Sean M. Pond

MONTROSE COUNTY JUST SENT A UNANIMOUS MESSAGE. WE STAND WITH OUR HUNTERS! 🇺🇸 We just wrapped up our special meeting in Olathe, where the Montrose County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve two resolutions: ✅ Resolution 37-2026 — opposing the citizen petition to prohibit lead ammunition for hunting. ✅ Resolution 38-2026 — opposing the citizen petition before Colorado Parks and Wildlife concerning prairie dog hunting. I’m proud of this board for standing together. Our hunting heritage needs protected. Our rural communities will not be ignored. And the people who live with the consequences of wildlife policy deserve a strong voice in those decisions. I’m proud to be standing up for the good people of Western Colorado. I believe too many voices within CPW, Front Range advocacy groups, and NGOs are pushing to change the Colorado we know and love. I’m fighting to protect it. Today, we put our opposition on the record. Now we need YOU to put yours on the record, too. 🚨 THE WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENT DEADLINE IS TOMORROW, OCTOBER 29, AT 11:59 P.M. MOUNTAIN TIME. DON’T WAIT—MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD TODAY. Click the link below to go directly to CPW’s public comment page and voice your opposition to the proposed restrictions on prairie dog hunting: engagecpw.org/pwc-public-com… YOUR VOICE MATTERS. Use it while this comment window is still open. These resolutions do not end these petitions. Stay involved. Speak up to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. Submit comments. Show up when these proposals are considered. Encourage your county commissioners to take a stand alongside us. Silence won’t protect our hunting traditions. Participation will. Montrose County stood together today. Let’s carry that message across Colorado. #SeanPond #UNDERestimated

A busload of Democrats traveling Colorado, selling promises to fix the mess they helped create. “Our Future. Our Colorado.” ??? How about some accountability for what you’ve already done with it? When do people wake up and realize these are the same people who have helped manage the decline of Colorado? Working families struggle to afford a life here while politicians ask for another promotion. I’m a fifth generation Coloradan. I remember when this state felt like opportunity. Room to breathe, build something, raise a family and be left alone. We’re losing that sweet taste of liberty, and I’m tired of watching people campaign like they had nothing to do with it. But cleaning up Colorado also means cleaning up our Republican party. That starts with a Clean House Rebellion under the Golden Dome, our state Capitol. You cannot campaign like a Republican, vote like a Democrat and expect us to keep you in office. We’re going to organize, show up and replace you at the ballot box. We need to build a Republican Party that people WANT to be loyal to. A party that earns loyalty by standing on conviction and principle, keeping its promises and defending the rights of the people it represents. Demanding loyalty while ignoring those people is exactly how you lose them. I believe our party has been infiltrated by people more interested in protecting their position and causing division than standing up for what we believe. We cannot keep rewarding that behavior and expect anything to change. Reform cannot wait for another election cycle or another committee meeting. Get involved now. Know how your elected officials vote. Show up at your local party meetings. Support candidates with the backbone to keep their word. Volunteer, knock on doors and vote. I want a Colorado my children and grandchildren can afford to call home, where they can build a business, own property and live their lives without asking government permission at every turn. That is worth fighting for. It’s time our party acted like it. #CleanHouseRebellion #Colorado #PrinciplesOverPolitics #Accountability #Liberty #vote

My position on new taxes and mill levies is pretty simple. My starting point is no. People are already paying enough, and a good cause doesn’t mean everyone can afford another tax. Before you vote, read what you’re actually approving. Where does the money go? What are you guaranteed in return? Does the tax expire, or will you keep paying every year? If it’s supposed to fund a project, what happens if that project never gets built? Does the tax go away, or do they keep collecting it? These are fair questions. I worry about the retired couple on a fixed income, the family barely paying their bills, and the small business trying to keep its doors open. Saying “it’s only a few dollars” doesn’t make it affordable for them. Ask questions before you vote. Make sure the promises being made are actually in the language you’re voting on. You might be voting once for a tax you’ll pay for the rest of your life. #SeanPond #TaxpayerAccountability

