Colorado Mesa University (CMU) Golden Scholar Scott Beilfuss is currently running as the Democratic nominee for the Colorado House of Representatives District 55.
The Golden Scholar program offers a discounted tuition to those 60 years and older, so that they can take courses without the stress of receiving a grade. Beilfuss has taken part in classes ranging from the Mass Communications department to fitness classes offered by the Kinesiology department.
For him, the Golden Scholar program is a way to learn and stay engaged in current culture. He uses his classes as a way of learning the politics the students believe in as well.
He enjoys being an active member of both the CMU and the Grand Junction community. He finds himself helping with nonprofits in town as well as attending many city council meetings.
Beilfuss decided to run when he found out his opponent, incumbent Republican Janice Rich, was running unopposed. This is his first time running for office, but his team is optimistic about the outcome.
“I didn’t want her to run unopposed […] I wanted to push her a little bit. And we want to change things around here. We want to change the conversation around basic candidates,” Beilfuss said.
The transition into politics came naturally to him with his background as a businessman. He was already used to going door to door talking to people.
“I love the challenge of talking to people and I think it’s hugely important […] So, if you’re not talking to people, you’re not representing people.”
Beilfuss is also interested in bringing some political debates on campus. He encourages CMU students to get involved with politics. He reminisced about the political climate on his own college campus back in the 70’s. Any time there was a big political person on his campus, they would have 500+ people show up to ask questions to him/her.
He believes that students should get more involved with local politics. Politics on the local level are what directly impact our day to day lives.
“And I think it would be very beneficial for students to know who the local representatives are, and what they can do to change government if they want to do something,” Beilfuss said.
Beilfuss expressed that he had run into students on campus who were afraid to organize social justice movements on campus because of CMU President Tim Foster. Beilfuss believes that discourse and conflict is a natural part of politics — voting and interacting with politics is how change is created in this country. He believes that protests, petitions and social justice movements are a natural part of our governmental world in America.
“There’s some big issues that students should pay attention to. Now, because the local representation has primarily been Republican in the past, you know they don’t really reach out to people because they don’t have to,” Beilfuss said.
Beilfuss thought it would be interesting to bring the panel of nominees to have a forum on CMU’s campus to get students asking questions and interacting with local politics.
“So, to me, if you could run a good public forum, you know you can get some real thoughts from people, you can find out where they’re at, you can hear their stories,” Beilfuss said.
He will be pitted against incumbent Republican Janice Rich alongside Green Party candidate Sierra Garcia and Libertarian Candidate Emily Ernstsen in the November 2020 elections.