{"id":21562,"date":"2025-07-01T18:32:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T18:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/john-hickenlooper-is-up-for-reelection-colorado-republicans-dont-really-have-a-candidate-to-challenge-him\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:07:22","slug":"john-hickenlooper-is-up-for-reelection-colorado-republicans-dont-really-have-a-candidate-to-challenge-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/john-hickenlooper-is-up-for-reelection-colorado-republicans-dont-really-have-a-candidate-to-challenge-him\/","title":{"rendered":"John Hickenlooper is up for reelection. Colorado Republicans don\u2019t really have a candidate to challenge him."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sen.
Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., speaks during the confirmation hearing of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Donald Trump's choice to be Director of the National Institutes of Health, before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, at Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ben Curtis)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?<\/p>\n

With the 2026 election cycle already well underway, Colorado Republicans have no clear challenger to Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper next year. The state party\u2019s bench is depleted after a long stretch of defeat, caused both by changing demographics and GOP mistakes, and the few people who might be in line for the race are taking a pass because they see a loss as inevitable.<\/p>\n

The scenario would have been unthinkable a decade ago, when the GOP held one of Colorado\u2019s two U.S. Senate seats and the offices of attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer. But Republicans have not won a statewide election in Colorado since 2016, and the GOP candidates who have tried to reverse that trend have lost by increasingly wide \u2013 if not potentially career-ending \u2013 margins.<\/p>\n

Democrat Michael Bennet won reelection by 15 percentage points in 2022, the last time there was a Senate race in Colorado. Eight Republicans sought to oust Bennet that year.<\/p>\n

One longtime Republican consultant in Colorado, who requested anonymity to speak frankly about the political landscape, explained why GOP candidates aren\u2019t lining up to take on Hickenlooper: \u201cThey don\u2019t believe that they can win.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there is still more than a year until the election \u2013 and most of the Republican U.S. Senate candidates in 2022 didn\u2019t get into the race until at least August 2021 \u2013 the lack of GOP interest in taking on Hickenlooper is the latest sign of the tectonic political shift that has occurred in Colorado since Cory Gardner, the last Republican U.S. senator from the state, was elected in 2014.<\/p>\n

\"The
The podium of the Colorado Republican Party stands bare following a watch party of 2022 candidates at the DoubleTree By Hilton in Greenwood Village. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election prognosticator, ranks Hickenlooper\u2019s seat \u201csolid Democratic.\u201d That\u2019s the most favorable rating it gives to Democrats.<\/p>\n

Just one Republican candidate has filed paperwork to run against Hickenlooper next year. That is George Markert, a retired Marine colonel who is running for elected office for the first time. The Broomfield resident, who moved to Colorado two years ago as he settled his family after leaving the military, calls himself \u201ca constitutional conservative and proud supporter of President Trump\u2019s America First agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Markert jumped into the race in April. But voters don\u2019t know him \u2013 and he doesn\u2019t have the support of the GOP apparatus locally or nationally right now to change that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 100% confident that I can win,\u201d he told The Colorado Sun in an interview. \u201cI am not impressed by John Hickenlooper. He does not intimidate me one bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there are no Republicans who voters are familiar with who have publicly said they are interested in jumping into the race. And the who-might-run whisper network is quiet.<\/p>\n

While national Republicans are recruiting a challenger to Hickenlooper, it\u2019s not a priority \u2013 and the race is unlikely to be a spending target even if they do find a candidate. Michigan, North Carolina, Maine and Georgia are expected to be the top-tier U.S. Senate battlegrounds next year. Ohio and New Hampshire are in the second tier. Colorado isn\u2019t in the conversation.<\/p>\n

Colorado may have been more of a target for Republicans next year if President Donald Trump had fared better in the state in the 2024 presidential election. But he was walloped by 11 percentage points by Democrat Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP Senate campaign arm, traditionally likes to compete in states where Trump won but there\u2019s a Democrat in the Senate \u2013 i.e. Georgia and Michigan. Or where a Republican incumbent is defending a seat, as Gardner did in 2020.<\/p>\n

The NRSC did not comment on the GOP\u2019s failure so far to mount a campaign against Hickenlooper.<\/p>\n

Eli Bremer, one of the eight Republicans who ran against Bennet in 2022, said another one of the big reasons national GOP groups are so far ignoring Hickenlooper\u2019s 2026 reelection bid is because of how hard it is for candidates to make the statewide ballot in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the worst ballot access system in the country,\u201d he said. \u201cThat puts a chilling effect on candidate recruitment.\u201d<\/p>\n

