In Colorado, fourteen people filed to run for president this year. Eight of them are listed on the ballot: Harris, Trump, Blake Huber for the Approval Voting Party, Chase Russell Oliver for the Libertarian Party, Jill Stein for the Green Party, Randall Terry for the American Constitution Party, Cornel West for the Unity Party, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as an independent.
Another six aspiring presidents don't appear on the ballot at all: the certified write-in candidates.
Colorado law allows people to become write-in candidates by simply submitting an affidavit stating that they desire and are qualified to hold office. Because their names are not printed on the ballot — and they typically aren't certified candidates in enough states to possibly win the presidency — it's all but impossible for any of these candidates to claim victory. But still, they persevere.
Here are the six write-in candidates running for president in Colorado and why they chose to join an unwinnable race:
Claudia De la Cruz
Party for Socialism and Liberation
votesocialist2024.com
Claudia De la Cruz is a 43-year-old educator and community organizer in Teaneck, New Jersey. She says her candidacy is intended to help build a movement to "end the dictatorship of the billionaire class and replace it with socialism."
"In every crisis that the people face — whether it’s hurricanes, wildfires or pandemics — the government has proven itself to be totally inept and to only care about profit. They can’t steer us away from crises, they are part of them," De la Cruz says. "Instead of a tiny clique of billionaires and hedge funds running and deciding everything, the diverse working class needs to control the most important parts of the economy and come up with long-term plans to get out of the mess they created."
De la Cruz says her number-one priority is seizing the 100 largest corporations in the United States to turn them into public property in order to "institute a nationwide price freeze and have the resources to guarantee economic rights to all," such as free health care, free education, housing and employment.
"We need to break out of the political framework where the only options are the liberal and conservative wings of the billionaire class," De la Cruz says. "The survival of the people and the planet depends on the emergence of a new force that’s rooted in the working class and advocates the end of the capitalist system that has made our lives unlivable. ... Every person who votes socialist is contributing to the emergence of this kind of fighting movement."
Bill Frankel
Unaffiliated/Republican Party
Bill Frankel is a 55-year-old Highlands Ranch resident and health care consultant, specializing in supply chain and materials management. He says he's running for president to represent the "dissatisfied and despondent voters" who have lost faith in the two-party system "which repeatedly finds candidates who are indebted to the party system and special interests."
"The American voter deserves a president who is free from these distractions and can govern in a manner that is in the best interest of our country," Frankel says. "Our two-party system should have given us two viable leaders for the United States. However, both parties lack this tenet, and we are left with two candidates who are solely concerned with gaining power and have little to no concern about governing responsibly."
Frankel is a fiscal conservative who has never sought elected office before. He says the most important issue this election is stabilizing the country's political landscape.
"Over the past eight years, our government has been pulled away from the country's center and to the polarizing far left and right," Frankel says. "We would focus on efforts to center the federal government, regardless of party, in order to attack the serious problems this country is facing."
Brian Anthony Perry
Democratic Partyfacebook.com/JointPartyPerry
Brian Anthony Perry is a 44-year-old filmmaker who is currently unhoused in the Denver metro area. He says he's running for president because he cares about people and "owes it to everyone" to run for office.
"People would do a lot better with me," Perry says. "Even if it wasn't me, we need a third-wing candidate. Someone not involved in their big circle. I feel I am more than capable from how I've lived and how I was able to grow with the limits I have had. ... I will work my ass off for everyone. It's what I do."
"I have no connection to anyone in Washington or no billion-dollar friends. I am a genuine American dreamer," he continues. "I am just like you, just like your neighbor, just like that person who just flipped you off because they missed a bus and have three minutes to get there. We all are just kids in older skin still dreaming for that moment that makes us feel important to someone. ... I want to live in an America [where] dreams are reached because our nation cares."
If he was elected, Perry says he would "create a new economy backed off of tech and trade," push for an "updated" United States Constitution and "clean out" the House and Senate to retire members preventing change.
Peter Sonski
American Solidarity Party
petersonski.com
Peter Sonski is a 62-year-old journalist, former radio host and museum director in New Haven, Connecticut. He says he's running for president because Americans "need an alternative to the broken two-party system."
"No other candidate in this election combines pro-life, pro-family values with a commitment to protecting the rights of labor and the protection of the environment," Sonski says. "Pro-life voters should not have to compromise their values in selecting a candidate to lead our nation."
"The two major parties present incoherent policy visions," he continues. "The Democratic Party purports to defend the rights of the most marginalized people in our society, yet actively pursues a radical pro-abortion and anti-family agenda. On the other hand, the Republican Party purports to defend human life and family values, yet actively promotes a laissez-faire vision of capitalism that works only for the top 1 percent of earners. Only the American Solidarity Party stands for a consistent life ethic, combining family values with economic justice and world peace."
Sonski says his top issue this election is protecting "human dignity...at all stages, from conception to natural death."
Shiva Ayyadurai
Unaffiliated
shiva4president.com
Shiva Ayyadurai is the sixty-year-old founder and CEO of the biotechnology company CytoSolve, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts in 2018 and 2020. He says his presidential bid is meant to promote a complete "overhaul" of the U.S political system.
"Our judicial, political, health care and economic system is broken," Ayyadurai says. "This is what happens when you keep voting for the 'lesser of evils' thinking one of the evils will 'save you.' They have no interest in saving you, except killing you. The solution, the truth, is you must want to save yourself. We need a systems overhaul, which demands a bottoms-up movement by we the people, done by us, and for us."
Ayyadurai says his top legislative priority is ending U.S. funding to Israel.
"The U.S. is being occupied by Zionism," Ayyadurai says. "Zionism is racism in the service of imperialism. [I] would cease U.S. support of the genocide of the Palestinian people."
Chris Garrity
Unaffiliatedchrisgarrity2024.com
Chris Garrity is a 35-year-old research consultant in Somersworth, New Hampshire. This is his first time seeking elected office.
"My number-one, most important issue this election is helping ensure the federal executive supports justice and protection to people," Garrity says. "Voters should vote for me because I have significant relevant working experience, I have significant relevant education, and have no parties or donors to repay favors to."
Election Day is November 5; keep an eye on our Election topic page for all of our latest coverage.
