by Ashe in America | Oct 19, 2026 | Feature Story Bottom Left
ASHE IN AMERICA
— OPINION
standwithallison.com
Governance is about decision rights.
“…the sovereign will of the citizens — freely expressed at the ballot box and formalized by the competent electoral authorities — constitutes the sole foundation of the legitimacy of public power.” — US State Department, Shield of the Americas.
In September, I received a phone call from an old friend asking me to chat with Allison Madrigal (standwithallison.com), independent candidate running for House District 38.
The pitch interested me.
It was post-partisan. It was solutions-oriented. It was refreshing.
While I believe elections are fake, I have long said that I believe they are our most important narrative battlefield for reclaiming American decision rights for the people. That’s why I still vote — why I believe it’s still an important vehicle for change in the greatest country in the history of earth.
So I decided to do the interview. The full discussion is on my substack (asheinameri ca.substack.com), and edited for length below.
***
How did you decide to get into this race?
“I ran an anti-trafficking organization, started it, and ran it for 11 years. And it was last July that the Lord spoke very clearly to me to get everything off my plate because he had something new for me. It took me about six months to bring in new leadership for Rescue America. I got a call one evening in March and the caller said, ‘Hey, I’d like you to pray about something.” … I was like, okay, Lord. If you want me to do this, you’re going to have to show me.
A week or two after that call, I remembered I was registered unaffiliated. When I moved here in 2021 for Rescue America, when I was registering to vote, I was going to check Republican, but the Holy Spirit said, ‘Stop, unaffiliated. It’s strategic.’ I didn’t even really remember that until I was considering running.”
It was too late to change your registration anyway… Would you have changed it to Republican if you could?
“The first week and a half, when I was planning to run but didn’t remember that I was unaffiliated, there was this yucky feeling nagging at me. And I felt, “Okay, this is not the Lord. This is bad. The minute that I remember, I was registered unaffiliated, that feeling went completely away. I asked the Lord, ‘What is that? And He responded, ‘Now you know that you’re not under a political spirit.’ And I literally felt it in my physical body. I later learned that 46.8% of HD38 are registered unaffiliated. So no, I would not have changed.”
The party labels definitely come with baggage in Colorado. Tell me about your platform.
“I started Rescue America in 2014. The Lord called me out of corporate America, opened my eyes to trafficking in America, and then gave me everything to start a rescue hotline. Rescue America is a 24×7 hotline that gets survivors, victims, out of their situation and places them in long-term safe homes…
Working with trafficking victims for the last 11 years, there’s so much I learned. You think you understand an issue until you start working with the victims. Getting to the cause and bringing in redemptive solutions in order to heal a trafficking victim is a journey. I believe they’re one of the hardest populations to heal — you’ve got to heal their mind, their body, their spirit. It has to be a trifecta, right?”
Those same core issues with trafficking branch into homelessness and mental health and addiction, don’t they?
“Every facet of society. Getting to the redemptive solutions on all these interrelated issues is the foundation of my platform because of my work with Rescue America… What I’ve learned in trafficking, and how it relates to the whole of society, refocuses solutions on how we give people a hand up and not a hand out.”
Right now it’s a system of systems with the NGOs at the center…
“Exactly. You have to look at the NGOs. Are they producing outputs or outcomes? Are they creating sustainable life change with what they do? There’s a lot of organizations and, yes, there are ones that are corrupt, but there’s also a lot of organizations doing good work. But even then, they’re not creating life change. So what are we actually funding?
The one thing running unaffiliated, my only commitment is to do what the Lord asked me to do. I don’t care if they kick me out. I’m not taking funding from any of them, and I’m not sold out to anybody… I’m sold out to the Lord.”
What does representation mean to you?
“I can promise I am going to tell you the truth. I’m going to be available to listen. I will be available to hear the people and listen to them and, where I can, take those issues to the legislature and fight for their outcomes. If I can promise you anything, this is what I can and will promise you: I will tell you the truth. I will tell you what’s going on in the legislature. I will not sugarcoat anything. I will say it as is.”
***
I am not in HD38, cannot vote for Ms. Madrigal. But I wish I could, and I wish we had more post-partisan, solutions-oriented candidates running for office throughout the state.
Governance is about decision rights. We should always be intentional in handing those out.
Read the full interview at asheinamerica.substack.com.
