Colorado Senate District 4 Candidates 2026: Teddy Collins vs Justin Kurth

Senate District 4 is the seat Mark Baisley is leaving to run for U.S. Senate, and it is the one state Senate race on a Douglas County ballot this year with no incumbent. Most of the district is somewhere else. The part that is here is the county's rural edge, and it votes differently from the rest of Douglas County.

Which Douglas County votes here

The legislature's page lists the district's counties as Chaffee, Custer, Douglas, Fremont, Jefferson, Lake, Park and Teller. The redistricting commission's map of Senate districts in Douglas County draws it as everything outside the county's two suburban seats: Castle Rock, Parker and Franktown sit in District 2, and Highlands Ranch, Roxborough Park, Castle Pines and Lone Tree sit in District 30. What is left for District 4 is the foothills along the Jefferson County line, the south of the county around Larkspur down to the El Paso County line, and the rural east toward Elbert County.

That is a small piece of a big district. The commission's county-split report counts 19,889 Douglas County residents in the seat, out of 172,499, and the commission's district profile lists its largest communities as Cañon City, Woodland Park, Salida, Lincoln Park and Florence. Registration when the district was drawn was 36.6 percent Republican, 18.2 percent Democratic and 43.4 percent unaffiliated.

The county's own numbers

In 2022, Baisley beat Democrat Jeff Ravage 55,595 to 35,789 districtwide, 60.8 to 39.2. In Douglas County's 16 District 4 precincts he did ten points better, 9,184 to 3,783, or 70.8 percent. Those 12,967 votes were about one in seven of the district's total. This year's June primaries were both uncontested: Collins drew 25,665 votes districtwide and 4,479 in Douglas County; Kurth drew 18,958 and 1,977.

Teddy Collins, Republican

Collins is the founder and operator of Spartan Defense Armory & Training, which his site calls one of the state's largest family-owned firearms businesses and which the report on his April launch described as Colorado Springs-based. He has held leadership roles with the Colorado Federal Firearms Licensee Association and the Colorado State Shooting Association, was a Young Republican vice chair, hosts a Second Amendment podcast, and is raising two daughters with a third child on the way. His campaign's mailing address is a post office box in Larkspur.

Endorsements listed on his site include Baisley, U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell, El Paso County Sheriff Joseph Roybal, the Colorado State Shooting Association and the Colorado Chamber of Commerce.

Where Collins stands

His issues page leads with money: "I will defend TABOR, stop new taxes and hidden fees, cut red tape, lower utility costs, and audit government programs to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse." He told KRDO that Colorado is the sixth most regulated state with "over 205,000 state level regulatory restrictions." On guns, "any restriction on the right to keep and bear arms is a constitutional infringement." On schools, parental notification and consent, opt-out rights, school choice, charters and homeschooling. On public safety, he pledged at his April launch that "in every single school across the state of Colorado, we should have armed security," and he told KRDO that "the large majority of Sheriffs in SD4" have endorsed him. He also wants local control over "schools, zoning, and public safety," and on water: "I will defend water rights, support proactive forest management, invest in wildfire mitigation and early prevention, protect watersheds, and ensure local fire districts have the resources they need."

Justin Kurth, Democrat

Kurth served in the Marine Corps from 2002 to 2007, leaving as a sergeant, then in the Wyoming Air National Guard until 2013. He spent nine years as a 911 dispatcher and communications training officer at the Colorado Springs Police Department, finished a political science degree at CSU Pueblo, and from January 2023 to April 2025 was regional director for U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, where he managed her aerospace and defense portfolio. He has lived in Colorado since 1994 and in Fremont County since 2011, is married with two adult children, sits on the Royal Gorge Chamber Alliance board, and formerly chaired the Fremont County Democratic Party. KRDO lists his current job as government affairs for a construction materials manufacturer. VoteVets has endorsed him.

Where Kurth stands

His platform is written for the district's rural counties. Water: a state buy-and-dry mitigation fund through the Colorado Water Conservation Board, a "community economic impact review for any large agricultural water transfer out of an SD4 county," and full funding for the John Griffin Regional Reservoir in Cañon City. Public safety: a "statewide rural first responder compensation floor" with state money to close the pay gap with Front Range departments, and PERA hazardous-duty status for dispatchers. Schools: state capital money for childcare in rural childcare deserts and K-12 trades pipelines. Growth and taxes: a construction-cost offset for working-class buyers and small rural builders, and a valuation protection so ranching families are not "taxed off their land because a second-home buyer from Denver decided to overpay for the parcel next door." His site does not mention TABOR.

"Decisions about Senate District 4 are made every day by people who will never feel the consequences."

That line, from Kurth's site, is the whole campaign. His regulatory argument is the same shape as Collins's, aimed differently: "Rural Colorado isn't the Front Range, and shouldn't be regulated like it."

What this means in Douglas County

Neither candidate's site names a Douglas County town, and neither addresses growth in this county. Kurth's site describes the county's share of the district as "the south, west, and eastern rural portions of Douglas County" and leaves it there; Collins's site names the district's counties only inside Baisley's endorsement. On the issues they do share, the contrast is clean. Collins's water plank is rights, forests and fire districts; Kurth's is stopping Front Range cities from buying agricultural water out of the district's counties. On taxes, Collins runs on TABOR and Kurth does not mention it. On public safety, Collins offers armed security in every school and sheriffs' endorsements; Kurth offers a pay floor for rural responders and dispatchers.

More: every race and measure on your ballot and the county's November ballot guide. We do not endorse candidates. Campaigns can send corrections to hello@discoverdougco.com.