_edited.png)
Trisha Calvarese
Education
Bachelor's Degree, The Johns Hopkins University, Writing, Film & Media, Psychology and Brain Sciences. Hodson Trust Scholar, merit scholarship for academic and leadership excellence.
Professional Experience
Writer, National Science Foundation, February 2022 - January 2024
Director of Speech Writing and Publications, Senior Speech Writer and Editorial, AFL-CIO, October 2020 - February 2022
Speechwriter to the Director, National Science Foundation, December 2019 - October 2020
Senior Writer and Speechwriter, Conservation International, March 2019 - November 2019
Campaign Manager, Boerio for Congress, 2018
Other experience includes Self-Employed Freelance Writer and Strategic Communications Consultant; Digital Strategist; Digital Communications Strategist; Senator Bernie Sanders United States Senate Internship; and Communications Fellow. November 2009 - May 2018.
Why Running
I grew up right here in Colorado’s Fourth District as the daughter of two Republicans. When my parents both got sick, I left my job as a civil servant in science and technology and came home to take care of them. The choices were limited. We saw up close how expensive healthcare really is for Colorado families.
Before they passed, we found common ground on something fundamental. If you work hard, you should be able to afford a good life, raise a family, and retire with dignity. That was the promise of the American middle class. Anyone could rise on work, merit, and grit.
Washington broke that promise.
Instead of competition, they concentrated wealth and power in the hands of a few. Corporations rigged markets. Middlemen skimmed profits. Workers fell behind while prices went up. Families pay more for basics. Small businesses compete on uneven ground. The people who feed, fuel, and care for this country do the work but do not get the respect or representation they deserve.
Voters see it. They do not trust either party because the system keeps failing them. Starting a family and retiring with security now feel out of reach.
We are at an inflection point.
Colorado’s Fourth District has everything it takes to lead the next American century. Energy. Agriculture. Skilled workers. Community colleges. Small businesses. Entrepreneurs. A deep ethic of hard work and care.
I’m the hometown jobs candidate running to take on the forces driving up costs and squeezing families, restore a middle class built to last, and make sure rural Colorado has the representation it deserves.
Families should be able to build lives with security, dignity, and opportunity.
Policy Positions
Affordability: Restore fair markets by cracking down on monopolies, tax loopholes, and corporate middlemen that inflate prices in healthcare, energy, and housing, while reinvesting hidden corporate wealth and expanding access to affordable care, stable utility rates, and attainable homes for working families.
Colorado Made: A National & Economic Strategy: Position Colorado’s Fourth District as a national engine for innovation, advanced manufacturing, and energy leadership by reshoring supply chains, expanding workforce pathways, modernizing infrastructure, and empowering local entrepreneurs—creating middle‑class jobs and keeping economic growth rooted in the communities that drive it.
Rural Security is National Security: Strengthen rural Colorado by protecting farmland, breaking up monopoly control in agriculture, lowering input costs, investing in innovation, stabilizing rural healthcare, and expanding economic infrastructure—ensuring the communities that feed and power the nation have fair markets, essential services, and real opportunity.
Dignity of Work in the AI Era: Ensure AI serves the public good by protecting consumers and children, enforcing transparency and data privacy, creating real pathways for workers displaced by automation, democratizing innovation, and setting strong national and global rules so technology strengthens freedom, safety, and shared prosperity.
Care and Dignity: Take on insurance and pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) middlemen that deny care and drive up costs while protecting Social Security and Medicare, expanding reproductive and mental health access, strengthening care for veterans and first responders, and ensuring lifesaving cures developed with public investment remain accessible to every family.
Reforming Congress: Strengthen ethics and accountability by banning stock trading, closing the revolving door, eliminating foreign influence, enacting term limits, overturning Citizens United, and increasing transparency to restore public trust in a government that serves the people.