Candidate Interviews

Carey Marin: House District 2 Candidate Interview

Carey Marin discusses family, affordability, education, and accountable government in our inaugural issue’s HD2 interview.

From the September 11, 2026 inaugural issue of The Colorado Conservative. Candidate status and campaign links reflect the printed issue.

Colorado House of Representatives • House District 2 • Candidate in the printed issue

Campaign website · Campaign donation link

The interview

Who is Carey beyond the campaign?

I’m a wife, a mom of four teenagers and a small business owner. My husband, Paul, and I have been married for nearly 30 years, and all four of our children joined our family through adoption.

Professionally, I’ve spent more than 25 years in communications. I started as a journalist and eventually built my own business, experiences that taught me to ask questions, listen and find a way forward.

Adoption remains an important part of my life. I serve with Gift of Adoption Colorado, helping families overcome the financial barriers to adoption. Mostly, though, I’m a mom thinking about the kind of Colorado we’re leaving our kids.

Why are you running?

I’m running because I want Colorado to be a place where my kids can build their lives someday and where the next generation has more opportunity, not less.

Colorado has gotten off track. Our government is broken. We pay more and get less. The cost of living keeps climbing, government keeps growing and too often the answer from the Capitol is another tax, fee, mandate or regulation.

I don’t think we have to accept that. I’ve spent my career solving difficult problems, listening to different perspectives and bringing people together. I want to bring that experience to the Capitol and help get Colorado moving in the right direction.

What makes your district unique?

We live in the best part of Denver. We have beautiful neighborhoods with big trees, amazing neighbors and places that become part of your family’s traditions—walking around Wash Park, kids riding bikes through Observatory Park and Cory-Merrill, dinner on South Gaylord, the farmers market on South Pearl Street, shopping in Cherry Creek and, of course, Bonnie Brae Ice Cream.

Each neighborhood has its own personality, but there’s a strong sense of community throughout the district. People also don’t all think alike politically, which I consider a strength. I want to protect what makes these neighborhoods such wonderful places to live while addressing concerns about affordability, safety and schools.

What would be your three highest legislative priorities?

My three priorities are cost of living, government spending and homelessness because I see their impact every day.

With four teenagers, I don’t need a report to tell me things cost more. Government can’t control every price, but it can stop adding to the burden.

We also need basic discipline in government spending. Before asking taxpayers for another dollar, we should know where their money is going and whether it’s working.

What we’re doing about homelessness isn’t working. People struggling with mental illness and addiction need real help, but compassion also requires accountability. We shouldn’t accept unsafe encampments, open drug use or public spaces people are afraid to use.

How would you address Colorado’s affordability challenges?

There isn't one bill that's going to make Colorado affordable again. Government needs to look at the cumulative cost of every tax, fee, regulation and mandate it imposes and stop spending so much of our money.

Colorado just went through a $1.5 billion budget problem, so why aren't we changing the way we approach spending? If I get to the end of the month and there's no money left in my bank account, I have to stop spending. State government should have to live within its means too.

Before passing something new, legislators should ask: What will this cost Coloradans? Government can't control every price, but it can stop making so many things more expensive.

Republican candidates at the American Legion. Left to Right: Carey Marin, candidate for HD2, Sydnia Wulff, candidate for SD32, Tom Riggs, Vice Chair of the Denver GOP, Janak Joshi, US Senate candidate for CD8, Christy Peterson, candidate for US CD 1.

What is your approach to education?

My kids spent several years in public schools before we decided to homeschool, so I’ve experienced education from both perspectives.

Public schools need to get back to their core mission: teaching kids to read, write, do math, understand science and history, and think critically. Teachers should focus on academics, while parents, not schools or state government, should be responsible for the values they instill in their children.

Parents should know what their children are being taught and have options when a school isn’t meeting their needs. State government should focus on strong academic standards, transparency and accountability.

Let teachers teach, let parents parent and make academic achievement the priority again.

How would you approach public safety and individual liberty?

I don’t see public safety and individual liberty as competing values. Protecting both is one of government’s most basic responsibilities.

People should be able to walk through their neighborhood, use a park, run a business and raise their children without fearing crime or disorder. That means supporting law enforcement and holding repeat offenders accountable.

At the same time, government has enormous power, and that power needs limits. Constitutional rights don’t become optional because protecting them is inconvenient.

My approach is straightforward: enforce the law fairly, focus resources on people who pose a genuine threat, protect due process and be skeptical whenever government asks for more authority over law-abiding citizens.

What does conservative government mean to you?

Conservative government means recognizing that government has an important role but a limited one.

State government should do the things Coloradans genuinely need it to do, and do them well: protect public safety, maintain infrastructure, educate children, safeguard individual rights and responsibly manage taxpayer dollars.

It should do less micromanaging of people’s lives and businesses and stop treating every problem as a reason for another program, mandate, fee or regulation. And it should remember that the money it spends belongs to taxpayers.

Most decisions are best made as close to the people affected by them as possible. By individuals, families, communities and local governments.

How will you turn your principles into results?

You don’t solve complicated problems by walking into a room assuming everyone on the other side is the enemy. I’ve spent my career working with people who have very different perspectives and finding a way forward.

At the Capitol, I’ll look for common ground. A Democrat and Republican may have very different philosophies about government but still recognize that housing costs too much, a regulation isn’t working or kids deserve better educational outcomes.

I’m willing to compromise on how we get somewhere. I’m not willing to abandon a core principle simply to say I passed a bill. Productive compromise means listening, finding common ground and accepting that no one gets everything they want.

Why should voters place their trust in you?

If something is broken, you fix it. Colorado has gotten way off track, and we need people at the Capitol willing to roll up their sleeves and change direction.

I’ve spent my career solving difficult problems. When something isn’t working, I figure out what’s wrong, bring the right people together and look for a solution.

My commitment to House District 2 is simple: I’ll listen, be honest about where I stand and work with anyone who genuinely wants to solve a problem. We won’t always agree, but I’ll always remember who I work for.

Colorado can do better. I’m ready to get to work.

District notes from the magazine

Illustration from the original magazine.

The first public bathing beach in Denver was in Washington Park at Smith Lake, designed in a grand Victorian style by landscape architect Reinhard Schuetze in 1889, it opened to the public in 1911.

The famous Margaret “Molly” Brown helped save the home of poet Eugene Field by having it moved from West Colfax to Washington Park.

In 2022, South High School was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The school was founded in 1893 where it began simply as 2 High School classrooms in the old Grant School. NFL star Calais Campbell, filmmaker Stan Brakhage, and Janet Bonnema (the first woman to work inside a Colorado highway tunnel project) are among its alumni

On October 3, 2012, Denver University hosted the first presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.