Larry Don Suckla is the unofficial winner of the Colorado District 58 seat with 26,730 votes, compared with Kathleen Curry’s 23,795 as of 1 a.m. Wednesday.
The percentage of votes shows Suckla with 52.90% and Curry with 47.10%.
In the county, Suckla received 2,562 votes (73.94%) while Curry received 903 (26.06%).
After a mandatory recount following the Republican primary this summer, Suckla defeated Montrose County’s J. Mark Roebe by three votes.
Suckla was nominated to be the Republican candidate by the Colorado State Assembly delegates in April by a 59.5% vote.
Suckla told The Journal after his nomination that one his main motivators to run for office was his youngest daughter, who graduated from Montezuma-Cortez High School in May.
“I don’t like the trajectory of the way that Colorado politics are going, and I want to try to change that,” Suckla said. “What I’m seeing is the chipping away at freedoms. I believe that when I was my daughter’s age, 30 years ago, I had a lot more freedoms than she has right now.”
Suckla also said he hopes to be part of a movement to “leave the world a better place for our children.”
Suckla is married to real estate agent Julie Suckla and has two daughters, Smoki and Delta.
His “number one priority” is to “defend rural values” and ease the rigid regulations that face business owners. He also wants to help create a community young people want to live and work in.
“I want our kids to stay here,” Suckla said. “I understand they go to college, but then I want them to come back and live in Cortez, and I want them to raise their families here.”
He listed Colorado water rights, private property rights, agriculture, the Second Amendment and others as issues that are important to him. He has also been a vocal advocate for lower taxes, less government regulation and parental rights in school.
“There are policies and rules that make it harder for people to get water. They have something called ‘demand management’ that pays people not to use water, and then they send it to Lake Powell. I don’t think drying up the Western Slope is in the best interest of the Western Slope,” Suckla said.
Suckla worked as Montezuma County commissioner from 2012 until his term limit in 2020. In 2017, he was elected by his peers and other commissioners to be Colorado County Commissioner of the Year.
Suckla is a retired Lewis-Arriola volunteer firefighter and EMT, as well as being an auctioneer. He also has a history of logging, building and landscaping.