To make the U.S. Senate ballot in Colorado, candidates must gather the signatures of 1,500 voters from their party in each of the state\u2019s eight congressional districts. Paying people to collect those signatures, the only surefire way to reach the threshold, can cost up to $1 million.<\/p>\n

Senate candidates can also go through the caucus process, in which they must get the support of at least 30% of party insiders gathered at a statewide assembly to make the ballot.<\/p>\n

Bremer said the candidate who prevails in competitive caucus and assembly processes often winds up losing the primary. For instance, former state Rep. Ron Hanks won the Republican U.S. Senate caucus in 2022, keeping Bremer and others off the ballot, then lost the primary to business owner Joe O\u2019Dea, a self-funder who made the ballot by collecting signatures.<\/p>\n

\"Republican
Republican Colorado Senate candidate Joe O\u2019Dea pauses as he speaks to supporters at a Republican election night watch party, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Greenwood Village, Colo. (AP Photo\/Jack Dempsey)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

O\u2019Dea was the only U.S. Senate candidate to make the ballot by gathering signatures in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe caucus system in Colorado has a long history of producing bizarre, unelectable candidates,\u201d Bremer said.<\/p>\n

The Colorado GOP, meanwhile, has been mired in controversy after controversy.<\/p>\n

The party dysfunction and the string of GOP defeats in Colorado has led to an exodus of Republican consultants and operatives, who draft candidates and come up with campaign strategy. Those who remain in Colorado are often doing their work in other parts of the country.<\/p>\n

In a more competitive environment for Republicans, one of the state\u2019s four GOP U.S. representatives would be in line, and champing at the bit, to run against Hickenlooper. But they are all seeking reelection to their seats.<\/p>\n

Tyler Sandberg, a Republican political consultant, pointed out that three of the four are in their first term in the House. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Windsor, is in her third term, but she\u2019s not considered a viable candidate statewide because of her firebrand personality and role as an agitator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no overnight sensations historically in the Republican Party in Colorado,\u201d Sandberg said, highlighting the careers of Gardner, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and former Gov. Bill Owens. All three took more traditional paths to top political offices.<\/p>\n

\"Senator-elect,
Senator-elect, U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, (R-Colo.), delivers his victory speech to supporters during a GOP election night gathering at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center, in Denver, Colo., Tuesday Nov. 4, 2014. (AP Photo\/Brennan Linsley)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sandberg is a proponent of the GOP embracing someone from outside the box who breathes new life into the party \u2013 a woman, a candidate of color or someone with a unique background that resonates with voters. Those types of Republicans flipped seats in Colorado in 2024, like Gabe Evans in the 8th Congressional District and Ryan Gonzalez in state House District 50.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we run someone that\u2019s outside the box, there\u2019s a very different calculus,\u201d Sandberg said. \u201cThe old playbook clearly hasn\u2019t worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

The one head-scratcher is the number of Republicans running for governor, a race in which the GOP got trounced even worse than O\u2019Dea did against Bennet in 2022.<\/p>\n

Gov. Jared Polis beat Republican Heidi Ganahl, a former University of Colorado regent, by nearly 20 percentage points in 2022. Nevertheless, there is a long list of Republicans \u2013 including state Rep. Scott Bottoms, state Sen. Mark Baisley and former U.S. Rep. Greg Lopez \u2013 running for the job in 2026.<\/p>\n

Lopez is running for governor for a third consecutive time after failing to win the primary in 2018 and 2022.<\/p>\n

Ganahl is rumored to be interested in running against Hickenlooper. She didn\u2019t respond to a message from The Colorado Sun seeking comment. Lopez has been encouraged to run for Senate, but he appears set on making another gubernatorial bid.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Brandi Bradley, R-Littleton, has also been rumored to be interested in running against Hickenlooper. But the controversial state lawmaker, who has anti-trans views and has clashed with fellow Republicans, called the notion \u201cfunny.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad I guess that I\u2019m so relevant,\u201d she said in a text message.<\/p>\n

While the GOP searches for someone to challenge Hickenlooper, the incumbent Democrat has been raking in the campaign cash. He had $2.2 million in the bank at the end of March. His next campaign finance report is due in mid July, and with no challenger \u2013 and thus no reason to deplete his resources \u2013 his war chest has likely grown since earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GOP candidate who has filed paperwork to try to unseat Colorado\u2019s junior Democratic senator is unknown to voters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77362,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21562\/revisions\/77362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21562"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}