Ashe Epp is a local writer, host, and activist. Find all her work at linktree.com/asheinamerica.
by Ashe in America | Sep 29, 2026 | Feature Story Bottom Left
ASHE IN AMERICA
— OPINION
It began with a text message on a Monday at the end of August. A friend sent me a flyer for an “ICE OUT” protest — a statewide walk out of schools.
Promoted and amplified on known agitator Reddit groups, the screengrabs and flyers and discussions that began circulating featured communist adults discussing their plans to show up to be with the kids.
My youngest son is still in high school, so my interest was parental, not journalistic.
As I was trying to get the facts on what was planned, the number of schools ticked rapidly upward. 69 schools were participating…then 75…then 100…160…
There were student walkout protests during the 2025-2026 school year, and the districts were caught off guard. There were also rumors that some Colorado teachers were offering students extra credit for participation during that effort.
It will surprise no one that, as a parent, I would absolutely press for criminal charges against teachers that incentivize children to become communists (or any other pseudo political religious cult). That’s literally contributing to the delinquency of a minor and abusing a position of societal trust.
Libs of TikTok posted a list of the schools on their social feed, so I checked; my son’s school was on it.
I called the school district first, and I spoke with the receptionist. She had no idea about any protests and sent me to the mailbox for the communications department. I left a message. No one called back.
I called the school. The school staff was also completely unaware of the planned walkout, but they were thankful for the heads up, asked me to email the flyers and posts, and grateful for the time to prepare. It was Monday and the protests were scheduled for Friday.
Throughout the week, the protests were amplified by supporters and critics alike, and several local journalists shared plans to cover the events. Parent groups also organized efforts to observe.
I did not plan to attend. Again, I wasn’t paying attention to this story for journalistic reasons. I was solely focused on if and how it would impact my child. I talked to him throughout the week, and we made a plan. His day was uneventful.
On paper, the event was coordinated by the “Colorado Youth Coalition.” Based on eyewitnesses and assault victims on the ground, the event appeared organized by multiple adult-led communist nongovernmental organizations.
The stage and sound set up for the event, which was witnessed and recorded by freelance cameraman Jorge (@jorgeshottakis), was executed by the Revolutionary Communists of America. They wore RCA shirts during set up. Here they are around that time on the morning of the protest (Photo credit: @jorgeshottakis):
The Denver Communists also appeared to play a leading role in communications and amplification, based on screenshots of the event’s “collaborators” shared by Corey (@Break theChainsM). Other collaborator groups identified included the Brown Berets, No Camps, Pulse Colorado, and General Strike US.
When I learned what went on in Denver, my parental concern evolved into anti-communist anger. In Denver, the kids turned violent.
Both Jorge and Corey joined my show, Culture of Change, on Badlands Media on Monday September 7, where they shared their personal experiences and videos of the events — and of the attacks.
That’s right — attacks.
During the “student protest,” both men found themselves on the ground being kicked and punched and otherwise assaulted by a mob of high school students. Corey had some of his camera equipment stolen. Jorge, a cameraman, only has video of himself being viciously kicked on the ground because the Youth Coalition recorded their attack and posted it on social media.
Corey’s video captured a blonde adult woman appearing to incite the student protesters into the violent mob. She can be seen jumping and waving the kids off the sidewalk, at which point they charge across the street and physically assault the journalists and counter protestors.
The woman was later identified by Jorge, who recorded and posted video of Wayne’s Word Pod interviewing her at the event, sharing, “The woman in black who waved the kids in to attack @MissyMurdrem2 and @BreakTheChainsM is 22-year-old Emma Landis according to Emma Landis. This is the woman who was shot in the foot outside an Aurora ICE facility.” Landis confirms on the video that she is the person that was shot.
Missy is a first generation American who is actively engaged in immigration and second amendment civics. She was the main target of the physical violence, according to the witnesses and videos.
On September 9, after becoming aware that the victims of the violent student mob included his constituents, Rep Jeff Crank (CO-05) referred the matter to the DOJ for criminal investigation, sharing the letter on X and saying, “Multiple journalists and counterprotestors, including some of my constituents from Colorado’s Fifth District, were assaulted & sustained serious injuries. Freedom of speech doesn’t allow you to assault those you disagree with.”
Also, on September 9, President Trump spoke at the first ever “midterm convention,” and said, “Remember during the last state of the Union, I said, ‘our country will never be a socialist country.’ I was right, it’s going to be a communist country.”
The communists certainly hope so. Landis was shot at an ICE facility, and she’s on video, actively inciting Colorado children to follow in her footsteps. Adults are working to poison the minds of children and convince them to engage in violence to achieve the revolution.
