Manny Rutinel

Manny Rutinel

Tonty "Manny" Rutinel (born December 20, 1994) is an attorney and politician serving as a member of the Colorado House of Representatives for the 32nd district.

Early life and education

Rutinel was born in Los Angeles, California, and raised by a single mother in the Dominican Republic until he was six years old. They returned to the United States and lived in California and Florida. He attended schools in Florida. He stated that he worked at McDonald's while attending high school and regularly gave blood at a plasma center to help support his family.

Rutinel earned an associate degree from Pasco–Hernando State College, a Bachelor of Arts in economics and Bachelor of Science in microbiology from the University of Florida, a Master of Science in applied economics from Johns Hopkins University, and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.

DSA connections

DSA member

According to Mark Gruenberg and John Wojcik, writing in People's World "Progressives sweep Colorado Democratic Party primaries":

From the governorship race down to the Secretary of State’s contest, progressive candidates—including current Democratic Socialists of America member Melat Kiros for Congress in Denver and former DSA member Manny Rutinel in a swing district north of Denver—won.

In the upstate and swing 8th District, Rutinel, a state legislator who let his Democratic Socialist party membership lapse, will face one-term Republican Gabe Evans, who unseated a Democratic incumbent two years ago. Party pooh-bahs, including the rest of the state’s congressional delegation, backed more “moderate” former legislator Shannon Bird. Rutinel beat Bird 61%-34%.

The Denver Post noted the district is the poorest in Colorado and also heavily Latino. Rutinel, a Latino, said he ran to work to ensure the constituents could have the same opportunities to rise that he did.

Northern Colorado DSA approval

From the Northern Colorado DSA 2026 Voter Guide:

Democratic Socialists of America is the largest socialist organization the United States has seen in nearly a century. As a democratic organization run by tens of thousands of dues-paying members, DSA differs from political organizations and nonprofits controlled by wealthy donors. Our members directly determine our democratic priorities. Northern Colorado DSA is a local chapter of DSA, representing all of Larimer County and central western portions of Weld County. NoCo DSA is composed of hundreds of dues-paying members spread across our Fort Collins, Greeley, and Loveland branches, as well as Colorado State University’s chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA). We are fighting for affordability, democracy, and dignity across Northern Colorado.

The recommendations of this voter guide were initially assembled and approved by our chapter’s Elections Committee before being debated at our May 2nd General Meeting. There, several member-submitted amendments were either adopted or rejected, resulting in a finalized set of recommendations that were approved by nearly all voting members present.

Northern Colorado DSA has not made any endorsements in competitive Democratic primaries this election season.

In place of endorsements, this voter guide contains our chapter’s recommendations, our chapter’s best advice to voters. The level of support conveyed by recommendations ranges from enthusiastic (even if shy of an endorsement) to cautious.

Manny Rutinel was an attorney who spent his career fighting against corporations breaking the law at the expense of local communities before he joined the Colorado General Assembly in 2023. Rutinel is running to tax the rich their fair share, strengthen and expand social programs like SNAP/Medicare/Social Security, lower healthcare costs, create more affordable housing, and stop Trump’s corruption and ICE cruelty.

Manny Rutinel has proven himself legislatively as well. Rutinel voted yes on both of the major anti-ICE bills we organized around as DSA. These were The Protecting Colorado Families Act (HB26-1276), which required frequent health and environmental inspections of immigration detention centers and expanded liability for organizations responsible for leaking personal identifying information of Coloradans, and Liability for Harm Caused by Civil Immigration Enforcement (SB26-005), which allowed individuals whose constitutional rights were violated by ICE or CBP to sue the agents responsible in Colorado civil court. Manny also sponsored and passed HB24-1339 which cracked down on polluters breaking the law and required impact analyses and real-time pollution monitoring, and SB24-141 which expanded telehealth access for Coloradans, particularly in rural communities. Manny Rutinel has also co-sponsored and passed SB25-276, a bill that contains numerous protections for immigrants in Colorado including the requirement that all public workers, at both the state and local level, not provide personal identifying information to ICE, SB25-129 which shielded Colorado abortion providers from out-of-state prosecution under the Trump administration, SB25-014 which protected marriage equality in Colorado’s state constitution regardless of any future federal court rollback, and many others which can be read about at the end of Manny’s issues page.

It is no surprise then, that out of the $3.5 million Manny Rutinelhas raised for his campaign, it is all individual donors besides three PAC’s. These PAC’s are 314 Action, a progressive group dedicated to electing democratic scientists to office (Rutinel’s bachelor degrees were in microbiology and economics), Blue Momentum PAC, a group dedicated to flipping red seats blue, and CHC BOLD PAC, an arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

PS: We recognize that there has been some concern from our members based on the recent development of Manny turning his back on several of his previously held progressive positions. While this is obviously disappointing, we still believe that the recommendation stands. It is possible Manny may end up becoming a disappointing moderate like Joe Neguse, but that would still be better than Bird becoming the next John Fetterman.

Our Revolution endorsement 2024

Tim Hernandez, Manny Rutinel, Bryan Lindstrom, Andrew Boesenecker, Karen DeGruy Kennedy, Sarah McKeen, Junie Joseph, Yara Zokaie.