Senate President Pro Tempore Dafna Michaelson Jenet, a Commerce City Democrat who spent nearly a decade at the Capitol fighting for survivors of sexual assault and to improve mental health care, announced Tuesday that she’s resigning from the legislature. Her last day is Friday.
Michaelson Jenet, who is one of a few Jewish state lawmakers, is leaving the General Assembly to join the David and Laura Merage Foundation, a local nonprofit. She will lead an initiative there combating antisemitism across the country. She starts the new job next week.
Michaelson Jenet said serving as a state lawmaker has become too big a financial hardship for her family.
“It was a heavy decision, and there were a lot of factors — not the least of which is my family has struggled over these last 10 years that I have been in the legislature and earning well beneath my capabilities,” said Michaelson Jenet, who worked for nonprofits before running for office. “That’s really taken a hit on my family.”
State lawmakers are paid about $45,000 a year for a job that’s supposed to be part time but is really a year-round commitment. The median household income in Colorado is about $95,000. Michaelson Jenet is not the first lawmaker to depart the legislature citing personal finances.
“It’s the best job I ever had in my life — and the hardest job I ever had in my life,” Michaelson Jenet told The Colorado Sun in an interview. “I think there’s a lot we can do to come together more and that would benefit Colorado.”
A Democratic vacancy committee in Senate District 21 will appoint someone to replace Michaelson Jenet at the Capitol for the rest of the year. Voters will get a chance in November to select who serves out the remaining two years of her term.
Michaelson Jenet said the bills she’s been working on at the Capitol this year will be taken over by other Democrats in the Senate.
Senate Democrats must also select a new president pro tempore.
Michaelson Jenet, who was first elected to the legislature in 2016 as a state representative, was appointed to her Senate seat in 2023 and then elected to a full, four-year Senate term in 2024. She beat out Republican Frederick Alfred by 2 percentage points.
Senate Democrats elected Michaelson Jenet as president pro tempore — meaning she stands in when Senate President James Coleman, D-Denver, is absent — ahead of the 2025 legislative session.
☀️ READ MORE
Colorado launches website to connect kids to free mental health sessions
Colorado launched a program Wednesday to offer three free mental health sessions to children. Anyone between 12 and 18 can go to the I Matter state website to take a short survey to assess their needs. If the results show they need help, the site will connect them to a provider for a 45-minute appointment in the…
Read moreOver her nearly 10 years in the legislature, Michaelson Jenet has passed bills aiding sexual assault survivors, improving mental health care access and protecting the rights of LGBTQ people.
She also helped draft and pass ballot measures raising taxes on wealthy Coloradans to pay for every public school student in Colorado to get free breakfasts and lunches. Michaelson Jenet said those were her “big, Jewish mother bills.”
Her signature accomplishments include eliminating the statute of limitations for child sexual assault survivors to sue their abusers and the creation of the “I Matter” program, which grants Colorado kids up to six free mental health therapy sessions.
“I always said that I just wanted to see the suicide rate go down, and it’s going down,” she said.
In 2024, Colorado’s suicide rate for kids ages 10-18 fell to its lowest level since 2007, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Michaelson Jenet was also a lead sponsor of a 2019 bill that banned so-called gay conversion therapy that attempts to change a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing the constitutionality of that measure.
“Our odds don’t look good,” Michaelson Jenet said, “and that means we take a giant step backwards in Colorado for what amounts to a decade’s worth of work to protect our kids.”
In a written statement, Gov. Jared Polis thanked Michaelson Jenet for her service to the state.
“Dafna has been an incredible leader for the Coloradans she represents, both in the state House and state Senate, and has championed the issues that matter most to her constituents,” Polis said. “I wish her the best in this next chapter and know she will continue giving back to her community and her state.”
Whoever is selected as Michaelson Jenet’s successor will be one of at least 27 people serving in the legislature this year who at some point were appointed to the House or Senate by or through a vacancy committee. That’s more than 1 in 4 members of the General Assembly who will owe their legislative careers, either in whole or in part, to the vacancy process.
It’s possible that a sitting state representative will seek the appointment to Michaelson Jenet’s seat, which — if they win the appointment — would force another vacancy appointment.