Republican Caleb Waller is running for Colorado House District 57 against Democrat incumbent Elizabeth Velasco.
Caleb Waller was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. His father was an executive with FedEx and his mother was a top Mary Kay sales director in the Southeast. “She had the pink Cadillac [and] my dad was from corporate America — the whole nine yards,” Waller told The Sopris Sun.
At 7 years old, his family moved into an Amish community and sold organic produce at a roadside stand outside of Nashville. “I kind of look back on that as being some of the foundation of who I am — having that real simple lifestyle.”
At 14, he went to Israel to work for his parents’ Christian Zionist nonprofit, HaYovel, which brings volunteers to the West Bank to work and develop agricultural lands as barriers insulating settlements from conflict.
In 2019, at the age of 28, after 14 years with HaYovel, he stepped out of the family nonprofit. “I remember sitting on the side of the road in my car with my wife and five kids and we had nowhere to go,” he shared.
Shortly thereafter, he got a call from a friend who told Waller there’s a home for him in Western Colorado. “So we headed this way.”
“Western Colorado is a place for dreamers and pioneers,” Waller stated. “If you come here for handouts or thinking that it’s just a free place to live, that’s not the story … When you give to the Western Slope, you will receive back tenfold and beyond. And that’s my story.”
Waller said he is not a big fan of politics today and wants to help get back to stable and respectful policy making. “If Velasco wins, I’m going to be cheering her all the way. Because I’m not going to participate in divisive politics. I won’t participate in things that polarize and divide,” he assured. “We can differ on policies … but I won’t criticize her personally, because this isn’t personal. This is about what’s best for the district.”
Having always been registered with the Republican party, he holds the party’s founding values in high esteem. “Trump, Lauren Boebert, they’re going to come and they’re going to go,” he added. “So I’m running on the original values, not what some individuals have made it into.”
He acknowledged that some of Velasco’s efforts in her first term were commendable. “She did some work in the Glenwood Canyon that was actually pretty impressive,” he stated, referring to Velasco’s push to keep semi trucks out of the left lane on various sections of I-70, including through Glenwood Canyon. “And some of the ideas of fire suppression that she’s done have been phenomenal.”
Although, when it comes to fire suppression, Waller said his approach would be different. “I would rather see the private sector come in and say, ‘Let’s do forest management on a private level that doesn’t become a burden to the taxpayers.’” He said he would advocate to thin the forests by inviting commercial logging to areas in the district.
When asked what else he might have done differently, he said, “We have a problem in politics today where we are electing activists, not representatives. An activist to me is a one-issue, or single-focused representative. They go in with the idea of representing this mission, this cause, this problem, this deal. What happens with that is it creates a lot of polarization and it creates, I think, division. Versus a representative, who is one who goes in and says, ‘I have to represent the entirety of the Western Slope.’”
In that vein, he brought up Velasco’s record of sponsoring bills which, in his opinion, inhibit the oil and gas industry. “If you don’t support oil and gas, maybe don’t sponsor legislation in order to take that down. Maybe other representatives need to focus on those issues. Maybe vote in favor of it,” he proposed.
Waller believes it’s important for immigrants to work toward lawful residency or citizenship and that “if you’re not paying taxes, then you have no business receiving the benefits from the government in this district.” However, he continued, “I’m not looking at your visa to see whether or not you’re allowed to be here. What I’m looking at is: Are you being a contributing member of society?”
He explained, “I think that’s the message that the Hispanic community wants to have. They’re not wanting to be treated special. They’re not looking for handouts. We’re all in this together.” He continued. “If you start segregating people based on their ethnicity and their race, the future is not good … So that’s been my mission. To treat the Hispanic community like family.”
Asked what the biggest challenges facing the district are, he responded with one word — housing. Waller serves on the Planning and Zoning Commission for Garfield County and works within the housing industry.
He believes a free-market approach is the ticket. “The government steps back and empowers local municipalities and counties to do what they need to do, because there’s no housing bill that I can pass that’s going to fix the housing issue in Aspen and also address the housing issue in Garfield County,” noting that circumstances in each local jurisdiction are unique.
He doesn’t think that what he refers to as “Band-aid” solutions, such as rent vouchers or rent control, are effective. “That’s just passing the problem down to our kids. That’s not fixing it.” He said he’d push for less legislation and restrictions that deter developers and recommend building “small — maybe tiny homes — villages that have very minimal geographical impact,” and individual properties which residents should have the opportunity to own.
To learn more about Waller’s campaign, visit www.votewaller.com