And they are.
Children are engaging in violence to achieve a communist revolution.
Where have we seen this before?
History’s Red Guards didn’t start as a movement. They started as this — scattered and chaotic groups, testing boundaries and moving lines.
In Mao’s China, they were children.
Every parent with kids in Colorado public schools should read up on Mao’s Red Guard. Call it homework.
Past is prelude.
Ashe Epp is a local writer, host, and activist. Find all her work, including playlist for the Culture of Change show mentioned in this article, at linktree.com/asheinamerica.
by Ashe in America | Aug 20, 2026 | Feature Story Bottom Left
ASHE IN AMERICA
— OPINION
Judge Philip Brimmer in the US Federal Court for the District of Colorado threw out a lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, after she failed to share voter data to support the Trump Administration’s efforts to ensure only eligible voters are accessing US elections.
Secretary Griswold claims the requested information contains sensitive information — including driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers — and that the administration has no legitimate right to demand the data. The DOJ argues Title III of the Civil Rights Act requires Colorado to turn the records over. Brimmer disagreed with the DOJ, dismissing the case with prejudice.
Griswold took a victory lap, saying in a statement quoted in CPR, “Trump and his DOJ are attacking elections and democracy. We will not let them win… Today’s victory affirms that Trump’s DOJ has no right to Coloradans’ sensitive voter information.”
This was a procedural victory for the secretary, not a constitutional one. Brimmer dismissed the case narrowly, reading that voter registration lists aren’t “records” covered by 52 U.S.C. § 20701, and even if they were, the DOJ’s December 1 demand didn’t state a valid basis and purpose as the statute requires.
The lack of a valid basis is confusing considering the document and witness testimony that was recently declassified by the Trump Administration. Newly declassified records reveal that, “voter registration rolls from at least 18 states (not all identified by name) have been compromised by the People’s Republic of China (PRC).” Colorado is on that list, revealed by the White House Government Transparency taskforce on July 13, 2026.
Ostensibly, Chinese hackers did target Colorado voters’ sensitive data; further declassification revealed that some voter data was obtained through unauthorized access across the country, though names of the states remain redacted. Those records also reveal that intelligence officials deliberately withheld that information from the Presidential Daily Briefing, admitting in the previously classified communications that, “We have deliberately massaged our one pending PDB to avoid any direct links to the election.” These communications are posted on The White House website under the “Election Integrity” tab.
The implication from the declassified documents is that federal intelligence officials were hiding a major national security threat from the Commander in Chief.
Considered in that context, is Brimmer preventing the DOJ from mitigating a national security threat of unauthorized Chinese data access? Not according to the record of the arguments presented before him.
The DOJ didn’t argue national security. They argued voter roll hygiene, an activity and authority directly under the purview of the states and, for Brimmer, that was insufficient. Since the case is dismissed with prejudice, the DOJ can’t bring the voter roll hygiene case again.
They should bring the national security one.
There is no indication that Secretary Griswold is mitigating a Chinese data breach. She doesn’t even seem concerned about it, despite credible, documented evidence of a foreign threat to Colorado elections. Almost like it’s not a surprise.
Instead, the secretary is concerned that federal authorities might check the work of her and her office. This is the same office that “accidentally” sent 29,997 invitations to register to vote to ineligible voters (non-citizens). It’s the same office that posted over 600 election equipment passwords on the internet for a period that spanned two separate election events.
This is the same office that was caught in a coverup of that password breach. Then Deputy Secretary of State Chris Beall was outed on a recorded line telling the Adams County Clerk and Recorder, “We were not going to tell counties because we could not tell counties without it becoming the media storm that it’s become.” Note that they can’t investigate a breach without the clerks — who control the machines, the cameras, access logs, etc. — so they likely didn’t investigate at all.
Given the revelations about Chinese access to US elections, which were declassified nearly two years after the Beall scandal, the conduct and focus of the secretary’s office raises new questions about a national security threat. If the courts won’t let the feds access information required to combat foreign threats in our elections; and the state outright refuses to combat foreign threats in our elections; is anyone actually combating foreign threats in our elections?
This isn’t on Brimmer. The DOJ didn’t bring a national security argument into his courtroom.
They should.
Ashe Epp is a local writer, host, and activist. Find all her work at linktree.com/asheinamerica.
by Ashe in America | Jul 23, 2026 | Feature Story Bottom Left
ASHE IN AMERICA
— OPINION
There is a shift happening in Colorado that no one is talking about.
