Meet Vivian Smotherman, who is running to be Colorado's first trans state senator

Vivian Smotherman is out to not only make history for transgender Coloradans but flip a district from Republican to Democratic.

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Smotherman is running for the state’s Senate in District 6. It’s located in southwestern Colorado, a region that has traditionally been red or at least purple, and is the largest Senate district by area in the state. She’s facing Republican Cleave Simpson Jr., a first-term incumbent who was elected before the district was redrawn last year. She would be Colorado's first out trans state senator; Rep. Brianna Titone, running for a fourth term this year, was the first out trans person in the Colorado House.

She’s a Navy veteran with extensive experience in farming, teaching, and the oil and gas industry, having worked on offshore rigs. “I have leadership skills — I’ve really recognized them over the last 10 years,” Smotherman says of her motivation for running. She saw problems that were plaguing her district; it needs improvements in housing, education, and access to health care, she says.

“I was also really upset about all the anti-trans rhetoric, all the anti-LGBT rhetoric,” she says. Colorado is largely an LGBTQ-friendly state, with a gay governor in Jared Polis, but homophobia and transphobia still rear their ugly heads.

“We still have Moms for Liberty trying to invade every school board, every library district,” Smotherman says. In addition, right-wing activists tried but failed to get several anti-trans initiatives on this year’s ballot, including a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, restrictions on trans sports participation, and a measure that would out trans students to their parents.

“We’re still fighting the LGBT battle here. … We’ve been successful so far, but we can’t let down our guard,” Smotherman says.

“I’m a much better target for hate than the kids are,” she adds.

Smotherman lives in Durango, the largest city in the district. In the early 1970s, her family moved from Michigan to Colorado. She left Colorado to serve in Navy, then lived in New Mexico and Texas for a while. After the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided to go back to where grew she up, “where the politics are better, the weather is better, and the people are better,” she says.

Her district has two Indigenous tribes and many migrant workers. “We have such a diverse district, and all of those groups need to be represented,” she says. “As someone who’s part of a marginalized community, it’s much easier to see when [marginalization] happens to somebody else.”

Improving health care, housing, and schools will help attract people to the district and result in better services for everyone, she notes. “All of these things, in my mind, work together,” she says.

“What I try to get people to understand, my diverse background … gives me the experience to look at these issues from a lot of different angles,” Smotherman says. In addition to her work experience, she has degrees in history and anthropology.

She started transitioning in 2012 and has been Vivian since then. She passes pretty well, she says, so others often don’t realize she’s transgender. “If I don’t tell somebody, they don’t assume,” she says, but it’s important to her to be out. The big key is to say this is who I am … but it’s not what I’m running on,” she points out.

However, that hasn’t insulated her from attacks on her identity, but when those attacks have come, the LGBTQ+ community allies have stepped up and supported her. Even some Republicans have spoken out against transphobic rhetoric, she says. “The support has actually been amazing,” she notes.

Her endorsers include the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, EMILY’s List, One Colorado PAC, Moms Demand Action, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, and numerous environmental and labor groups. “I’m really proud of my labor endorsements,” among others, she says. Colorado is a modified right-to-work state, meaning that newly hired employees don’t have to join a union if there is one at their workplace, so unions aren’t as strong as they could be, Smotherman says. “I want everybody to be open to having the benefits of a union,” she says.

She’s also committed to “understanding and embracing cultural differences, to listening to everybody with understanding and compassion,” she adds.