Hetal Doshi

“The Attorney General is not a traditional policymaker, although her advice and leadership can certainly impact policy.

As a seasoned trial lawyer accustomed to having to defend the veracity of evidence and expert testimony before courts and juries, I would use the same skepticism and analytical tools I’ve deployed in court to ensure that any policy advice is similarly well-founded and grounded. That includes ensuring the reliability of expert methodology and statistical analysis, focusing on independent, peer-reviewed research, probing the funding behind and bias in purportedly scientific analysis, and grounding law enforcement decisions in facts and statistics, as opposed to ideology.”

“There’s nothing more important to Colorado farmers than water. And right now, between a changing climate, aridification, and growing uncertainty over the future of our allocations under the Colorado River Compact, our farmers and water users face impossible choices.

The next Attorney General will almost certainly have to litigate water rights at a scale this state hasn’t seen in generations. That litigation could put us across the table from states we usually partner with, requiring an AG who’s experienced in building partnerships while protecting Colorado’s interests above all. These cases could reach all the way to the Supreme Court, which just this week decided an important water rights case between Texas and New Mexico. With nearly 90 percent of Colorado’s water going to agriculture, these cases are significant for communities across the state and our next AG must be ready on Day One to lead these fights in court.

The case that proceeds to the Supreme Court must be rooted in a strong evidentiary record that relies upon statistically valid findings as well as predictions about the long-term viability of certain options for resolution of the water being tested by traditional means of scientific validation. As someone who is seasoned in both trial and appellate work, I know that fighting for Colorado’s farmers must start with amassing the right evidentiary record grounded in unimpeachable scientific evidence and I look forward to working with the right water policy research teams to build that record.”

“AI is transforming every aspect of our economy. How we deal with these impacts on resource use, privacy rights, and economic opportunity deserves the attention of the legislative leaders who reflect our communities. It also merits priority from the Attorney General who must navigate the rapidly-evolving nature of the technologies against the inertia and lack of expertise in such subjects by judges and juries.

Proposed data center construction in Colorado should meaningfully, completely, and verifiably answer at a minimum three questions: (1) water usage; (2) impact on utility rates; and (3) what communities bear those impacts re: 1 and 2. The Attorney General herself does not approve such construction, but can help guide the legislative and rule-making process to ensure that AI is deployed in a responsible, legal, and accountable manner in Colorado.”

“Public health policy is rightly the work of our legislators and executive agencies. The Attorney General’s role is to back them with sound legal advice and to make sure no Coloradan’s rights are ever put at risk by bad actors, in or out of government. That means making sure that statewide policies and standards with respect to mandated vaccinations are grounded in clear, peer-reviewed, and validated research. Without a fully functioning CDC, there are certainly challenges in the space in the short term, but other state agencies outside of the AG’s office can step in to help, and I would support such efforts.

There’s another side of health care where the Attorney General has direct influence: the companies that abuse their market power to raise prices and deny care, including vaccinations. Colorado’s antitrust statutes are among the strongest in the nation, and I intend to use them when the facts and law support such efforts.

As the nation’s top antitrust litigator under the Biden-Harris administration, I led the effort against some of the largest corporations in the world when they used anticompetitive practices to raise costs on working families and squeeze out competition. In health care, that’s the difference between affording care for a sick child or medicine for an aging parent and going without. For small communities, it can mean losing the only health care facility for miles.

As Attorney General, I’ll make sure no company can illegally dominate our health care market and put care out of reach.”

“The current state of science literacy is poor. This is the product of a number of social and economic conditions, and broader challenges in education. Most fundamentally, the relationship between logic, analytical testing, and verification is undercovered and undertreated in educational environments. The concept of “alternative facts” prevails, even when the definition of a “fact” is, of course, contrary to the idea that there are alternatives. There may be different interpretations of facts, but science is grounded in observable, provable, and verifiable facts and our education system faces a crisis in teaching students about how to distinguish facts from characterization.

Of course, the complex network of education agencies and policy-setting organizations control science curricula, but I think that focusing on the scientific method at an earlier stage in education, rooting such education in real world application, and then encouraging school programs like debate help to develop the critical thinking skills necessary to improve science literacy.

Finally, I’ll share something personal here to close. I’m the proud product of a public education. I come from an immigrant family that moved around a lot, and we weren’t always embraced by everyone in our communities. But it was in public schools, with teachers who believed in me, that I found the opportunity to succeed. I will forever credit the quality of my early public education for the opportunities I’ve had in life. As Attorney General, I’ll make sure those opportunities are protected for every student in Colorado.”