I’m a fifth generation Coloradan. This is where my roots are, where my family lives, and where I want my grandchildren to have a future. It hurts to think they could grow up here with fewer freedoms and fewer opportunities than I had. Victor Marx is the Republican nominee for governor, and I was honored to be asked to participate and speak at this Get Out the Vote rally. I believe this is the most crucial election in Colorado’s history. I’m afraid another loss will give Democratic Socialists the power to push this state even further in a direction we may never be able to reverse. That’s why I’m traveling across the state to speak with you. Because Colorado is home. Because the decisions we make now will reach far beyond our own lives. Our children and grandchildren will live with them. We don’t have to agree on everything to understand what’s at stake. We need to care enough to show up, vote, and ask the people we love to do the same. I want to know we gave everything we could for the place and the people who mean so much to us. Join me Saturday, October 17, at The Island in Windsor. Come at 5 p.m. for the additional speakers. Register at Victor2026.com. #Colorado #GetOutTheVote #SeanPond

Wow. I asked how Colorado spends our money. I wasn’t expecting to be personally attacked by Barb Kirkmeyer’s own family for questioning her votes... Colorado faced a roughly $1.5 billion projected budget shortfall while lawmakers put together the budget for fiscal year 2026 to 2027. I asked why the Republicans on the Joint Budget Committee supported these budgets. I asked why ten Senate Republicans voted NO on April 16 while Senator Barb Kirkmeyer voted YES. In 2025, she was the only Senate Republican to support final passage of the Long Bill. Her 2026 Liberty Scorecard was 58%. She also helped sponsor HB24-1379, which created a state dredge and fill permitting program with authorization fees. How does that fit with promises of limited government? These are fair questions about OUR money, OUR state and OUR future. Apparently that was enough to bring out the knights in shining armor to defend Senator Kirkmeyer. The comment pictured here comes from Caroline Maxwell, Barb’s daughter, who has also been involved in her campaign. She chose to mock my appointment, my campaign and my book. Caroline, what exactly gives you the moral high ground to look down on my life? What qualifies you to dismiss my service and mock a book about my roots, my losses, my failures and people I loved who are no longer here? Those were real people. That was my real life. You turned it into a cheap political punchline because I questioned your mother’s votes. I served in the Navy and worked in radiological health and safety. I built businesses, experienced success and failure, raised a family and stepped up to serve my county. My appointment followed the death of Commissioner Rick Dunlap. The Republican vacancy committee in Montrose County selected me to fill that responsibility. When you mock that appointment, you’re also mocking the judgment of the Republicans who chose me. And yes, I earned 22% at assembly. That was 455 delegates after oly three and a half months of campaigning as an unknown outsider. I traveled all 64 counties and shook a lot of hands. I’m damn proud of that, and I’m grateful to every delegate who put their trust in me. Their support deserves more respect than your sneering comment. I’m still standing on stages talking about Republican unity. Meanwhile, this is how a Republican taxpayer gets treated for questioning a longtime Republican politician. That’s part of what’s wrong with our party in Colorado. We talk about accountability, then make it personal when someone asks for it. I don’t know you, Caroline. I would never mock your losses or use your family’s painful experiences to score a point. My wife, my kids and the people I wrote about are people I love. Think about that before making another joke out of my life. I shook Barb’s hand. I stood beside her. I asked about her public decisions without attacking her family or mocking her personal history. You could have explained the votes. You could have told taxpayers what they gained. Instead, you tried to humiliate the person asking. No citizen needs to win an election to question an elected representative. We pay the bills. We get to ask the questions. Shame on you, Caroline Maxwell. Your mother’s years in office do not put her above scrutiny, and being her daughter does not put you above anyone else. I will keep asking. P.S. I like Barb. I can like her and still question her votes. You’re the one who made this personal. #SeanMPond #UNDERestimated #ColoradoPolitics #TaxpayerAccountability #LimitedGovernment #WeThePeople

