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Colorado State House District 52 candidate Q&A

The race features incumbent Democrat Yara Zokaie and Center Party candidate Stephen Yurash

PUBLISHED:
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Go to: Candidate Q&A home page Ìý·Ìý Denver Post Voter Guide


Stephen Yurash  Center Party

Residence: Fort Collins
Profession: retired computer chip engineer
Education: B.S. Physics
Experience: 7 computer chip companies including 23 years at Intel. Larimer County Board of Health, Fort Collins Electric Board


What are your top three priorities, if elected?
1. Cost of living and especially housing
2. Limit growth and cost of government
3. Guardianship for mentally incompetent homeless

What specific actions would you support to improve affordability for Coloradans, whether aimed at housing costs, tax burdens or other impacts?
1. The recent change in the CDARA law is a good start but we likely need another change to it.
2. Increasing the tax on corporations is a really bad idea, we should not do that because it destroys jobs. Applying the graduated income tax to corporations is wrong.
3. Energy costs must be closely managed, we need to maintain an all-of-the-above energy strategy.
4. Reduce burdensome regulations on small businesses.

Whether your party is in the majority or minority next year, where do you see actionable common ground with the opposing party?
Data driven analysis of the impact of regulations on small businesses could get common ground on some issues. We must spend the time to work across the aisle find which issues can garner support.

Carefully controlled guardianship for mentally incompetent homeless individuals who can be proven to suffer from severe mental illness should not be left to fend for themselves on the streets. This is not just a Denver problem, it needs a state level solution.

Rural locations and even Pueblo suffer from lack of maternity services. The state needs to alleviate the regulatory burden on hospitals and midwives to allow them to provide focused support.

A new governor will take office next year. What opportunities are there for legislation or other changes that did not gain traction under Gov. Jared Polis?
We need to let the new Governor, likely to be Attorney General Phil Weiser, to draw up his priorities and work with him to ensure progress is spread to all corners of the state and sufficient oversight is provided to maximize government efficiency and prevent any fraud like we’ve seen in other states.


Yara Zokaie did not return the questionnaire.

How candidate order was determined: A lot drawing was held at the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office on July 28, 2026 to determine the general election ballot order for major and minor party candidates for US Senate, US House of Representatives, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, Attorney General, State Board of Education, University of Colorado Board of Regents, State Senate, and State House of Representatives. Colorado law (1-5-404, C.R.S.) requires that candidates are ordered on the ballot in three tiers: major party candidates followed by minor party candidates followed by unaffiliated candidates. Within each tier, the candidates are ordered by a lot drawing with the exception of the office of Governor and Lt. Governor, which are ordered by the last name of the gubernatorial candidate. The lot drawing was conducted by Secretary of State Elections Division staff and was witnessed by representatives of the Colorado Democratic, Colorado Republican, and Colorado Forward Parties. Questionnaires were not sent to write-in candidates.

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