By Jen Schumann | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
Ken DeGraaf laughed in response. Loud and unapologetic.
The question? Whether he considered himself the “apex predator” of liberty in Colorado politics.
“I’m not sure about ‘apex predator,’” DeGraaf said, still chuckling. “I’m just voting the way the Constitution tells me to. That’s really all there is to it. If that puts me at the top of the food chain, then I think that says more about the state of our legislature than it does about me.”
In a Democrat-controlled government, where individual liberty is often an afterthought, the El Paso County Republican’s unwavering constitutional approach makes him stand out, even among his own party.
The Liberty Scorecard is one source which attempts to measure legislators. In the 74th Legislature, he finished first in 2024 with a 95-point score among all legislators from Liberty Scorecard. In 2023, he was second, behind Rep. Stephanie Luck. In the 75th Legislature, so far, he is among five out of 100 legislators with an A-grade, coming in at a score of 93.
A calculated approach to lawmaking
His logic-driven, numbers-based decision-making makes him one of the most methodical lawmakers in the state. And, perhaps unlike some, his approach isn’t based on emotion or party pressure, it’s pure calculation.
Before entering politics, DeGraaf spent 30 years as a U.S. Air Force pilot, with a background in engineering mechanics and structural dynamics. He also taught advanced calculus at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
That high-precision thinking carries over into his legislative philosophy.
“As a fighter pilot, every decision had to be based on precision, logic and calculated risk,” DeGraaf said. “I apply that same discipline to politics, because bad calculations in government have real-world consequences.”
To him, freedom isn’t an abstract concept, it’s an equation.
“If a bill doesn’t hold up mathematically, constitutionally or logically, then it’s already a bad idea before it even reaches the floor,” DeGraaf explained.
Most legislative proposals, he argues, collapse when you do the math.
DeGraaf sees big-government policies as nothing more than bad equations, laws that sound good in the moment but ignore long-term consequences.
“Freedom isn’t about a rating. It’s about responsibility,” DeGraaf said. “People think liberty is just getting to do whatever you want, but that’s not it. Liberty is about self-governance, it’s about taking responsibility for your own life so that the government doesn’t have to.”
The math on ‘Net Zero’
That cause-and-effect thinking drives his approach to policymaking. Take energy policy, for example.
DeGraaf has been one of the strongest voices against Colorado’s aggressive push toward net-zero energy policies, arguing that the numbers simply don’t add up.
“People love to talk about ‘net zero,’ like it’s some sort of magic solution. Let’s put it in perspective,” DeGraaf said. “If Colorado went completely net zero tomorrow, meaning we eliminated all carbon emissions, the impact on global temperatures would be less than 0.00004 degrees. That’s 40-millionths of a degree. So why are we bankrupting ourselves for something that won’t even register on a thermometer?”
For DeGraaf, this isn’t an ideological fight — it’s about scientific and economic reality.
“The government is forcing people into unreliable energy sources that don’t scale,” he says. “In the best conditions, wind turbines have a capacity factor of about 35%. Solar? Even lower, around 25% at best. So, unless you’re planning on running Colorado on prayer, you better start having an honest conversation about where our energy is going to come from.”
In the realm of energy policy, he recently had the whole chamber laughing when he pointed out a bill requiring labeling for stoves to “vent outside” when he says code requires them to vent inside a home — and they simply vent CO2 and water — was virtue signaling he would oppose and Democrats would support. He recommended they get a plant.
Contradicting policy of Colorado Progressives
And just like energy policy ignores the realities of physics and capacity limits, other policies disregard human development and long-term consequences.
One of DeGraaf’s biggest frustrations in government is the contradiction in how lawmakers treat the decision-making abilities of youth.
That’s why he sponsored HB 25-1254, a bill to expand the statute of limitations for individuals who underwent gender transition procedures as minors.
“This wasn’t about outlawing procedures,” DeGraaf said. “It was about making sure that if a young person goes through something irreversible — like sterilization or hormone therapy — and they later regret it, they have the ability to hold [accountable] the people responsible.”
The bill was buried in committee, postponed indefinitely and effectively killed — proving that some truths are too inconvenient for the legislature to confront, he says.
But what surprised him was how some Democrats reacted behind closed doors.
“One of my Democrat colleagues pulled me aside privately and said, ‘I see what you’re doing, and I think there’s real value in it,’” DeGraaf said. “Publicly, they can’t say that. But behind closed doors? Some of them are starting to realize the medical industry is moving too fast on this.”
For some, the issue wasn’t political, it was about medical accountability. Even if they couldn’t publicly admit it, they recognized that these decisions had life-altering consequences that many teenagers aren’t ready for.
“The difference between private conversations and public votes is night and day,” DeGraaf said. “There’s a fear of breaking from the party line, even when the math doesn’t support it.”
The same pattern, he says, shows up in every major policy debate.
Death by 1,000 regulations
If DeGraaf is the apex predator of liberty, then who are the real apex predators in government?
“The real ‘apex predators’ are the people who think they can keep stripping freedoms one at a time and no one will notice. But I notice,” DeGraaf said.
Government overreach, he argues, rarely happens all at once, it’s death by a thousand regulations.
“Look at zoning laws, gun restrictions, speech codes; it’s never one big law that takes away your freedom. It’s a thousand little regulations, each one making it slightly harder for you to live your life without permission from the government.”
DeGraaf views his role as a lawmaker not as to ‘bring things back’ to Colorado, it’s to stop things from being taken away in the first place.
“My goal is not to bring stuff back to Colorado, other than liberty,” DeGraaf said. “I can’t represent one person by taking stuff from another, but I can represent both by protecting their rights and ability to keep what they’ve earned.”
And that’s where his logic-based approach makes him stand apart.
DeGraaf isn’t interested in political games, power grabs or appeasing special interests. His approach is simple and precise — if a law adds to personal liberty, it’s good. If it subtracts from liberty, it’s bad.
“People assume politics is complicated. It’s not,” DeGraaf said.
DeGraaf doesn’t just defend liberty, he solves for it. And in a legislature where bad math dominates policymaking, he’s the lawmaker checking the numbers.