I went to my Amazon book page tonight and found two written reviews that are political biased attacks. I know J. Fengel as Josh Fengel, a liberal who moved here from California and has attacked me for the better part of three years. I have no respect for this kind of petty behavior. I believe “Dusty Desert” is Cody Perry, an environmental activist I fought over the proposed monument. To me, this looks like settling political grudges through book reviews. It’s childish, and dragging my life story into it is low. If you’ve actually read UNDERestimated. The Roads that Built Me, please leave an honest review on Amazon. Tell people what YOU thought of the book. Let readers hear from you, too. Find the book on Amazon: amazon.com/s?k=UNDERestimate… #UNDERestimated #SeanPond

I’m going to say something that some Republicans won’t like, but it needs to be said. I like Mark Baisley. I’m voting for him. And I’m angry that our party has left him trying to fight a statewide race with so little financial support. Through June 30, John Hickenlooper had reported more than $8 million in campaign receipts since January 2025, with over $2 million remaining. Mark’s combined campaign committees had reported about $138,000 raised and $50,000 remaining. How do we expect him to compete with that? During my roughly four months campaigning for United States Senate, we raised $31,226.78, entirely from individuals. No loans. No PAC money. We traveled Colorado, met people face to face, and built grassroots support. I saw people getting involved because they believed we could give them a voice. I believe wholeheartedly that we could have given John Hickenlooper a run for his money. I wish we had gotten the chance to build on what we started. I saw hope for the future of this state, and walking away from that still hurts. But the assembly delegates made their choice. The party leaders, the establishment, and the gatekeepers who backed that direction need to take responsibility for what followed. You wanted Mark. Where is your support for Mark? Choosing a nominee is only part of the job. Raising money, building an organization, and helping that nominee reach voters should follow. You cannot celebrate getting your candidate through the assembly and then leave him struggling to pay for the campaign. To me, these fundraising numbers show a serious failure to turn the support inside the assembly into support across Colorado. Winning over delegates and building a statewide campaign are two different jobs. Our party needs to be capable of both. The Republican Party leadership and State Central Committee need to answer for their part in that. So do the people who pushed this choice and then failed to help fund it. And the rest of us need to look at ourselves too. What the hell are we doing? We complain about losing Colorado, complain about Democrats, and complain about the direction of our state. Then we expect our nominee to take on a campaign with millions of dollars while we sit back and watch. If you can afford to donate, donate. If you cannot, volunteer. Make calls. Knock on doors. Help him get in front of voters. Do something beyond saying you hope he wins. I feel bad for Mark. He deserves a party willing to work as hard to support him as it worked to choose him. I’m angry because I believe Colorado was worth a real fight. It still is. This is why we keep losing. We demand loyalty from voters, but we need to demand responsibility from the people running our party too. You helped choose this candidate. Help give him a fighting chance. #UNDERestimated #SeanPond

