PERSON: Joe Salazar

Congressman

Joe Salazar is the representative in House District 31, which includes most of Thornton and parts of unincorporated Adams County.

Rep. Salazar has spent his entire career making sure the rights of hard-working Coloradans are protected, and will bring that same focus to the legislature. He was a civil rights and criminal investigator for the State of Colorado, working for the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies in the civil rights division and division of insurance. He also clerked for the Colorado attorney general’s office.

Later he started his own firm specializing in representing the unemployed and disadvantaged individuals.

Rep. Salazar’s family has owned farm and ranch land in Colorado’s San Luis Valley and in northern New Mexico for generations. He was four years old when he moved with his parents to Thornton, and grew up as the city grew, attending Woodglen Elementary, Northeast Junior High School and Thornton High School, where he graduated in 1989.

Rep. Salazar worked his way through the University of Colorado at Boulder, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology, and obtained his law degree from the University of Denver.

He lives in Thornton with his wife, Jessica. He has two daughters, 16-year-old Alexandra and 4-year-old Lili.

-- cohousedems.com