DENVER — As she runs for reelection to a third term in Congress, Democratic U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen is keeping the focus on President Donald Trump to help carry her and her party to victory in November.

Pettersen, who has represented Colorado’s 7th Congressional District since 2023, said the first order of business for Democrats, should they retake the House majority, is to “rein in Trump’s lawlessness and his corruption.” She castigated the administration over its tariff policies and the war with Iran, both of which Pettersen said were driving up everyday costs.

“The pain and suffering that is felt across our communities is absolutely devastating,” she said.

Before being elected to Congress, Pettersen, 44, served 10 years in the Colorado legislature. She also has a background in nonprofit work.

The 7th Congressional District is anchored in Jefferson County, where Pettersen was born and raised. It stretches as far south as Custer County and as far west as Chaffee and Lake counties. The district includes popular recreation meccas and mountain towns like Leadville, Buena Vista and Cañon City.

It’s also been a solid Democratic stronghold for two decades, having last elected a Republican in 2004.

While the GOP had hoped the district would become more favorable to conservatives after redistricting in 2021, when its boundaries grew from mostly suburban metro Denver to also include rural western counties, it’s mostly kept its blue shine. Pettersen won her 2022 and 2024 elections by at least 14-percentage-point margins, while her Democratic predecessor, Ed Perlmutter, won his last term by 21.5 points.

Still, Tim Bennett, the district’s Republican nominee in the Nov. 3 election, is unfazed.

“Those numbers are all irrelevant to me,” Bennett said. “I’m an old-school Army Ranger, and they say, ‘You take the harder right over the easier wrong, regardless of the consequences.’ ”

Bennett, who served roughly 30 years in the military, is in his first year as a member of the Lewis-Palmer School District 38 Board of Education, a seat he won in 2025. During his run for school board, Bennett said he wanted to “get politics out of school” and empower parental rights.

Bennett, who lives in Palmer Lake, has mounted his campaign for Congress on the premise that voters are frustrated by both major parties. He says lawmakers are more interested in serving their donors than solving issues for their constituents.

“It seems to me as though, rather than fixing a problem, they let a problem continue,” said Bennett, 62, adding that there is “a huge amount of money that is brought into both parties when the animus level between both parties is high.”

He criticized Pettersen’s campaign for accepting donations from large political action committees, which include those representing the real estate and health insurance industries.

Bennett also said he wouldn't be afraid to buck his own party. He takes stances that go against those of many Republicans in Congress, from disavowing the war with Iran to supporting the ability for Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. (Democrats passed a limited version of that in 2022 as part of the major climate and health law signed by then-President Joe Biden.)

Also running for the 7th District seat are Libertarian candidate Dan “Kilo” Sallis, independent candidate Joe Krzeczkowski, American Constitution Party candidate Lawrence Kyle Clark and Unity Party candidate Susan Hall.

Pettersen has led a number of bipartisan efforts in Congress. Three housing-focused bills that she sponsored or co-sponsored were included in the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, Congress’ most comprehensive housing package in decades. Her provisions were aimed at fast-tracking housing development in rural areas and streamlining loans for military and veteran home buyers.

While Pettersen said that while she’s proud to have been part of a legislative breakthrough on housing, there’s far more to do in the next Congress.

Bennett called the bill a "Band-Aid" approach to the housing crisis. One of his housing proposals is to raise the limit for how much profit from a home sale can be tax-free. That would make it cheaper to sell homes and, in turn, increase housing supply. He said the current limits — $250,000 for single filers and $500,00 for joint filers — were not in line with today's housing prices and disincentivized home sales.

Pettersen acknowledged a need for Democrats to deliver a more forward-thinking agenda that will carry the party beyond the last two years of Trump’s presidency. She called for a reformed tax code that benefits working people and “doesn’t create trillionaires."

She also wants to pass universal healthcare and childcare bills — issues that are personal for the congresswoman. She grew up caring for her mother who dealt with drug and alcohol addiction for decades, sparking Pettersen's push to expand addiction treatment as both a state and federal lawmaker. And last year, Pettersen gave birth to her second son and co-sponsored a bipartisan resolution to allow for proxy voting for new parents in Congress, which erupted into a high-profile fight with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.

So far, fundraising has heavily favored Pettersen. She has raised $1.9 million, according to the most recent federal campaign finance reports, compared to Bennett's $63,306 in fundraising. New campaign finance reports are due later this week.

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