| Colorado Center Party | |
| Logo Alt: | Logo |
| Colorcode: |
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| Leader: | Steve Yurash |
| Position: | Center |
| Founder: | Steve Yurash |
| Headquarters: | Fort Collins |
| Ideology: | Syncretic politics Centrism Electoral reform |
| Country: | United States |
The Colorado Center Party is a minor third party in the United States state of Colorado, primarily centered around its second congressional district, promoting a centrist political program. The party achieved minor party status in September 2023.[1]
The party was founded by Steve Yurash, a Never Trump Republican, who left the Republican party in 2019 and spent two years working on forming his own political party. Yurash stated that "The Center Party is more left-leaning on the social issues and more right-leaning on the fiscal issues and crime," with the party being launched in January 2022 and stated that they aim to "bring civility back to politics" and "protect us from the far left and the far right," backing positions the party views as bipartisan and "common sense" with the party aiming to attract the 47% of Colorado's electorate that are registered political independents.[2] [3] [4] The party officially got over 1,000 signatures in a ballot access petition and received minor party status in Colorado on September 7, 2023.[5] As such, the party no longer needs to gather signatures to stand their candidates, removing one of the largest barriers to their participation in elections.
In 2024 the party chose to only stand two candidates, Yurash for Colorado House of Representatives district 52, and Bernadette Tedesco for Adams County commissioner.[6] [7]
See main article: 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Colorado. Yurash stood for Colorado's 2nd congressional district during the 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Colorado, centering his campaign around that "[The party is] firmly firmly anti-crime and support our police to handle crime with civilian oversight, and we support more gun control."[8] Yurash got 2,876 votes, or 0.8% of the electorate earning a distant third place, but performing better than the American Constitution Party and the Unity Party of America.
Yurash would contest the nominally unopposed Democrat Yara Zokaie for the Colorado House of Representatives' 52nd District. Yurash has primarily built his campaign on the fact there is no Republican in the race, leaving him as the only real opposition to Zokaie. Yurash's platform is largely just the opposite of Zokaie's, with Yurash supporting property tax relief, TABOR tax refunds, maintaining and supporting privatized utilities, no changes to the state's land use law, preserving Cash Bail, supporting School choice, and protecting the 2nd Amendment.
The party also stood a second candidate Bernadette Tedesco for Commissioner of Adams County. Tedesco is running to "foster unity and collaboration" within the county, and claims to be a champion for the working class. Her platform calls for a "balanced" energy position supporting both fossil fuels and green energy, enhancing public safety, reducing homelessness, and a reduction of property taxes.[9] Tedesco is also running against a nominally unopposed Democrat Kathy Henson.