Don Coram has had ranching and mining backgrounds at his birthplace in Montrose.
When Scott Tipton was elected to Congress, after a term in the state Legislature, Coram ran and won that House seat. That was in 2010. Re-elected twice, Coram was then named to succeed Ellen Roberts as state senator for District 6 when she resigned in 2016 before the end of her term. In 2018, he was elected to that Senate seat.
Most recently, Coram is serving on the Senate’s Agricultural and Natural Resources Committee, and its Transportation and Energy Committee.
Additional involvement for Coram comes from being a member of the wildfire and water resources review committees. And, outside elected office, he was a Montrose school board member and an officer of the Delta-Montrose Vocational Center. And, he grows hemp.
Sponsored legislation in the last session included water resource funding, strengthening civics education, voluntary natural gas emissions reductions and expanded access to foreign-made prescription drugs.
Coram has worked with members of the other party and enjoys saying that “the R is for rural.” Coram has exhibited breadth in his work and political life.
He knows Southwest Colorado, for sure, and we expect he will be a quick learner of the issues across the 3rd Congressional District as he campaigns for the Republican Party’s nomination for that seat.
Incumbent Republican Lauren Boebert of Rifle has announced she is running for a second term to represent the 3rd Congressional District, and she has a lot of money in the bank for that effort – more than $1.5 million at this point.
Coram, with his familiarity with Colorado Western Slope issues in the Legislature will give Boebert a good run on the specifics. Boebert came to office with only limited personal small-business experience and had not held any elected office.
It is style where Boebert has her appeal, for her followers, shouting generalities in support of gun ownership, small government, free enterprise and labeling Democrats as misguided destroyers of everything American, large and small.
Whether Coram will be able to make himself heard above the noise in the campaign fray remains to be seen. And, how visible he can be with likely much less money than Boebert has available.
A contest is always good for voters. It is good to know that the sitting congresswoman has someone who will expand the conversation and take her record to task, and by his demeanor show that politics can be more than only noise and bravado.
