Colorado Springs CD5 candidate Stephany Rose Spaulding highlighted in Washington Post

Stephany Rose Spaulding had a chance to speak for black women’s struggles and power via the Washington Post Monday, as the paper reported from the first Power Rising conference in Atlanta.

The three-day event attracted more than 1,000 women to connect and bond on issues of empowerment and their experiences.

The paper turned first to Spaulding, a 39-year-old Baptist pastor and faculty member at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, who aims to unseat six-term Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn in El Paso County in November.

Reporter Vanessa Williams said Spaulding praised “the energy, the strength, the power and the direction of women that I’ve been able to connect with” by attending the conference. “Even if our paths to getting where we’re going are different, I believe we are all going to the same place. We want justice and love and liberation for everyone.”

You can read the article by clicking here.

Spaulding is making her first run for office, but she’s made a splash more than once in the conservative district. She’s clashed with a conservative college group in 2016, and last year had a dust-up with one-time supporters. She’s still in the race.

She faces local activist Betty Field in the Democratic primary, while Lamborn has four opponents in the GOP primary: Green Mountain Falls public official Tyler Stevens, state Sen. Owen Hill, El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn and retired Texas judge Bill Rhea.

The Washington Post piece ended with Spaulding, as well:

Spaulding said that one of the most touching moments was on Saturday morning when the women began spontaneously dancing to upbeat songs by Beyoncé, Patti LaBelle and Cheryl Lynn. The moment was so joyous, Spaulding said, she nearly “broke out in tears.”

“It was divine, cosmically divine. Nobody orchestrated it. It was like a release. No one was judging,” she said. “There were sitting congresswomen, celebrities, women who were multimillionaires and young girls. No one was greater or lesser than anyone else; we were just women loving and dancing.”