DWBC Newsletter Winter 2026
"The voting booth is still the only place that a pauper equals a billionaire and any woman equals any man."
- Gloria Steinem
Table of Contents:
President’s Parlance
Educate: Under the Radar
Engagement: Member Profile
Engagement: Partner Profile
Elect: 2026 Federal and State Primary Elections We’re Watching
Upcoming events / call to action
President’s Parlance
Welcome to the inaugural DWBC Quarterly Newsletter!
We are excited to introduce this quarterly publication and offer insight, information, and ways to connect with your DWBC community and beyond. Opportunities to educate, engage and elect can be found within for your discovery.
In each edition, we will spotlight a DWBC member and DWBC partner. If you have an idea for a topic you would like us to cover, please let us now at info@demwomenboco.org.
Thank you for being a member and participating in democracy.
In solidarity,
Lisa Lesniak
Under the Radar…
One of Trump’s election mantras was “Drill, baby, drill”. He was clear in his desires to turn back environmental protections and reverse progress in clean energy in favor of fossil fuels, backed by his friends and big donors, the oil and gas industries.
The EPA is now considering nearly three dozen changes in regulations including reconsidering:
Power plant emission standards
Toxic emission limits on power plants
Waste water rules for coal and other power plants
Petrochemical accident safeguards
Greenhouse gas reporting
Automobile emission standards
Particulate matter air quality standard
Click on the links below for more information:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/climate/trump-epa-greenhouse-gases-climate-change.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/climate/trump-epa-endangerment-finding-climate-change.html
https://peer.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/PEER-Enforcement-Report-Narrative-FINAL.pdf
https://www.mygreenplanet.org/the-environmental-fallout-of-donald-trumps-executive-actions-in-2025
https://www.wri.org/insights/7-ways-trump-administration-harming-climate
Climate & Environment
With all the noise and havoc that Donald Trump’s administration has created, it’s easy to lose track of the impacts of actions that may not make the headlines yet have intense consequences on our lives. For instance, in the environmental arena:
On Feb. 12, 2026, Trump’s EPA, under the direction of Lee Zeldin, repealed the “endangerment finding”, a 2009 scientific conclusion that greenhouse gases pose a threat to human health and the environment. This repeal will end the government’s legal authority to regulate these pollutants. The results will be catastrophic.
EPA director Zeldin, a former congressman, has received more than $410,000 in donations from the oil and gas industry and has questioned scientific consensus on climate change.
Federal environmental enforcement is at historic lows.
Tribal climate and clean energy funds have been slashed.
Millions of acres of public lands have been opened to private (oil and gas) interests.
Protections for nature and animals have been rolled back, along with cuts to National Parks.
Funds for FEMA’s disaster resilience spending (preparation for future disasters) have been slashed.
Trump is pulling the US from the international stage regarding climate talks.
The administration is suppressing climate research, with threats of cuts and closures to NOAA and NCAR.
Member Spotlight: Louise Oncley
Looking for inspiration? Look no further than our Member Spotlight Member, Louise Oncley!
Louis Oncley has been a DWBC member for more than a dozen years. Prior to retirement, she spent her career in civil rights enforcement in Pennsylvania. Right now, she’s deeply concerned because, “I’m seeing my life’s work torn apart.”
DWBC: Louise, looking back on a lifetime of work in civil rights protection, what are the things you hold dearest?
Louise: “I think this country has been until recently on a trajectory of improvement. When you work for improvement and you see it happening, it’s a great feeling. It’s sad to watch it being taken apart, and I do hope that the younger people coming in realize what it’s taken to get where we are and fight what’s been happening recently. But I think it’s tough when this administration is also removing any historical information from our schools, from our museums, from our public life, so then it becomes difficult to understand where we’ve been, how we got to where we are and where we need to be going.”
DWBC: What should we be doing differently, or more of, right now?
Louise: “Just being more involved. We can’t let this go on. We just can’t. I’ve been working with the Boulder Democratic Party platform team, and we’ve always kind of concentrated on what we’d like to see better, but we never thought that we’d have to include in the platform things like balance of powers, due process. We always sort of took those as a given, and they’re not a given any more.”
DWBC: If you were to look back to your younger self, or a young person sitting next to you, what advice would you give?
Louise: “To stay informed. And stay involved. I have young voting-age grandsons, and I worry about where they get their information. They don’t read a newspaper. They don’t watch mainstream news. They’re doing social media a lot, and it worries me where they get their information, so I try to get involved to some degree and definitely nag them to vote.”
“I hope I can see a turnaround in my lifetime, which is getting shorter and shorter. One of the things I’m happy about is my son. Since he’s retired, he is getting more involved in democratic issues, so I see him taking my place.”
