BY FREDA MIKLIN
GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER
On September 1, a home in Greenwood Village provided a late summer evening setting for a fundraiser and meet-and-greet in honor of Stephanie Hancock, a high-energy and engaging first-time candidate for public office in Aurora’s State House District 41. Hancock hopes to replace one-term incumbent Iman Jodeh, the first Muslim elected to the general assembly.
Hancock told the crowd that she decided to run for office after being inspired by a sermon at Brave Church to become involved in her community. She opened with, “I’m a wife, mom, grandmom, U.S. Air Force veteran, I’ve owned a small business, and I’m concerned about what’s going on in our community and in our country… What really impacts us in our communities is what’s happening right in our district. We have the power to change what’s happening in our own community… My husband and I have walked over 200 miles in our community and I’ve asked people, What are you concerned about? Typically, people say crime and education. Those two things are linked together. It’s been my personal experience, having dealt with family members, if you are not educated, criminality waits. If you get into criminal activity, you go into the system. If you go into the system, when you come out, you can’t get an apartment, you can’t get a decent job, and it just continues, over and over.”
She went on, “Here’s what I’d like to see us do, take some actionable steps to mitigate some of these problems. We can talk about it all day long, but we need to do some stuff…What saved me growing up in the inner city of Pittsburgh with my mom as a single parent who was working her way through school also, is that there were programs for us, real programs.” Hancock talked about the importance of vocational programs for high school students, noting that “college isn’t for everyone.”
Hancock shared that, “I’ve been working since I was 14 years old. I’ve had all kinds of jobs, everything from cooking in the kitchen to serving drinks at a bar to being in the military to selling insurance, working at a tech company– all these things have prepared me for this moment. I never thought that I would be here, but now that I am here, I’m in it to win it… I’m fighting for you and I’m fighting for Colorado’s future generations. It’s not just me, it’s my eight-year-old grandson, it’s my 16-month-old granddaughter. I’m fighting for them. We have more at stake than just us.”
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