Kenneth DeGraaf

Kenneth DeGraaf was born in Michigan. He served in the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Air Force Reserve, and U.S. Air National Guard from 1986 to 2017. DeGraaf earned a degree in aerospace structures from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1990 and a master's degree in structural dynamics from Columbia University in 1991. His career experience includes working as a commercial aviator, an advanced calculus and powered flight teacher with the U.S. Air Force Academy, an environmental manager, and a flight safety officer.[1][2]

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a 27 year AF veteran of the Active Duty, Guard and Reserve. My wife Kim & I are blessed with three wonderful children and one outstanding son-in-law, and were fortunate to change military postings about 20 times, to include Canada and Germany. I began my AF career at the Air Force Academy where I earned a degree in Aerospace Structures, before earning my Masters of Science in Structural Dynamics on a Guggenheim Fellowship to Columbia University. During my career, I flew Attack, Tanker/Transport, Trainer & Remotely Piloted aircraft. I was an Environmental Manager for five years and formed productive relationships with state and federal environmental agencies and achieved state recognition for my base. I also worked with peace officers from across the state to expand their training opportunities. At Holloman AFB, I successfully established a multi-aircraft training detachment that eventually became a squadron and was asked to serve as both an Operations Group and Mission Support Group deputy before returning to the USAF Academy. I concluded my service teaching advanced calculus and powered flight. After retirement from the USAF, I returned to commercial aviation. I was elected in 2022 to serve in the Colorado General Assembly in 2023 & 2024.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Our Declaration of Independence was and remains revolutionary in recognizing that our Rights are Creator-endowed and therefore unalienable, not subject to the benevolence of government.

My job as a representative is to ensure that the government is doing its job of safeguarding those Rights, while ensuring the government does not itself violate them. Unfortunately, the leftist majority has little interest in safeguarding and has little problem violating your Rights. Too many "legislators" seek their value in passing bills for the taxpayers to pay, yet few people see the value in the addition of over 600 each year to the over 165,000 already on the books and to a budget of over $40billion plus unfunded mandates.The Rights of Life, Liberty and Property are individual Rights superseding government. Government is for the collective protection and promotion of those Rights. It is not moral for an individual to violate the Rights of another, likewise it is not moral for government to violate individual Rights for its own benefit or for the benefit of others.

The difference between a Republic and a Democracy is that a Republic will protect the individual from the mob; a Democracy will feed him to it.Government is seen as the "easy button" for top-down problem solving. Unfortunately, there's no problem the government can't make worse with a "solution," and in doing so take more than any benefit returned, with the solution to bad legislation being more legislation and more spending. In an attempt to ameliorate centralized corruption and inefficiency committees are formed instead of allowing the issue to be solved at the appropriate level. This will continue unless people return to the values that intend them to be free, not industrial tax-widgets laboring under "good intentions" of bureaucrats.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Ensuring that government remains within its's proper bounds ensuring our Creator-endowed unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness utilizing the just powers derived from the consent of the governed.

HB24-1246 to preserve hydrocarbons for energy redundancy and ensure protection of grid infrastructure.

HB23-1044 States create and budget for State laws; the feds should enforce federal laws.

HB24-1023 to ensure no deprivation of property without due process of the law.

HB24-1145&1279 would improve election security while saving taxpayer money and allow them to personally audit that their ballot was counted correctly.

HB23-1079 to allow parents to choose the best education pathway for their child.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Much to my annoyance as a youth, my dad was involved in school board, township boards, zoning boards, etc, and after retirement was elected to Township Supervisor. I went into engineering and aviation as a ticket out of politics, but have now seen the evil that prevails when good men do nothing and appreciate my dad for taking on the inconvenience of holding that line.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

As a member of the General Assembly, I find that there is sufficient work to do here in Colorado to just slow the damage done to the citizens of Colorado via the continuous onslaught of the majority’s leftist tax & shackle legislation.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

My very diverse background ensures commonality on a wide field of subjects and an appreciation for people in all walks of life.

As a USAFA Distinguished Graduate and Guggenheim Fellow, I have the intellectual proficiency to work through the twisted logic of legislation to work out the actual intent behind the normally deceptive title.

As an aviator I have demonstrated the ability to learn the both the machine and the mission for which it is purposed. Military aviation teaches you to think clearly in a stressful situation and the emergent situations that tend to arise not only validate performance under pressure but put other life events into a more manageable perspective. Military briefings are an interesting phenomenon, parsing through HUD footage frame by frame to extract every insight possible from a critical five seconds on the Range.

As an Environmental Manager I have worked first-hand with various regulatory agencies and was able to create mutually beneficial synergies. Several projects like an Explosive Site Plan, Hot Pit Refueling, becoming Michigan's first military "Clean Corporate Citizen", or reactivating a military range had no prescribed path forward and required a new one to be created but within regulatory compliance.

