Donald Valdez is an American farmer and politician who served as a member of the Colorado House of Representatives. He represented District 62, which covered portions of

Alamosa Alamosa is a home rule municipality and the county seat of Alamosa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 9,806 at the 2020 United States Census. The city is the commercial center of the San Luis Valley in south-central Colora ...

, Conejos, Costilla, Huerfano,

Mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

Pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

, Rio Grande, and Saguache counties.

Career

Valdez has a background in farming and ranching and worked for the Natural Resources Conservation Service before taking office. He has also served as deputy public trustee and deputy sheriff in Conejos County. Valdez was first elected to his seat in 2016, winning with 55.51% of the vote against

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

opponent Robert Mattive. He took his seat in 2017, succeeding Ed Vigil. He served on the House Agriculture, Livestock, & Natural Resources Committee and the House Local Government Committee. Valdez was briefly a candidate for

Colorado's 3rd congressional district Colorado's 3rd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Colorado. It takes in most of the rural Western Slope in the state's western third portion, with a tendril in the south taking in some of the southern port ...

, having announced his candidacy in July 2019. He faced at least two challengers for his party's nomination. However, in November 2019, he abandoned his congressional campaign and decided to seek re-election to his seat in the Colorado House of Representatives. In February 2021, Valdez announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for Colorado's 3rd congressional district in

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

. He cited

Lauren Boebert Lauren Opal Boebert ( ; ; born December 19, 1986) is an American politician, businesswoman, and gun rights activist. A member of the Republican Party, she serves as the U.S. representative for . From 2013 to 2022, she owned Shooters Grill, a ...

's response to the storming of the Capitol as a major reason for launching his second congressional campaign. However, at the Colorado District 3 Democratic Assembly held on April 5, 2022, Valdez got only 28.6% of the 297 votes cast by the delegates, falling short of the 30% required to appear on the primary ballot, effectively ending his candidacy.

References

External links

Campaign websiteState legislature website
21st-century American politicians Living people Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Colorado Democratic Party members of the Colorado House of Representatives People from Conejos County, Colorado Year of birth missing (living people) {{Colorado-politician-stub