[3] In 1996, Wist ran for the Colorado House of Representatives as a Democrat and lost to Kay Alexander.

[5] Wist then ran for the office in the November 2016 general election and won, beating his Democratic challenger with 54.65% of the vote.

[6] With Democratic assistant majority leader Alec Garnett, Wist sponsored a red flag bill in 2018.

[4] 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.