{"id":66716,"date":"2019-08-22T18:26:24","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T00:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hickenlooper-joins-colorados-crowded-senate-race-after-dropping-presidential-bid\/"},"modified":"2019-08-23T00:26:24","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T00:26:24","slug":"hickenlooper-joins-colorados-crowded-senate-race-after-dropping-presidential-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hickenlooper-joins-colorados-crowded-senate-race-after-dropping-presidential-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Hickenlooper joins Colorado\u2019s crowded Senate race after dropping presidential bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=49e6a43a-ec4c-41d1-b45c-c10c4b3c92cc&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1344\" alt=\"Democratic president candidate and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper walks on stage before speaking in earlier this month at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding at the Surf Ballroom.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Democratic president candidate and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper walks on stage before speaking in earlier this month at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding at the Surf Ballroom.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">John Locher\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In an announcement video posted Wednesday night, Hickenlooper proclaims himself a \u201cstraight shooter\u201d as he\u2019s seen playing pool in a Denver brewpub he co-founded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always said Washington was a lousy place for a guy like me who wants to get things done, but this is no time to walk away from the table,\u201d the former two-term governor says. \u201cI know changing Washington is hard, but I want to give it a shot. I\u2019m not done fighting for the people of Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-63689Ahyuk\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In the video, Hickenlooper pledges to work on several issues, including protecting the health insurance of people with preexisting conditions, lowering prescription drug prices, combating climate change and protecting public lands.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper had been under pressure from national and state Democrats to abandon his presidential ambitions to challenge Gardner in what the party views as a prime pickup opportunity next year in the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Gardner narrowly defeated Democratic incumbent Mark Udall in Colorado\u2019s 2014 Senate race. After the 2018 midterm elections, he became the only Republican holding statewide elected office in Colorado.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper told <em>The Durango Herald<\/em> on Thursday his decision to enter the Senate race came down to a simple question.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had to make a decision: do I just criticize Washington or do I try to fix it?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper billed himself as an independent voice able to bring sides together who disagree \u2013 something he said Washington is missing. He disapproved of Gardner\u2019s voting record, saying he has sided with President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky too often.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s become a yes man for President Trump and Mitch McConnell,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Gardner has spoken out against Trump\u2019s trade war, though his stance hasn\u2019t deterred Trump from using tariffs to combat unfair trade practices.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper was also critical of Gardner\u2019s reluctance to sponsor legislation expanding Colorado\u2019s wilderness areas, which is something senators from Colorado have done for decades, he said.<\/p>\n<p>While Hickenlooper refrained from supporting the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act because he hasn\u2019t studied it closely enough, he voiced support for stronger wilderness protections in general.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper is the 12th to join the Democratic primary field, about which he said there is a lot of talent. His experience as a business owner and as a winner of two statewide races for governor set him apart, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper\u2019s announcement upends a crowded Democratic primary field in Colorado. A recent poll conducted by Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group for an unnamed national organization showed Hickenlooper with a massive lead in a potential Democratic Senate primary, favored by 61 percent of likely voters. The nearest rival came in at 10 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper, who finished his tenure as governor at the beginning of the year, had struggled to translate his popularity in Colorado to the presidential race. In a field of more than 20 candidates, Hickenlooper remained stuck near the bottom of the pack, struggling to top 1 percent in most national polls.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=ba205e32-71c4-4d2e-8e5b-7f95aa2f0980&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"Democratic presidential candidate former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper speaks Aug. 10 at the Presidential Gun Sense Forum in Des Moines, Iowa.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Democratic presidential candidate former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper speaks Aug. 10 at the Presidential Gun Sense Forum in Des Moines, Iowa.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Charlie Neibergall\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>He participated in the first two debates, in Miami and Detroit, but did not meet the qualifications established by the Democratic National Committee for the third debate, which will be held in Houston in mid-September.<\/p>\n<p>In a video released at the end of his presidential bid, Hickenlooper pledged to give the Senate race \u201csome serious thought.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper governed as a business-friendly Democrat in Colorado while advocating some progressive policies. He positioned himself in the nomination contest as a pragmatic moderate.<\/p>\n<p>In his Senate announcement video, Hickenlooper takes aim not only at Gardner, but also at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think Cory Gardner understands that the games he\u2019s playing with Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are hurting the people of Colorado,\u201d Hickenlooper says. \u201cWe ought to be working together to move this country forward, and stop the political nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\">Herald Staff Writer James Marshall contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic president candidate and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper walks on stage before speaking in earlier this month at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding at the Surf Ballroom.John Locher\/Associated Press In an announcement video posted Wednesday night, Hickenlooper proclaims himself a \u201cstraight shooter\u201d as he\u2019s seen playing pool in a Denver brewpub he co-founded. \u201cI\u2019ve [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,1167,481,28,29,1566],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-exclude-homepage-video","tag-gov-john-hickenlooper","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-u-s-senate"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66716","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=66716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66716"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}