Angela Giron (born May 12, 1960) is an American politician who was a
Democratic member of the
Colorado Senate
The Colorado Senate is the upper house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Colorado. It is composed of 35 members elected from single-member districts, with each district having a population of about 123, ...
representing
District 3 District 3 can refer to:
*III District, Turku, in Finland
* District 3, Düsseldorf, in Germany
*District 3, Grand Bassa County, in Liberia
* District 3, Malta, an electoral district of Malta
*District 3, a police district of Malta
* Wiedikon, als ...
from 2011 until she was recalled on September 10, 2013, by groups opposed to her gun control legislation. Giron is the second ever Colorado legislator to have
been successfully recalled in the state's history.
Early career
Senator Giron was appointed to the Colorado State Senate (from District 3) in August, 2010. She replaced Senator
Abel Tapia, who resigned to become the director of the Colorado Lottery. She was re-elected later in 2010 and in 2012. At the time of her appointment, District 3 encompassed 89% of Pueblo County and included most of the City of Pueblo, Pueblo West and Beulah.
Prior to her Senate career, Giron worked for the Boys & Girls Club of Pueblo, helping greatly expand and develop the organization. She also served as a congressional aide to
U.S. Senators
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
Ken Salazar
Kenneth Lee Salazar (born March 2, 1955) is an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat who is the United States ambassador to Mexico. He previously served as the 50th United States Secretary of the Interior in the administration of President Ba ...
and
Michael Bennet
Michael Farrand Bennet (born November 28, 1964) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Colorado, a seat he has held since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed t ...
.
2013 recall
On June 10, 2013, some constituents of Giron turned in 13,466 signatures to recall her from political office, passing the threshold of 11,285 signatures needed to trigger a recall election. Of those 13,466 signatures, 12,648 were found to be valid and a recall election was allowed to proceed, making her the second politician in the history of the state of Colorado to be subject to recall. The recall election took place on September 10, 2013, and Giron was recalled by a margin of 56 percent to 43.9 percent, making her the second politician in
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
state history to lose a recall election;
John Morse, recalled on the same day, was the first.
Senator Giron made unsubstantiated claims after her surprising loss that her opponents had engaged in "voter suppression" to oust her from office. She was favored by many to win the election, and her 12-point defeat was a substantial surprise. Senator Giron stated during a CNN interview by anchor/correspondent
Brooke Baldwin
Brooke Baldwin (born July 12, 1979) is an American journalist, television host and author who was at CNN from 2008 until 2021. Baldwin hosted ''CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin'', which aired from 3pm to 4pm ET on weekdays.
Early life and educ ...
shortly after her ouster "'We know what really happened here ... ,' Giron said. 'What this story really is about, it's about voter suppression.'" CNN's Baldwin moved the interview away from the alleged suppression back toward the issues that led to the recall.
The unsubstantiated suppression charge had initially been raised by Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Deborah Wasserman Schultz ( née Wasserman; born September 27, 1966) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from , first elected to Congress in 2004. A member of the Democratic Party, she is a former chair of the Democra ...
. Wasserman-Schultz said in a statement released by the DNC on September 11, 2013: "The recall elections in Colorado were defined by the vast array of obstacles that special interests threw in the way of voters for the purpose of reversing the will of the legislature and the people. This was voter suppression, pure and simple."
Colorado's largest newspaper, The Denver Post, whose editorial board has supported the gun control measures championed by Senator Giron, took issue with the Senator's accusations. In an editorial published September 13, 2013, the Post noted: "We opposed the recall, but we also oppose lurid attempts to portray Colorado's recall elections as somehow illegitimate." The editorial also took exception to Giron's charge that her supporters were not able to get to the polls: "People who supported her 'weren't able' to get to the polls? Nonsense. They were no less able to get to the polls than folks on the other side. If a disproportionate number of her supporters failed to vote, it's because they chose not to."
Subsequent career
Giron considered running for the Democratic nomination for
Secretary of State in the
2014 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2014.
* 2014 United Nations Security Council election 16 October 2014
Africa
* 2014 Algerian presidential election 17 April 2014
* 2014 Botswana general election 24 October 2014
* 2014 Comorian presi ...
, but she decided against it.
Personal life
Giron has a daughter, Melanie, and a son-in-law, Adam; she is married to Steve Nawrocki, a Pueblo City Councilman. She spoke at the Latina Youth Conference in Wyoming in 2017
Electoral history
References
External links
State Senator Angela Giron - District 3at the Colorado State Senate
Angela Giron for State Senator*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giron, Angela
Democratic Party Colorado state senators
Hispanic and Latino American women in politics
Living people
Recalled state legislators of the United States
Women state legislators in Colorado
Colorado State University Pueblo alumni
American gun control activists
People from Pueblo, Colorado
1960 births
21st-century American politicians
21st-century American women politicians