APPARENTLY, I HAVE BECOME HIS WEEKLY CONTENT CALENDAR. A local newspaper publisher made a post mocking me. Since then, about once a week, he finds something else to use for another snide little shot. It might be something I posted. It might be something my wife posted. It does not seem to matter. I have never treated this man badly. I have always been polite to him. He even sent me a friend request. During my Senate campaign, he came into my office and told me he was not going to write about me anymore because he actually agreed with many of my federal policies. I took him at his word. I should not have. His behavior since that conversation has shown me exactly what his word is worth. I do not believe a thing he says to me anymore. I know he has challenges of his own, and I am not interested in attacking his personal life. I am addressing what he chooses to do publicly as the publisher of a newspaper. If he wants to be a liberal activist, that is his right. But he should be honest about it. He should stop pretending to be a neutral observer of Montrose County while repeatedly using his position and platform to target people he dislikes. Normally, I ignore him. But his posts accidentally revealed something far more important than his apparent fascination with me. His posts usually receive ten, eleven or fifteen reactions. I clicked on the publicly visible profiles of the people reacting and looked at their publicly visible friends and connections. It did not take long before a tree began to form. The same names and circles kept appearing. Moderate Republicans. Democrats. Media figures. Former government administrators. Recall organizers. No Kings organizers. Liberal activists. People involved in local politics, government and organizations that have shaped Montrose County for years. The more I looked, the clearer the pattern became. In my opinion, this is the Montrose County establishment. This small but powerful circle influences what people read and what they never read. It decides who receives attention and who gets ignored. It shapes which stories are repeated, which questions are never asked and which people are mocked when they challenge the approved narrative. Most people never see it because they never stop to look. Once I saw the pattern, I began to understand how Montrose County’s public narrative has been controlled for so long. The image below shows only part of what I found. It began with one mocking post, a handful of reactions and a few clicks through publicly visible information. Now imagine this same network operating across all 64 Colorado counties. Imagine it inside the State Capitol, in both the House and Senate. You do not have to imagine it. It is already happening. Moderate Republicans collaborate with Democrats. Media figures protect the establishment. Political insiders protect one another. Anyone who challenges the arrangement becomes a target. Then Republicans and conservatives wonder why we keep losing while Democrats keep governing and Colorado’s managed decline continues. Republican unity does not mean I will sit down, shut up and surrender our principles to the same people who helped create this mess. It means exposing the system, understanding how it operates and finally having the courage to confront it. So keep making your little posts about me. Every time you do, you help me show people exactly how the Montrose County establishment works. #UNDERestimated #SeanPond #ColoradoPolitics #RepublicanUnity

THE WORD OF THE DAY WAS COLLABORATION. I heard it all day at the Colorado River District seminar in Grand Junction. Republicans and Democrats hugged, shook hands and praised each other for working together. Then tonight I watched a local moderate Republican on the news say the best part of the day was seeing everyone work together... That one sentence explains why Colorado keeps losing. Working together toward what? Bigger government. Higher taxes. Fewer jobs. Less freedom. Democrats never work with Republicans to make government smaller, protect liberty or return power to the people. It only goes one way. Government grows. Freedom shrinks. Moderate Republicans help it happen and then call it success. That is not collaboration. It is surrender. What disgusts me most is how many Republicans know it. They see exactly what I see. They whisper the truth in private and hide from it in public. Very few are willing to stand and fight anymore. They are cowards. They care more about their next election, their title, their power and their seat at the table than the people they were elected to serve. They trade away their principles one piece at a time until nothing is left but the title and ego. At some point, they are no longer giving up on a vote. They are giving away pieces of their soul just to feel important. You did not take an oath to fit in. You did not take an oath to help Democrats reach their goals. You took an oath to the Constitution and the people. Colorado is not being lost because Democrats are strong. It is being lost because too many Republicans are too weak to fight. I left that room disgusted. This is what I had to say. #UNDERestimated #SeanPond #coloradopolitics

⚠️ WARNING TO THE WESTERN SLOPE ⚠️ A text message survey called the “Colorado Congressional District 3 Land Use Opinion Poll” is going out right now. Magellan Strategies is running it, and the survey code points directly to The Wilderness Society. Do not be fooled. They ask questions like, “Do you support protecting public lands, wildlife and open spaces?” Of course we do. I was born on the Western Slope and live right here in the Third Congressional District. I want our public lands protected, healthy and accessible. But they take that “yes” and claim it means we support another national monument, wilderness designation, road closure or federal land restriction. That is the trick. A 2023 poll claimed 90 percent of Coloradans supported protecting the Dolores River Canyon. When the questions were separated in 2024, 72 percent supported conservation, but 60 percent opposed the national monument. Conservation and federal land lockups are not the same thing. If you receive this survey, read every word. When they say “protect,” ask what that means. More wildfire prevention and responsible management? Yes. Closing roads, restricting grazing, mining and recreation, or removing local voices? No. If they ask who should manage these lands, my answer is clear. Federal agencies must follow multiple use law, but local counties, Colorado and the people who actually live here must have a real voice. Major land decisions should go through Congress with public hearings, clear maps and every restriction disclosed. They want a headline. Do not give them a blank check. Please share this warning with your friends and neighbors. #UNDERestimated #SeanPond #WesternSlope #ColoradoCD3 #PublicLands #LocalControl

