My name is Stephen T. Hamilton, and I’m running for governor because Colorado is at a crossroads, and the people who keep this state running are being left behind.

I live in Cañon City. I’m not a career politician. I’m a Coloradan who has watched housing prices push working families out of the towns they grew up in, watched ranchers and farmers carry burdens they didn’t create, and watched our state budget lurch from crisis to crisis while real problems go unsolved.

I’m running for one reason: to put Coloradans first again — not party, not special interests, not just the Front Range.

I’ve spent this campaign listening in mountain towns, on the Western Slope, on the Eastern Plains and in cities. Different zip codes, same story: people love Colorado, but they’re worried we’re losing what makes it work.

Here is what I will fight for as your governor.

First, we will fix the housing crisis where it’s hurting worst — in the High Country and rural Colorado.

A teacher shouldn’t have to commute two hours to teach in the town she grew up in. A nurse shouldn’t have to live in a camper to work at the local hospital. For too long, housing policy has been written for Denver and Boulder and then handed to mountain communities as an afterthought.

As governor, I will change that. We will expand deed-restricted workforce housing built by local housing authorities and local employers. We will cut red tape for modular housing, fix the insurance and construction defect laws that have killed condos and unlock state and federal land near existing infrastructure for housing that stays affordable. And we will protect housing dollars from being swept away to Front Range formulas. Housing is workforce, housing is public safety, housing is community — and I will treat it that way.

I also believe local communities should have the tools to balance tourism and long-term housing. That means giving towns and counties the clear authority to license, cap, and tax short-term rentals and to put a fee on homes that sit vacant most of the year — with every dollar dedicated to workforce housing. Not a statewide ban. Local control.

Second, we will defend Colorado water like our future depends on it — because it does.

The fight over the Colorado River will define the next administration. My position is simple: I will defend Colorado’s senior water rights and our compact entitlements, and I will not trade away the west slope to solve a Lower Basin problem.

We will fully fund the Colorado Water Plan, invest in conservation, storage, reuse and watershed health, and stop talking about new transmountain diversions that pit one part of Colorado against another. We will protect agriculture through voluntary, compensated conservation — not buy-and-dry. And I will bring everyone to the table — water districts, farmers, ranchers, tribes, Front Range and Western Slope leaders — to lead with data and measurement, not lawsuits.

Third, we will restore trust and common sense to wolf reintroduction.

I respect the vote, but the way this program has been implemented has broken trust. Ranchers were promised transparency and a workable plan. They got neither.

I won’t repeal the program. I will reform it. That means full transparency on costs, wolf sourcing and locations. Clear rules for chronic depredation and lethal management so Colorado Parks and Wildlife professionals — not politics — can make decisions. Rapid, full compensation for livestock losses, including indirect losses. And real investment in non-lethal deterrents and range riders. The cost of this program should not fall on Western Slope families.

Finally, we will fix our budget and make state government live within its means.

This year the legislature had to cut Medicaid, affordable housing and other critical services because of a structural deficit that everyone saw coming. That is failure.

As governor, I will order a top-to-bottom performance audit. I will require PAYGO — if you want a new program, you have to show how you pay for it. We will modernize how we deliver services to cut waste, not eligibility, revisit outdated tax carve-outs and stop using one-time money for ongoing expenses. We will build a real rainy-day fund and prioritize what matters most: K-12 education, public safety, water and housing.

I’m running because I believe Colorado doesn’t need more left versus right — we need top versus bottom to be turned right-side up. We need a government that works for the people who get up early, work hard and just want a fair shot to stay in the state they love.

I don’t have all the answers, but I know how to listen, how to work hard and how to fight for this state. I’m asking for your vote, and I’m asking for your help to win this for the people of Colorado.

Stephen T. Hamilton is an American Constitution Party candidate running for Colorado Governor in the Nov. 3 midterm election.