I'm Angelica Salinas. I serve as Routt County Commissioner for District 1, and I do this work because I believe rural communities are where some of the most important decisions in this country actually get made.

I was sworn in in January 2025 as the youngest person and the first from an underrepresented background to hold this seat. Routt County is a rural mountain community, and the work here cuts across affordable housing, childcare and early childhood, rural healthcare, climate action, just transition, public lands, and the fiscal pressures that come from being a small county navigating large state and federal forces. None of those issues stay tidy inside one level of government, so neither does the work.

I serve on the Yampa Valley Housing Authority Board, the Early Childhood Council, the South Routt Community Center board, and the Routt County Climate Action Plan Board, and more. At the state level, I was appointed to the Colorado Workforce Development Council to represent local elected officials. I help lead fiscal reform work through CCAT (Counties and Commissioners Acting Together) and was part of the National Association of Counties' High Performance Leadership Academy. I've also testified at the state legislature on rural housing, fiscal, and tax policy, and I've helped represent the county on regional steering work for affordable housing developments serving the Yampa Valley.

The path here ran through community before it ran through government. Before I was elected, I led engagement and advocacy work for the Steamboat Springs Chamber, served on the board of United Way of the Yampa Valley, and was active with the Young Professionals Network. I'm a Leadership Steamboat graduate, and in 2025 I was named Young Professional of the Year through the Navigator Awards. A lot of what I bring into the commissioner's office, listening hard, organizing carefully, and building coalitions across difference, comes from that work.

I try to do this job out loud because the best decisions get made when more people are part of the conversation. I write a regular newsletter, organize with local groups, and show up at rallies, public forums, neighborhood meetings, and kitchen-table conversations across this valley. Representation, to me, means being present and accountable, not just elected.

I come from a working-class immigrant family. They taught me what it looks like to work hard, to take care of the people around you, and to never forget where you came from. That piece of who I am still shapes how I show up for this community. Routt County is the place I get to do this work in, and I'm proud to call it home.