Owen Hill

In 2012, Hill ran for the open Senate seat in Senate District 10 to replace Senator Bill Cadman after redistricting. He faced opponent Brandon Hughes of the Libertarian Party and Christopher Mull of the American Constitution Party, and defeated them with a 73.7% of the vote.[14]

Hill was appointed to serve on the Senate Education Committee, Finance Committee, and the Legislative Audit Committee.

During the 2013 Colorado Legislative session, Senator Hill promoted an amendment that would have exempted faith-based organizations from providing benefits to individuals in civil unions, if doing so would violate their freedom of conscience.

Hill ran for the U.S. Senate seat previously held by Democrat Mark Udall, Colorado's senior senator and a former member of the United States House of Representatives. During his campaign Owen Hill received an endorsement from former Texas congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul.[15]

In a November campaign speech before Denver county Republicans, Owen related a story from a trip to Kenya where when one youth told him he wanted to be President of the United States, "I held back my snarky comment that said 'Well, you know what, we already have someone from Kenya as President of the United States.'" Hill declined to apologize after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called the remark "...hateful and false birther rhetoric [used when candidates] think no one is watching." Hill responded "The fact that my obvious joke is being highlighted today just shows how worried Mark Udall and the Democrats actually are of my campaign for the U.S. Senate here in Colorado."[16] Hill withdrew from the U.S. Senate race on March 17, 2014, citing Rep. Cory Gardner's entry as the reason.[17]

Hill worked with Democratic state representative Brittany Pettersen from Lakewood to fund charter schools like any other public school.[7] With the help of Democratic Representative Steve Lebsock, Hill sponsored a bipartisan bill which legalized switchblades in Colorado.[18] Hill worked with Democrat Leroy Garcia, a US Marine and Iraq War veteran, to approve the boards of Colorado veterans homes.[19] Hill also teamed up again with Garcia on a bill that allowed veterans in Colorado to turn their military service time into college credit at all state institutions.[20]

Hill announced in April 2017 that he would be challenging incumbent Rep. Doug Lamborn for the U.S. House seat from Colorado's fifth district, located in Colorado Springs.[21] In July 2017, Colorado Politics reported that Hill's campaign had raised the highest amount in the past decade.[22] In January 2018 Owen Hill ranked #9 on Colorado Politics's "Counting down the Colorado politicos to watch in 2018" list, they said "he could rise on the national level and put Colorado Springs in the catbird's seat for military and technology investment".[23] In April 2018, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) endorsed Hill.[15]

In the Republican primary, Hill received just over 18% of the vote, coming in third in a field of five candidates. Incumbent Doug Lamborn won with over 52% of the vote.[24][25]

During the fall of 2017 the Gazette had multiple articles about "squatting" (a practice that involves people moving into vacant homes and claiming residency there despite not owning or renting the property). Hill cosponsored the "Protecting Homeowners And Deployed Military Personnel Act", which made it easier for homeowners to remove squatters.[26]