Josh Penry (born February 1, 1976) is the former minority leader 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, ...

. Elected in 2006, Penry was the youngest member of the Colorado state Senate. According to ''

The Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

'', Penry played a leadership role in opposing regulation for the oil and gas industry and a labor bill. Penry has been identified by several newspapers as a "rising star" in Colorado politics. Prior to serving in the state Senate, Penry served in the state

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

for one term. Penry is a native of Colorado and a long-time resident of Western Colorado. Penry graduated from Grand Junction High School and

Mesa State College Colorado Mesa University is a public university in Grand Junction, Colorado. The university's other locations include Bishop Campus, which houses Western Colorado Community College in northwestern Grand Junction, and a regional campus in Mont ...

, where he

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

ed the Mesa State Mavericks football team and served as

student body President The student government president (sometimes called "student ''body'' president," "student ''council'' president" or "''school'' president") is generally the highest-ranking officer of a student union. While a student government group and a class p ...

. In 1998, Penry was named the National Scholar Athlete of the Year by the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

and the

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, an award given to

Peyton Manning Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24, 1976) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons. Nicknamed "the Sheriff", he spent 14 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and four with th ...

the previous year. Penry graduated summa cum laude from Mesa State in 1998.

Work as an aide

Penry moved to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

to work for

Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

Scott McInnis Stephen Scott Emory McInnis McInnis is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and is an honorary adviser for the National Student Leadership Conference. Political career Colorado House of Representatives From 1983 to 19 ...

. First as an aide and then as

Press Secretary A press secretary or press officer is a senior advisor who provides advice on how to deal with the news media and, using news management techniques, helps their employer to maintain a positive public image and avoid negative media coverage. Duti ...

, Penry helped McInnis formulate and negotiate natural resources legislation. Penry was appointed staff director of the House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, where he played a lead role in negotiation the Healthy Forests Restoration Act with the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

and Republicans and Democrats on

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

State House

After returning to Grand Junction, Penry was elected to the state House in 2004. In his first term, Penry sponsored and won passage for the "Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act", legislation designed to minimize water-resource fights. Penry's bill, signed into law in June 2005, created roundtables for each river basin to assess and address regional water needs. In 2008, Penry was part of a

bi-partisan Bipartisanship, sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship, is a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system (especially those of the United States and some other western countries), in which opposing political parties find co ...

effort involving Gov.

Bill Ritter August William Ritter Jr. (born September 6, 1956) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 41st Governor of Colorado from 2007 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the district attorney for Denver before his ele ...

, Rep. Frank McNulty, and the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) Board to divest public pension funds from companies with ties to Iran. Penry also sponsored legislation to strengthen Colorado's education standards to better equip students to compete in a highly competitive global economic environment, and he initiated and negotiated a bi-partisan bill to invest growing federal mineral lease revenues into Colorado's colleges and universities. Penry was a principal supporter of 2008's Amendment 52, which would have directed mineral severance tax revenue away from

water conservation Water conservation includes all the policies, strategies and activities to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, to protect the hydrosphere, and to meet the current and future human demand (thus avoiding water scarcity). Populati ...

projects to road building, but which failed at the polls. Penry has been at the center of numerous policy debates, including road and bridge funding initiatives, efforts to pass

Jessica's Law Jessica's Law is the informal name given to a 2005 Florida law, as well as laws in several other states, designed to protect potential victims and reduce a sexual offender's ability to re-offend. A version of Jessica's Law, known as the Jessica ...

and other tough penalties against

sexual predators A sexual predator is a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically "predatory" or abusive manner. Analogous to how a predator hunts down its prey, so the sexual predator is thought to "hunt" ...

, the debate about

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

drilling in Colorado, and a range of tax, fiscal and budget issues. While working closely on education issues with Colorado's Democratic Governor Bill Ritter, Penry has been a frequent critic of the Ritter Administration's tax, budget, jobs and union policies.

Personal life

Josh is married to Kristin Strohm, a principal at the Starboard Group, a political firm in Colorado. Josh is the father of four children: Chase, Emme, Sophie, and Caroline.

References

External links

Colorado State Senator Joshua Penry's official government website

"Push to fix CSAP begins"

"Popular guv's ability to lead facing big test"

"Ritter at the halfway mark"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penry, Josh 1976 births Living people Republican Party Colorado state senators Republican Party members of the Colorado House of Representatives Colorado Mesa University alumni American press secretaries Politicians from Denver