Establishing a multi-airframe training detachment in the New Mexico desert required working across the Active Duty, Air National Guard, and AF Reserves and mostly to instill the confidence in someone to relocate hundreds of miles. I was later told that this project was considered doomed from the start, but it is still in operation.

I also prefer to do much of my own "blue collar" work, whether it's demo'ing and tiling a bathroom, building a deck, landscaping or plumbing. I can't do as much as I'd like, but I like having an experiential appreciation for those who do.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The core responsibilities are those to which everyone takes an oath: "That to secure these (Creator-endowed) Rights (among which are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"

What legacy would you like to leave?

Stood for Truth

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

yard work, mostly mowing.

Then I worked in the Catalog department at JCPenny.

USAF Academy after that.

What is your favorite book? Why?

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Spiderman

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Amazing Grace

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Balance.

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature?

The Governor is tasked with executing the intent of the Representatives as the fiduciaries of the citizens themselves. The General Assembly should pass no laws contrary to the Constitution they swore to uphold, nor should the Governor enforce any unconstitutional law. The highest office in our system of governance is the individual endowed with unalienable Rights among which are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Government is for the collective enforcement of individual Rights and to collectively safeguard our Rights to allow the individual to flourish, not attempt to shape individuals into government servitude.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

Colorado, like every other state, has in part a willfully gullible citizenry who is eager to believe that elected officials can absolve them of personal responsibility, clamoring for more government “solutions” while complaining of government intrusion, unresponsiveness and incompetence. Ideologue legislators who have little concern over the Constitutionality or cost of their social manipulations take advantage of this contradictory citizen mindset with carefully titled bills full of devilish and costly details. Legislators eagerly advance the Governor’s agenda via a high volume of bills, with little regard to the costs they glibly pass on to Coloradans already struggling under the yoke of “good intentions.” “The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance,” but vigilance is difficult, and we lost it. That’s why we are where we are. We need to rekindle the appropriate distrust in government, lest we one day discover that the servant has become the master.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?

Beneficial, but not necessary. They should have a deep understanding of and appreciation for our Constitutional limitations and protections of the citizens. Most legislators have little knowledge of either constitution beyond platitudes and leftist characterizations. Representatives should be “of the people” so that they may govern “for the people.” Every year, legislators who are detached from the burdens they impose pass hundreds of new laws with minimal vetting, and those laws are handed off to unelected bureaucrats to expand into thousands of new rules, all of which limit the rights of Citizens and make their lives more difficult

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.

Yes. Every Representative approaches an issue with a perspective unique to their experience and geography. A better understanding of the Representative improves insight to best serving those citizens they represent. It is important to also understand the ideological vantage of each Representative. While I consider the individual to be the most qualified to determine how to go about their “pursuit of happiness,” leadership and members of the current Colorado majority party see individuals as requiring legislative shepherding to compel them into the proper alignment with the State.

Is there a particular legislator, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

Not any one in particular, but the example of the whole. The representatives of our founding were studied, mindful, prayerful and self-sacrificing, putting “lives, fortunes & sacred honor” on the line to stand against tyranny in the hope of one day breathing free. While not yet as openly violent, our Leviathan of government continues to expand unaccountably with an insatiable appetite for consuming the liberty & prosperity of our citizens. Our founding was the result of untold hours of study and debate and ultimately premised on the revolutionary recognition of unalienable Rights as Creator-endowed and therefore above the power structures of government. Our Declaration of Independence motivated a backwater of 13 loosely affiliated colonies to take on the greatest empire in the world and win, and not only win, but manage to stay united and rise to the level of Global Superpower in less than two centuries. In the end, however, there was nothing necessarily extraordinary or preordained about our founders except that they set their vision on Truth and stayed the course as an example to all of us to put aside personal agendas and reinvigorate our appreciation for and advancement of our founding values.

Are you interested in running for a different political office (for example, the U.S. Congress or governor) in the future?

As a member of the General Assembly, I find that there is sufficient work to do here in Colorado to just slow the damage done to the citizens of Colorado via the continuous onslaught of the majority’s leftist tax & shackle legislation.

Both sitting legislators and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?

Before I was sworn in, a grandmother reached out to me. Her unborn grandson, Mario had a heartbeat, fingerprints, and a smile. He was fully human, but he hadn’t taken that one breath that would have bestowed personhood by the State. Mario was due Dec 8, just in time for Christmas, but on Nov 22, he was shot through the protection of his mother’s womb. The bullet penetrated his arm, severing his umbilical cord, and he choked on his own blood before he could be rescued by emergency C-section.