There are 4,022,433 registered voters in Colorado, according to the Independent Voter Project. Unaffiliated voters — those claiming no party affiliation — more than double the totals from either party. Democrats comprise 991,920 voters, or 24.7%; Republicans comprise 894,209 voters, or 22.2%; and Independents comprise 2,038,329, or 50.7%. Another 97,976 voters, or 2.4%, are listed as “other”, ostensibly a consolidated bucket of the other available affiliations.
The parties, and their media partners, will tell you that the “unaffiliated” voters are mostly still partisans whose lack of affiliation is a form of protest. The implication is, “Don’t take them too seriously, they still vote with the parties.”
The latter part of that implication is largely true, but only in that the two major parties, despite representing less than half of us, still enjoy a premium on ballot access, and its amplification by all the “trusted institutions.”
The former part of the implication, I argue, is false.
Colorado is not two parties. It is many factions, organized largely around causes. What unites these diverse factions is a distinct rejection of the two-party system, in part because that rejection is required to drive change in Colorado. That is, 2,136,356 voters in the state reject the two-party system but ostensibly lack the organizing apparatus to scale something new.
The parties brand this as partisans in protest, a framing that allows them to dismiss it and remain focused on the 1,886,129 voters attached to the two parties.
That brings me to the shift and the current political moment.
I attended the Colorado Citizenry event on July 8th hosted by Jonathan and Deborah Flora in Castle Rock. At one point, I found myself at a table discussing the Governor’s race. Two people at the table were committed to Lopez, two declared for Weiser, and one was considering under voting the contest — leaving the race blank on his ballot. Of those five, two were Republicans, two were unaffiliated, and one was a Democrat.
The discussion was robust, fact-based, and unemotional. There were no personal attacks and, importantly, there was zero discussion about parties for the simple reason that party discussions are irrelevant. That didn’t need to be said. It’s understood. The event was a blast. If there is a Colorado Citizenry event in your area, you should go.
I recently connected with Erin Brantley who is building “Independent Majority” to (my characterization, not hers) combat the party premium on the viability of non-party sanctioned ideas and initiatives. Like the Floras, Brantley is connecting and collaborating with individuals and groups of all political persuasions to imagine and organize something post partisan. Something new.
During the 2026 primary season, a group of local bloggers and podcasters began collaborating and sharing information and ideas in back channels. Like the other examples, those involved run the spectrum of political identity and content and audiences. During the primary, the group comprised support for all three candidates in the race. Local content is better for it, more grounded and balanced in the exploration of issues and ideas facing the electoral franchise before the November election.
There is nothing partisan about any of these anecdotes. The people involved represent many factions, platforms, goals, and movements. These efforts are unemotional and post partisan and they’re growing — despite the parties’ contention that 2,136,356 of us are just partisans in protest.
Now consider that inside the 46.9% that are affiliated with the two major parties, there are many factions. The problem with those guys is that they chase their tails fighting to control the party instead of the government. It’s our 250th birthday month, so let’s get George Washington’s take:
“The alternate domination of one faction over another…is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism… the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one party against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.”
Spot on, President Washington. This is literally why we’re post partisan. Something new can be something old. Something new can be whatever we want it to be as long as we’re willing to build it.
People just need to be brave. 53.1% of us are more rightly oriented for change than the minority.
I think that change is happening now. The share of post partisan voters will increase.
“What truly matters is not which party controls our government,” President Trump said in his 2017 inauguration speech, continuing, “but whether our government is controlled by the People.”
Whatever you think about the President, that speech was a strategy statement, and the People are responsible for its execution. The two major political parties are a barrier to self-governance and gatekeepers of political support and advocacy. The moment for change is now.
Bright side: While the rest of the nation writes off the Centennial State as a communist lost cause, the People of Colorado are the tip of the spear for what comes after the people abandon the parties to the point they don’t matter.
The Golden Age of America isn’t something we’re going to inhabit and occupy. It’s something we’re going to build.
A Republic for the next 250 years.
Happy Birthday, America!
Ashe Epp is a local writer, host, and activist. Find all her work at linktree.com/asheinamerica.
by Ashe in America | Jun 29, 2026 | Feature Story Bottom Left
ASHE IN AMERICA
— OPINION
Most Coloradans – and Americans – are familiar with Mesa County and the tale of Tina Peters.