DWBC: What has been the most important thing about being a member of DWBC?
Louise: “Democrats are so much fun to be with, and Democratic Women are great people. I believe in the causes, and there’s good information at the meetings.”
Partner Profile: Cobalt
DWBC is proud of its deep partnership with Cobalt, Colorado’s premier abortion rights organization working to “secure unassailable reproductive autonomy and abortion access.” In this partner spotlight, Dani Newsum, Cobalt’s Director of Strategic Partnerships, sends her gratitude and shares her vision for our partnership.
Cobalt has been a DWBC partner for six years and in 2024, Cobalt awarded DWBC its Outstanding Partner award. Dani Newsum, Cobalt’s Director of Strategic Partnerships says “we awarded DWBC our Partnership Award because the organization is just outstanding. We could not ask for more in an organizational nonprofit partner, and I can only hope that we are returning at least a little bit of the incredible favor that DWBC has granted us.”
The non-profit Cobalt Foundation develops and implements policy and conducts civic education and engagement to protect and expand abortion access. Cobalt Advocates is the successful 501(c)(4) political organization that focuses on policy, legislative action and candidate endorsements to elect pro-abortion rights legislators at the municipal, state and federal level. Importantly, the Cobalt Abortion Fund (https://cobaltaf.org) provides direct financial support to abortion-seekers.
DWBC President Lisa Lesniak praises Cobalt for “fighting for and empowering women in all aspects. Their niche is reproductive healthcare access, while DWBC tries to be more holistic.” Lisa highlights that both DWBC and Cobalt take “a feminist approach to empowering women. We align as feminists to do work to empower women. We look for partners who are empowering women in education, engagement and election.”
Cobalt was instrumental in getting voters to enshrine abortion access into Colorado’s constitution through Amendment 79. DWBC members carried petitions and helped secure the requisite number of signatures to get the amendment on the ballot. Dani Newsum highlighted that “giving voters the opportunity to enshrine abortion rights in the State constitution was one thing. Now it's on implementation. Our policy department will continue to be working on the nuts and bolts of implementing Amendment 79.”
Cobalt strives to be courageous, unified, principled and rooted – values that are consistent with DWBC’s. Dani says “the Democratic Women of Boulder County have been a stellar, stellar partner. Supporting our policy work has been just incredible, because it's not easy, and we are so very, very appreciative.” She reminds us, though, that the work is not done and DWBC’s partnership with Cobalt remains vital. “Vigilance is what we need,” particularly in protecting access to medication abortion. Opponents, she says, “will never let up on trying to outlaw Mifepristone, which is one of the two medications involved in medication abortion. So, just as Cobalt has to be vigilant, we would ask that the membership of the Democratic Women of Boulder County be vigilant, too, because that's where the threat is coming.”
Cobalt website: https://cobaltadvocates.org
Cobalt Abortion Fund: https://cobaltadvocates.org/cobalt-abortion-fund/
Cobalt Advocacy and Legislation arm = 501(c)(4)
2026 Federal and State Primary Elections We’re Watching
Colorado Races of Note:
*Denotes top fundraiser as of February 18, 2026.
Governor: (D) Candidate information can be found here.
Attorney General: (D) Candidate information can be found here.
Secretary of State: (D) Candidate information can be found here.
Treasurer: (D) Candidate information can be found here.
FEDERAL ELECTIONS
US Senate:
Incumbent John Hickenlooper*, Karen Breslin, Julie Gonzales, Brashad Hasley, and Anthony Zimpfer are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Colorado. You can read candidate biographies here.
U.S. House of Representatives:
Voters will elect eight candidates to serve in the U.S. House from each of the state's eight U.S. House districts. Congressional candidate bios can be read here.
CD 2 Congressional District (CD): Joe Neguse v Cinque Mason – not a highly contested race, but important to get out the vote.
CD 3: Incumbent Jeff Hurd (R) of Grand Junction. The lone Democratic challenger is Alex Kelloff.
CD 4: Controversial incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert (R).
Democratic Challengers:
CD 5: Five Democrats are vying for the chance to take on Rep. Jeff Crank (R) of Colorado Springs. Jessica Killin (D) has a substantial lead in fund raising. The candidates are:
CD 8: Among the most competitive congressional races in the country. Rep. Gabe Evans (R) of Fort Lupton won his seat by fewer than 2,500 votes in 2024.
2026 provides an opportunity for Democrats to take back the House and Senate. We are highlighting Democratic primary races that have our attention. Please engage in these races in whatever way you can.
Primary Elections are June 30, 2026. The General Election is November 3, 2026.
*Denotes top fundraiser as of February 18, 2026.
