get up to speed on all the different personalities and competing interests that you have to balance to build well-crafted policy. A lot of this was very new to me, but I had a pretty clear set of objectives that I told people in my district I was going to work on this session. I came to the Capitol with the intention of getting as much of that done as I can, and I will continue to do so.

Definitely one of the harder fought bills that I worked on this session was the growth cap bill. I wanted to work on that bill because I have heard time and time again from people in my community that the cost of living crisis is unbearable for many of them. Housing is a big part of that. … I believe, as an economist, that you can solve a housing crisis like this by looking at the supply and demand. We have extremely limited supply. That’s why I was so excited about working to help expand the supply of housing and reduce some of the red tape around building more housing of all types. There’s a lot more that we have to do to increase housing supply and address this crisis for Coloradans, but I am really proud to have been part of that effort this session. 

CP: What was your biggest disappointment and your biggest accomplishment from the session?

Dickson: There were a lot of housing bills that I was looking forward to working on back in January that didn’t get through. Like I said, I heard from people in my community that housing affordability was one of their top issues. So one of my proudest moments was definitely passing the growth limits bill. … But I was really disappointed that so many other housing bills failed. We did a lot of work on the rent stabilization bill, on the just cause for evictions bill. I was disappointed to see the right of first refusal bill vetoed. And, of course, Senate Bill 213 was something I worked on quite extensively. I thought the bill we got out of the House was quite a good compromise. … I hope that we’re going to come back and try to solve some of these problems again next session. 

CP: What lessons did you learn from your first session and what, if anything, will you do differently next session?

Dickson: One thing I would do differently next session is not something that I could have changed this session, which is to come in more prepared and with a stronger sense of what is going to happen. Next session I will definitely come into the building with a big list of bills that I am going to run, and everybody that I need to talk to to make sure the bills are good. And I’ll know who likes working on different issues so I can team up with people as early as possible. A lot of that is going to be a lot easier with a year under my belt.

Outside of that, I learned to approach every conversation with my colleagues with the understanding that they are there to represent their community. They’re there as a public servant, and I need to work with them with that in mind. It became clear to me over the course of the session that all of my colleagues, whether I agree with them or not, are doing their best to represent their community. I’d like to keep and strengthen that sense that we are all here to do our job the best we can and how do we do that together. 

CP: What advice would you give to other 20-somethings who want to get involved in politics?

Dickson: Step one is just do it. If you are a young person that wants to get involved in politics or in policy, there is a huge appetite for including you in these conversations. All you have to do is start talking to someone. People will be very excited to hear from you. There is so much work that would be improved by having someone in the room with that younger perspective, that future-facing perspective. People understand that we need those voices and they have been so kind and welcoming about helping to include me in those conversations. If somebody wants to get involved, they’re always welcome to reach out to me, and hopefully they will.