| Cole Wist | |
| State House: | Colorado |
| District: | 37th |
| Term Start: | January 12, 2016 |
| Term End: | January 4, 2019 |
| Predecessor: | Jack Tate |
| Successor: | Tom Sullivan |
| Birth Date: | 24 December 1962 |
| Birth Place: | Fort Worth, Texas |
| Nationality: | American |
| Party: | Democratic (1996) Republican (until 2022) Unaffiliated (2022-present) |
| Spouse: | Susan |
| Children: | Connor Abby Halle |
| Residence: | Arapahoe County, Colorado |
| Alma Mater: | J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 1988 B.A., University of Denver, 1985 |
| Profession: | Attorney |
Cole Wist is an attorney and former state representative from Arapahoe County, Colorado. A Republican, Wist represented Colorado House of Representatives District 37 and served as Assistant Minority Leader in the House.
Wist was born in Fort Worth, Texas,[1] but he was raised in Paonia, Colorado. He and his wife Susan have three daughters.[2]
Wist earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Denver in 1985. He also holds a J.D. Degree from Georgetown University Law Center. He works as an attorney at Ogletree, Deakins.[3]
In 1996, Wist ran for the Colorado House of Representatives as a Democrat and lost to Kay Alexander.
Wist was appointed as a Republican to the State House in January 2016 after his predecessor, Jack Tate, resigned to fill a vacant State Senate seat.[4] Wist then ran for the office in the November 2016 general election and won, beating his Democratic challenger with 54.65% of the vote.[5] With Democratic assistant majority leader Alec Garnett, Wist sponsored a red flag bill in 2018.[6] This bill failed, but a similar bill was signed into law during the following session.[7] Wist ran for reelection in 2018 but lost to Democrat Tom Sullivan.[8]
Since leaving the legislature, Wist has criticized Donald Trump and the Republican Party for their handling of the Charlottesville car attack,[9] voting rights, the 2021 United States Capitol attack, and COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.[10] He opposed the efforts of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners to recall his former rival Tom Sullivan in 2019.[11] During the 2020 presidential election Wist was a steering committee member of The Lincoln Project's Republicans and Independents for Biden group.[12] In January 2022 Wist announced that he was leaving the Republican Party to become unaffiliated.[10]