Shaun Boyd is Your Political Reporter at CBS News Colorado. Share you story ideas with her by sending an email to sboyd@cbs.com or yourreporter@cbs.com.
As president pro tempore, Democratic state Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet packed up her office at the Colorado State Capitol Friday. She couldn't help but think back to when she was first elected in 2016. She says she thought she would have two years in office.
"I said I'm going to leave everything on the field," Michaelson Jenet told CBS Colorado.
Michaelson Jenet kept that pledge for the next 10 years, as she transformed behavioral health care in Colorado, especially for kids. She ran for office after struggling to find help for her son, who attempted suicide at 9 years old.
"I still feel very responsible for Colorado's children," she said.
Among her biggest accomplishments in office is leading passage of a ballot measure providing free school meals for all Colorado kids and a law creating the I Matter Colorado program, which gives kids access to six free counseling sessions.
"Seventeen thousand Colorado youth have gotten therapy through I Matter," Michaelson Jenet said.
Among her most controversial bills was a measure giving kids 12 years old and under access to three confidential therapy sessions.
"I've had protestors at the Capitol about it," Michaelson Jenet said. "I still believe it's one of best things I did."
Michaelson Jenet not only spoke publicly about her son's mental health struggles, but her own. She received vicious attacks from some Coloradans but says she doesn't regret opening up.
"I think that being authentic and being vulnerable are very important leadership traits," she said.
She has shown leadership repeatedly over the years. She spoke on the House floor about her own rape as she passed a law eliminating the statute of limitations for sex assault civil cases.
She shared her struggle with weight loss as she passed a law that makes drugs like Wegovy more affordable.
But there have been low points too. As an Israeli and a Jew, she received threats after the war in Gaza broke out.
"I became a vehicle for people to spew hate," Michaelson Jenet said.
She now hopes to be a vehicle for change. She is leaving to take a job at the David Merage Foundation for Confronting Antisemitism.
"I absolutely needed to do this," the state senator said. "I thought, 'This is the time; this is the time that I need to stand up for my community and my Jewish community, and take the leadership that I have learned in this role and put it to use to stamp out hate.'"
State Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet had a message for those who have put their trust in her for the last decade.
"Know that I'm going to continue standing up for our community, just in different ways," she said.