{"id":65499,"date":"2019-11-28T12:25:36","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T19:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/angela-williams-exits-u-s-senate-race-faces-challenge-in-statehouse\/"},"modified":"2019-11-28T19:25:36","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T19:25:36","slug":"angela-williams-exits-u-s-senate-race-faces-challenge-in-statehouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/angela-williams-exits-u-s-senate-race-faces-challenge-in-statehouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Angela Williams exits U.S. Senate race, faces challenge in statehouse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"State
State Sen. Angela Williams, D-Denver, speaks to a reporter at the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Democrat Angela Williams announced Wednesday that she is abandoning her U.S. Senate bid, opting instead to seek reelection to her state Senate seat in what\u2019s gearing up to be a fractious statehouse primary contest that\u2019s already splitting state lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a period of soul searching and reflection with family, I have decided to suspend my campaign for U.S. Senate,\u201d Williams wrote in a news release announcing her decision. \u201c\u2026 I am disappointed, but I am undeterred. I remain committed to my fight to give Colorado\u2019s women, people of color, and the underserved a voice. It is clear to me now that there is more work that needs to be done right here in Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams represents state Senate District 33 in Denver and had not ruled out running for reelection to the post even as she sought the Democratic nomination in Colorado\u2019s 2020 U.S. Senate race.<\/p>\n

But state Rep. James Coleman, D-Denver, on Nov. 18 announced he would run for her seat, meaning that in order to return to the legislature Williams will face a primary challenge from an established politician and former ally.<\/p>\n

Both Williams and Coleman are members of the legislature\u2019s black caucus.<\/p>\n

He has been endorsed by Democrats including House Speaker KC Becker, and Sens. Jessie Danielson, Kerry Donovan and Jeff Bridges.<\/p>\n

Even state Reps. Janet Buckner and Leslie Herod, two other Democratic members of the legislature\u2019s black caucus, are backing Coleman\u2019s run.<\/p>\n

Williams told The Colorado Sun she was blindsided by Coleman\u2019s decision to run for her seat earlier this month. \u201cI knew nothing about this announcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Williams said she was prepared to battle for reelection to the legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will be filing my paperwork in the next several days to seek re-election to Colorado Senate District 33,\u201d Williams said in her statement. \u201cI will match my record, with nearly a decade of service fighting for my community, workers, women, the environment and small businesses against anyone. I look forward to a spirited campaign and to continuing to serve as state senator for the next four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Williams returns for the 2020 legislative session in January, she will be working alongside Danielson, Donovan and Bridges, as well as the House members who have endorsed Coleman. It\u2019s possible that the split will increase tensions in what last year was an often divided Democratic Senate caucus.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 U.S. Senate campaign struggled to gain traction in the 9-candidate primary field.<\/p>\n

She entered the race in July, hoping to build on her reputation in the legislature as a moderate, pro-business Democrat. But her campaign failed to keep fundraising pace with the presumptive front runners, bringing in about $110,000 between July 1 and the end of September.<\/p>\n

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, by comparison, hauled in $2.1 million during that same span. Former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, meanwhile, raised $430,000 in contributions in the same period<\/p>\n

Williams said she knew her campaign needed \u201cto show growth at the end of the year for us to endure,\u201d but that she had planned to wait until March to decide whether to leave the U.S. Senate race to seek another statehouse term.<\/p>\n

In leaving the U.S. Senate contest, Williams said she is \u201cheartened to see so many female candidates still in this race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know, Colorado has never sent a woman to the United States Senate,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd Colorado has never sent a woman of color to Washington. I remain firm in my belief that that needs to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

She took a dig at Hickenlooper\u2019s campaign, which has been endorsed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, on her way out. The DSCC is the U.S. Senate Democrats deep-pocketed campaign arm and they have faced criticism from Romanoff and Williams for getting involved so early in the Colorado contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, even now, as female candidates enjoy a historic level of support from voters, there are still elements of the Democratic Party seeking to promote male candidates at the expense of talented and smart progressive women,\u201d Williams said. \u201cFighting to give women, people of color, and the underserved a voice isn\u2019t always easy, especially when faced with strong headwinds from Washington D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. James Coleman, D-Denver, announced a bid on Nov. 18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[394,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-65499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65499","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=65499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65499"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=65499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}