Lesser known is the story of Elbert County and former Clerk and Recorder Dallas Schroeder. Schroeder is currently an Elbert County Commissioner and is running for reelection. Clerk Schroeder also took forensic images of Dominion machines prior to Griswold’s 2021 “trusted build,” though he successfully avoided the political persecution of Tina Peters.
Why? Because taking images of voting machines was lawful in 2021. It didn’t become unlawful until 2022 and the Colorado Election Security Act (SB22-153).
The difference between Tina Peters and Dallas Schroeder is that Dallas took the images himself, while Tina Peters hired an outside expert to do the job — and she made some missteps in the execution for which she has expressed contrition.
Clerk Schroeder imaged the Elbert machines in 2021. Secretary of State Jena Griswold didn’t find out about it until Schroeder disclosed the existence of the images in a lawsuit against her later that year.
In court in November 2022, former Deputy Secretary of State Chris Beall got quite heated about Clerk Schroeder’s beliefs, concluding that his speech made him a security risk. “…those statements caused us to understand him. Clerk Schroeder is a security risk,” Beall said.
He also lost his temper, stating, “…this fight to um, PROVE that uh the 2020 election was, was tampered with. uh, It’s a fantasy!”
He then apologized for his outburst.
Upon learning about the existence of these images, Secretary Griswold repeated the playbook she used with Peters, sending a flurry of press releases slandering the Elbert Officials and telling the public there was a “breach.”
A legal battle ensued and, following a court order, Schroeder delivered all copies of the images to Secretary Griswold.
Griswold and CDOS also appointed a babysitter to oversee future Elbert elections. Note that was the year that Tina Peters was on the ballot, running for Secretary of State.
Elbert county is small with around 25,000 active voters currently (it was ~22,000 in 2022). The CDOS consultant/babysitter was present from the beginning to the end of the primary election in Elbert County. She produced a report that suggested the county buy bigger monitors.
Note that pretty much every recommendation in the report is preceded with some variation of, “While the county operated in accordance with applicable law…” In other words, “I got nothing, but I have to come up with some sort of recommendations or Jena won’t pay me.”
Think I am exaggerating? From the report summary:
“Elbert County conducted the day-to-day operations of administering the 2022 Primary Election through Election Day in substantial compliance with applicable laws and rules… The County appears well-equipped to conduct future elections with current staff, facilities, and resources. Therefore, it is my recommendation that the Secretary terminate her Election Order 2022-09, dated June 9, 2022, at this time.” Read the full report on my substack.
Note that Secretary Griswold ignored the finding from her appointed babysitter to terminate supervision — the babysitter was also present for the general election in November 2022. Elbert County continued to have CDOS elections babysitters through 2024.
“If there is nothing to hide, and Colorado is the ‘Gold Standard,’ then I challenge Ms. Griswold to use our images and prove it,” Dallas Schroeder said in 2022. He was ignored.
CDOS made a huge media splash with at least four press releases attacking Elbert County elected and elections officials. Those press releases are also archived and linked on my substack.
The department would likely say they issued all those slanderous releases to keep the public informed. But then they ignored the report’s recommendations and went silent in the press when the Elbert officials were vindicated. CDOS literally never told the citizens of Colorado the end of the story.
And it gets worse.
CDOS never sent the report — the report with the findings and recommendations — to Clerk Schroeder. That’s strange, because the clerk is the official who would be required to implement the findings and recommendations, and they never sent it to him.
The conduct of CDOS towards Elbert County, alone, implies that this whole saga wasn’t about election administration or security at all. It was about political narratives and ostensible cover ups.
Abuse of power.
Weaponization of government.
While CDOS didn’t send the report to the county, they did send an invoice — for $30,000.
Why is this important now? The key question is: What is going on with these images?
Has CDOS analyzed the drives? What did they find? Have they been compared to the Mesa images? Do they still have them? Are they going to publicly apologize for their treatment of Elbert County, Schroeder, and his team?
Clerk Schroeder asked for the images back a couple of times according to sources close to the matter. First he was told that the matter was still under investigation then, later, he was told that the images were on a litigation hold for the case against Tina Peters. Schroeder was prevented from testifying at Peters’ August 2024 trial, after being sworn in.
For my part, I’ve always believed those images were destroyed. I made a bet to that effect.
I’d be extremely happy to lose that bet.
As Schroeder said: If they have nothing to hide, they should prove it.
Ashe Epp is a local writer, host, and activist. Find all her work at linktree.com/asheinamerica.
