Ryan Armagost

By Brendan Henry
The Surveyor

Republican State Representative for the 64th District Ryan Armagost is running for reelection in 2024. Armagost assumed office on Jan. 9, 2023, and intends to extend his tenure to see his goals through after his first term which he feels was successful.

Armagost is a United States Marine Corps and Army National Guard veteran and has experience as a Larimer County law enforcement deputy and volunteer firefighter. Residing in Berthoud, Armagost brought his experiences to Colorado’s state government with the desire to pass legislation representative of Berthoud and the 64th district’s values.

HB23-1286 – a bill that increases the monetary penalty for cruelty against service and police/government animals is one of Armagost’s proudest acts of legislation he primarily sponsored.
“After we lost two (service animals) in the last year in Colorado, it was a big deal for me, reaching out to both of those deputies and their families that suffered the loss and wanting there to be more accountability for the people that are willing to take that action,” Armagost said.

The last session was not as productive as Armagost wished, and he intends to push to have a minimum sentence instated for people who harm or kill police canines. Armagost’s goals do not end there, as he also wishes to address mental health struggles and addiction with alternative options to incarceration and to ensure that if incarcerated, they get the proper care necessary. On the Medicaid side, Armagost wants to work on coverage and waivers for people incarcerated to ensure they have access to proper treatment.

Distracted driving and general motor vehicle incidents are another issue on Armagost’s agenda. Armagost wants to see that drivers be mandated by the court to take an instructional driving course instead of simply losing points on their license in the case of a serious traffic offense. Both the mental health and driving issues will be addressed by Armagost in the next Colorado General Assembly session.

As a Republican working in a congress that is heavily Democratic (46 Democrats to 19 Republicans in the Colorado House of Representatives), Armagost considers his bipartisan relationships to be positive—especially when working on getting his sponsored bills through.

“Some legislators choose to run bills that they are certain will fail, more or less, to send a message. I would rather find ways to work together with the Democrats and work on bills that we can all unilaterally agree to better Colorado,” Armagost said.

Acknowledging that both parties will run purely partisan bills, Armagost has identified bills backed exclusively by Democrats that he feels will not better Colorado. Legislation such as banning assault weapons has been targeted by Armagost, as he claims that his identification of false information assisted in killing the bill before it even arrived on the House floor. Armagost has also fought legislation that he says would take away violent criminals’ accountability for their actions.

Keeping a similar campaign strategy as the last election will be Armagost’s tactic.

“It’s the same as what I ran with on my initial campaign. My focus was on mental health, criminal justice and constitutional rights, as well as you know, trying to help out with veteran affairs and things like that on the state level. Those are still very important to me,” Armagost said. “I think I did a pretty good job sticking to what I campaigned on last year for this session, and I’m planning on doing that this next session and even for the next if reelected for the next two sessions.”

Armagost’s message to Berthoud and Colorado residents is to do research and get involved when it comes to state politics. Armagost wants to encourage the people of Berthoud and Colorado to not only get involved in the voting process but to also use their voice so that it can be heard.