2006 election

Swalm won election to Colorado's 37th House District in 2006. He faced Centennial Councilwoman Betty Ann Habig in the Republican primary, losing to her at the party assembly,^[8] but defeating her in the party primary.^[9] He then defeated Democrat Angela Engel with just over 51 percent of the vote.^[2]

2007 legislative session

In the 2007 session of the Colorado General Assembly, Swalm sat on the House Health and Human Services Committee and the House Transportation and Energy Committee.^[10] Swalm's father, Paul Swalm, had served on the Denver, Colorado city council and in the Colorado House of Representatives^[4] in the 1970s, and Swalm was assigned the same seat in the house chamber as his father.^[11]

That year, Swalm sponsored legislation that would require sex offenders to register their email addresses and other online identities with the state.^[12] After being defeated in committee, the bill was resubmitted to apply only to sex offenders whose victims are children,^[13] and was signed into law. He plans on submitting legislation to extend the program to all sex offenders in future sessions.^[14]

Swalm also sponsored successful legislation designed to encourage Coloradans to purchase long term care insurance rather than relying on Medicaid, allowing Coloradans to participate in a federal long term care partnership program.^[15]

Between legislative sessions, Swalm served on the interim Health Care Task Force^[16] and on the Transportation Legislation Review Committee.^[17]

2008 legislative session

For the 2008 legislative session, Swalm plans to sponsor a measure that would create a special pass to offset state park maintenance costs.^[18][19] As part of a set of Republican health care proposals, Swalm will sponsor legislation to create a low-cost state health insurance plan and to encourage tax breaks for individual health insurance.^[20] He has also, working with Democratic Rep. Morgan Carroll, introduced legislation to extend a fund to provide financial assistance to military families.^[21][22] The bill was passed by the legislature and signed into the law by Gov. Bill Ritter.^[23]

Swalm also introduced legislation to create the "Colorado Health Plan," a low-cost health insurance program to be run by the state,^[24] but the proposal was killed in committee.^[25] Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff has expressed interest in reviving the bill.^[26] Swalm also reintroduced his bill to require sex offenders to register their email addresses, which was again killed in committee.^[27]

2008 election

Because of the closeness of Swalm's 2006 election in a traditionally Republican district, Democrats targeted Swalm's re-election bid in 2008. Swalm faces Diana Holland, a Democrat and Littleton School Board member,^[28] and Constitution Party candidate Brian Olds in the November general election. Swalm's re-election bid was endorsed by the Denver Post.^[29] He ultimately won with 51 percent of the popular vote, nearly 2000 votes ahead of Holland.^[30]

2009 legislative session

For the 2009 legislative session, Swalm was named to seats on the House Finance Committee and the House Health and Human Services Committee.^[31] Representative Swalm worked with centrist Democratic Representative Sara Gagliardi to promote a bipartisan measure lowering the age limit for blood donations to 16.^[32]

2011 legislative session

Representative Swalm returned to the House Committee on Finance. He was also appointed as vice-chair of the newly renamed Economic & Business Development Committee.

2012 election

In the 2012 General Election, Representative Swalm faced Democratic challenger Jan Spooner. Swalm was elected by a margin of 53% to 44% with third party candidates garnering the remainder of the vote.^[33][34]