Mario’s killer was charged merely with “unlawful termination of a pregnancy”, a class-5 felony, instead of “murder.” In a dearth of humanity, HB13-1154 had stripped Mario of his personhood. The law states, “Nothing…shall be construed to confer the status of ‘person’ upon a human embryo, fetus, or unborn child at any stage of development prior to live birth.” HB22-1279 took that further, and not only removed any rights of personhood but even any mention of the humanity of an unborn human for the purpose of enabling fetal harvesting. The law specifically denies 5th & 14th amendment protections, stating ”a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of the state” and the law authorizes extermination via “ANY MEDICAL PROCEDURE, (any) INSTRUMENT, (any) AGENT, OR (any) DRUG.” Here in this law, the word “any” has a broad range, including crushing, dismemberment, chemical burning, suffocation and exsanguination.

The only thing illegal about Mario’s death is that his mother didn’t want it. This is a dangerous vector for the law to pursue. What we learn from history is that we never learn from history, but if we did, we would recognize that normalizing the stripping any Creator-endowed image-of-God of their humanity or personhood leads to subjugation, slavery and genocide. That is wrong.

Should the legislature oversee or grant the use of emergency powers?

Absolutely; an emergent situation does not supersede the Rights of the people. Provisions and suggestions can be made, but not mandates. While the governor can issue executive orders to his executive agencies, nothing allows those agencies to violate the Rights of those they serve. Any emergency powers need to end at 30 days, after which the problem is chronic, not emergent. All of the majority party with whom I have discussed this topic quite eager to entrust a single individual with the unchecked powers to confront an indefinite “emergency.” I don’t understand why they think this approach is a good one. Granting the governor unlimited emergency powers is an over-reach of authority, and it’s not good for the citizens of Colorado.

What is the first bill you would introduce if elected?

De-listing carbon dioxide (CO2) as a pollutant would have an immediate positive effect on our economy, and a bill accomplishing that would be a boon to our state. CO2 is the foundational molecule for photosynthesis, which turns it and water into hydrocarbons that store solar energy. At 400 parts per million (ppm), CO2 is classified as a pollutant. This policy is wrong, because below 8,000 ppm, CO2 creates no health issue; CO2’s status is due to its classification as a “greenhouse gas”. Allocating resources and implementing regulations to reduce something harmless is wasteful.

Global CO2 generation in the extraction of its stored solar energy is about 35billion tons, of which the USA generates about 5, of which 0.140billion tons are resultant from Coloradans. But this is in relation to the over 3200billion tons in the atmosphere. CO2 itself contributes less than 20% to atmospheric energy by absorbing some of the low-energy long-wave infrared radiation emanating from earth’s average temperature of about 60F. We cannot escape the incessant drumbeat of the pending doom of the planet increasing by 1.5C above the pre-industrial ice-age.

This means that on average a US Citizen contributes (20%(5/3200)/300million =) 1-trillionth of the planet’s atmospheric energy--the equivalent of 1-drop in 20 Olympic swimming pools full of drops. Applied to 8billion people, that would be 8-thousandths, and 8/1000’s of the foretold 1.5C “tipping point” would be 0.01C, but to achieve even 95% of NetZero is estimated to cost over $12,000 per person per year. That’d be over $96,000,000,000,000 per year to achieve a 0.01C reduction. Or, we could use that $96 trillion and adapt.

As a result of the laws and rules to reduce CO2 in Colorado, each citizen of the state not only faces high costs and restrictions, but an overtasked grid could be completely compromised by a solar storm like the Carrington Event of 1859 and result in the deaths of millions of people.

What committees interest you?

As an engineer by education and award-winning environmental manager, “Energy & Environment” seems suited for my background – I have the expertise to prevent these decisions from being made in a near-perfect void of scientific literacy. Sadly, most energy conversations are attacks on reliable, energy-dense and readily-available hydrocarbons, due to scientifically baseless superstitions about CO2, and to further the goal of propping up inefficient, fragile and ecologically devastating “green” energy. Despite lacking any climate goals or knowledge of how CO2 reductions would achieve them, the majority party succumbs willingly to climate fear-porn to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to achieve nothing. As this has been repeatedly proven, it is clear that “climate” is merely an excuse for the policy goals that supersede trivial matters like “truth,” or the prosperity, heath and security of Coloradans.

“Civics, Military & Veterans Affairs” was the “kill committee” for Republican bills before the Democrat super-majority granted them the ability to kill any bill promoting individual Liberty, and to raplidly pass their tax & shackle bills out of committee and to the House floor with minimal scrutiny. While the varied ideas are interesting, they are largely outside the purview of good governance. Most impose costly, unaccountable mandates of social engineering that violate “the consent of the governed” while further sapping their prosperity, coupled with new regulations and dictates. If a good intention was a good idea, it wouldn’t need a gun—while legislators feel their societal shaping is beneficent, they neglect that compliance is coerced by the threat of force. Or worse, they think that forced compliance is good.

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

100%. Mischief happens for lack of accountability. Access to electronic communications should be handled technologically not with increased restrictions.

All of the budget items should be clearly written not squirreled away in for unaccountable spending.

Do you support or oppose changes to the current state ballot initiative process? If so, what kind of changes would you consider?

Support. The current process favors greatly favor the State bureaucracy well-funded special interests.

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