2026 IS A LINE IN THE SAND FOR COLORADO. I traveled all 64 counties. What I saw was a state losing hope, rural communities being left behind, and working people wondering whether anyone in power still hears them. This video explains why I believe 2026 is now or never for Colorado, and why I made the decision I did. Before you vote, watch this. #TeamColorado #RuralColorado #Colorado2026 #UNDERestimated

COLORADO HUNTERS, WE NEED YOUR HELP. Click the link, fill in your information, select “Citizen Petition,” write your comment, and hit submit. Tell the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to reject both citizen petitions. The first would ban traditional lead hunting ammunition and includes language that could restrict rifles capable of firing it. This is an attack on hunters, firearms, affordable ammunition, and the Second Amendment. The second would ban prairie dog shooting on public land and limit the ability of farmers and ranchers to control prairie dogs on private land. This is our opportunity to make our voices heard. Please submit your comment, then share this link with every hunter, gun owner, farmer, rancher, hunting group, and Second Amendment page you know. Do not assume someone else will do it. Click the link. Submit your comment. Share it everywhere. #ColoradoHunting #SecondAmendment #2A #CPW #HuntersSpeakUp #UNDERestimated engagecpw.org/pwc-public-com…

Colorado hunters need to see what is being proposed to CPW. Watch this.

I respect Dwayne Romero’s military service. I served too, and that service deserves respect regardless of political party. But let’s not pretend someone running as the Democratic nominee for Congress is offering “solutions, not politics.” His own platform calls for repealing Republican legislation, expanding federal programs, protecting abortion access, creating a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and transitioning away from traditional energy. Those are political positions with real consequences for Colorado families, ranchers, energy workers, taxpayers, and rural communities. A photograph in uniform does not turn a Democratic agenda into a nonpartisan solution. I have openly disagreed with Congressman Jeff Hurd, especially over the GORP Act, and I will continue holding him accountable. But this election is a choice between a Republican congressman and another Democrat who will help advance the same policies that have already made Colorado more expensive, less secure, and increasingly hostile to the rural Western Slope. Respect the service, absolutely. Then examine the policies and vote accordingly. #SeanPond #UNDERestimated

COLORADO DIDN’T SUDDENLY GET A BEAR PROBLEM. WE HELPED CREATE ONE. Before the 1992 ballot measure eliminated the spring bear hunt and banned the use of hounds and bait, Colorado hunters were routinely harvesting hundreds of bears every year. From 1979 into the early 1990s, statewide harvest averaged roughly 650 black bears per year, and historically 75 to 80 percent of the annual harvest occurred during the spring season. In 1991, hunters legally harvested 475 bears. In 1992, they harvested 483 bears, including 315 during the spring hunt alone. Then Colorado voters passed Amendment 10, banning bear hunting from March through August and banning hounds and bait altogether. In the first year under the new system, 1993, harvest dropped to 278 bears. Those weren’t just recreational opportunities. They were wildlife management tools. Colorado Parks and Wildlife itself says wildlife managers determine how many animals need to be harvested to maintain, increase or decrease a population and then structure hunting seasons to accomplish those objectives. Today, CPW’s own management objectives call for reducing bear populations in eight of Colorado’s 17 bear management areas and stabilizing the rest. Colorado now has nearly 20,000 black bears. So look where we are today. 294 bears euthanized by CPW through August 31. 8,672 bear reports. Eight reported bear attacks. And instead of allowing hunters to more effectively manage the population before bears become habituated, start breaking into homes or become dangerous, we wait until there is a conflict and then government employees kill them. Yes, drought, wildfire and poor natural food production are making 2026 particularly bad. That is real. But that doesn’t erase more than 30 years of policy decisions that removed effective wildlife management tools. In 1992, Colorado took wildlife management out of the hands of wildlife professionals and put it on a statewide ballot. We eliminated the spring hunt. We eliminated hounds. We eliminated bait. We dramatically reduced one of the most productive portions of Colorado’s annual bear harvest. Now we have nearly 20,000 bears, CPW is openly trying to reduce populations across almost half its bear management areas, hundreds of bears are being euthanized, and people are being attacked. Tell me again how ballot box wildlife management worked out so well. I’d rather see a bear legally harvested by a hunter, providing meat, hide, recreation and conservation dollars, than trapped behind somebody’s house and euthanized because we refused to manage it until it became a problem. Hunters are conservationists. Hunting is wildlife management. And maybe 294 dead bears and eight attacks are enough evidence that Colorado needs to admit we took away some of the tools that actually worked. #SeanPond #UNDERestimated

