Op-Ed: When Democrats Forget Who They Are Fighting For

This piece is part of Yellow Scene Magazine’s Opinion section. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent a reported news position. At Yellow Scene, opinion pieces speak freely, challenge assumptions, and say the quiet parts out loud.

By Rep. Junie Joseph

I never imagined I would say this, but sometimes it feels as though we Democrats are fighting harder with one another than we are fighting for the people who sent us to serve.

The Democratic Party’s mission is clear. We are here to deliver real solutions to the greatest challenges facing working families. We fight for a living wage and lower costs of living. We support small businesses while holding irresponsible corporations accountable. We defend the freedom to marry who you love and to access the health care you need. We commit to confronting climate change and protecting our public lands.

Those are not abstract principles. They are promises.

Yet recently, a bill I carried to strengthen renter protections (HB26-1047) failed in the House Judiciary Committee when Democrats joined Republicans to defeat it. The measure was straightforward. It sought to modernize and humanize Colorado’s eviction process by improving transparency, protecting privacy, and limiting the long-term damage caused by eviction records in non-serious cases.

For the past four years, I have worked consistently to strengthen housing stability in Colorado. One of the first bills I worked on was HB23-1120, Eviction Protections for Residential Tenants on SNAP and other government benefits. Since then, I have advanced housing-related protections every year, including the Equal Justice Fund Authority, HB24-1286, which provides legal aid funding for low-income renters, and Protections for Tenants with Housing Subsidies (HB25-1240).

I work on these bills because of my lived experience. I know what it means to grow up in low-income, substandard housing. I know the insecurity of not knowing whether stability will last. I also represent a district that includes a major university and faces intense housing pressures. In Boulder, renters are not statistics. They are students, seniors, service workers, young families, and longtime residents struggling to stay in the community they love.

The bill that failed would have required landlords filing eviction complaints to attach the basic documents that give rise to the dispute so that tenants and courts can understand the claim from the start. It would have required eviction notices to clearly cite the legal basis for the action and redact sensitive personal information to protect privacy. It would have ensured that eviction records in non-serious cases remain suppressed so that a temporary hardship does not become a lifelong barrier to housing. It would have allowed courts to publish anonymized opinions to strengthen legal clarity while protecting both tenants and landlords.

This was not radical. It was balanced, careful, and rooted in due process.

During the hearing, more than 40 landlords testified in opposition. Fourteen community members testified in support. One member of the committee observed that the bill did not appear to have enough support. Another said we must listen to the majority.

But who is the majority?

The majority in our communities are working families who cannot leave work on a weekday afternoon to testify at the Capitol. The majority are single parents juggling two jobs. They are college students working part-time to afford books and rent. They are families deciding whether to pay medical debt or save for college. They are people living on the margins who rarely have the luxury of spending hours in a committee room.

They are the invisible majority.

When we measure support only by who can show up in the middle of the day, we distort reality. Power has always had the resources to organize and testify. Struggle rarely does.

There is a caucus within our party that speaks often about protecting the middle class. I share that goal wholeheartedly. But we cannot grow and protect the middle class if we ignore the working class. We do not build stability by allowing wages to stagnate while housing costs rise. We do not strengthen communities by weakening renter protections and expanding the power imbalance in eviction court.

If we are serious about opportunity, it must include those who are barely holding on.

As we approach the 2026 election, at a time when the federal government feels increasingly detached from the lived realities of everyday Americans, Democrats must decide who we are. Are we united in fighting for working people in all their complexity, or will we fracture into subgroups that collaborate with Republicans to block reforms designed to protect vulnerable families?

Our values cannot simply be words on a platform. They must be visible in our votes.

I remain proud to be a Democrat. I believe deeply in what our party stands for. But belief requires courage. It requires us to stand with the people who cannot always stand in the room. It requires us to remember that economic security is not a privilege but a foundation for dignity.

If we forget that, we risk forgetting who we are.

Colorado families deserve better. And I will continue fighting for them.