COLORADO’S BALLOT IS FINAL People keep asking how I am voting on the statewide ballot measures. Here it is, plain and simple. ✅ AMENDMENT 81: YES If someone is charged with a violent crime and police cannot determine whether they are legally in this country, federal immigration authorities should be notified. ✅ AMENDMENT 82: YES You should have the right to use natural gas to heat your home, cook your food, or run your business. Government should not take that choice away. ✅ AMENDMENT 83: YES, WITH RESERVATIONS This puts the right to hunt and fish in the Colorado Constitution. It also says hunting and fishing are a preferred way to manage wildlife. I do not like all the power it still leaves with the state, but protecting hunting in our Constitution is better than leaving it completely exposed. ✅ AMENDMENT 84: YES Mail ballots should require voter identification. If information is missing or wrong, the voter will have a chance to fix it. ✅ AMENDMENT 85: YES Ballot questions should be written in plain English. Voters should not need a lawyer to understand what they are voting on. ✅ AMENDMENT 86: YES Politicians should not be able to redraw congressional districts in the middle of the decade just to help their own party. ❌ AMENDMENT 87: NO This ends Colorado’s flat income tax, creates tax rates as high as 8.4 percent, and increases state taxes by an estimated $2.7 billion every year. Government already takes and spends enough. ❌ PROPOSITION NN: NO They say it does not raise taxes. What it really does is let the state keep billions of dollars that could otherwise be returned to taxpayers through TABOR. The education promises focus on ten years, but the higher government spending limit is permanent. ✅ PROPOSITION 132: YES Fentanyl is killing people and destroying families. Dealers need stronger punishment, and people addicted to fentanyl need real treatment. ✅ PROPOSITION 133: YES Anyone who knowingly buys or sells sexual activity involving a child deserves life in prison. ✅ PROPOSITION 134: YES Girls deserve fair sports. Female sports should be based on biological sex. ✅ PROPOSITION 135: YES Children cannot understand or consent to permanent, life changing surgery. Adults can make their own decisions. Children need protection. ✅ PROPOSITION 136: YES This caps Colorado’s income tax rate at 4.4 percent. Government can lower the tax rate, but it cannot raise it above 4.4 percent. ❌ PROPOSITION 137: NO This lets the state keep about $175 million a year that could otherwise be returned through TABOR. It locks that money into government controlled conservation programs. In Colorado, “conservation” too often becomes restrictions, closed roads, and locked gates. There it is. 11 YES votes. 3 NO votes. Read them for yourself. Make your own decision. Then vote. #SeanPond

President Trump took two major steps for rural America today. He ordered the federal government to determine within 90 days whether gray wolves have recovered and, if so, begin removing their federal protections while giving ranchers more ability to defend their livestock. He also opened the door to mandatory country of origin labeling so Americans can know whether their beef was raised here or imported. Neither change became final today, but this is a damn good first step toward protecting American ranchers, American cattle and American consumers. #SeanPond #UNDERestimated