Thoughts from the Candidate - Change is in the Air - June 26, 2025
I let more time lapse than I intended between blog posts, but partly that is due to how busy we are as a campaign, and we are that busy because there is a real hunger for political change, for the opportunity to consider a new cast of characters and a different set of ideas.
For years, Colorado politics have been dominated by three political figures: Gov. Jared Polis, Sen. Michael Bennet, and former governor and now US Senator John Hickenlooper, whom I seek to replace as the Democratic nominee. Bennet became senator in 2009, after being appointed by then Gov. Bill Ritter. Previously, he served as chief of staff of then Denver mayor John Hickenlooper, who became governor in 2011 after serving two terms as mayor, from 2003 to 2011.
Jared Polis became a member of the US House in 2009, and was elected governor in 2018 and 2022. All three men are seriously wealthy. Polis is apparently worth hundreds of millions; Hickenlooper and Bennet are worth tens of millions.
Of the three top elected positions in Colorado, all three are held by wealthy men - or 100 percent. By contrast, approximately 7.5 percent of Coloradans are millionaires, according to coloradobiz.com.
Therein lies the problem.
Can seriously wealthy politicians understand the struggle of middle and low income wage earners and and retirees? In Hickenlooper’s case, it seems doubtful. Two issues illustrate this. Hickenlooper professes to support “universal health care” but is not a co-sponsor of Medicare for All legislation, S. 1506, unlike 16 other Democrat senators, including Elizabeth Warren, who endorsed Hickenlooper. Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy for individuals, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, a problem Hickenlooper would allow to persist rather than tackle head on.
Similarly, Sen. Warren has sponsored the “Stop Wall Street Looting Act,” to address the harmful business practices of private equity firms and their effects on health care, retail and other segments of the economy. Private equity firms buy up companies by loading them down with debt, then sell off valuable assets, leaving a shell of a company in their wake. In the first quarter of 2025, private equity-owned companies accounted for 70 percent of large bankruptcies in the first quarter of 2025. Hickenlooper is not among the 15 or so US senators who co-sponsor that legislation.
It seems likely that on these two issues alone, a wealthy individual like Hickenlooper might have no understanding of why a Coloradan with limited assets and income would be worried about these practices or should be.
Hickenlooper’s job is safe from a private equity layoff/fire sale. And with his wealth, he can buy the best health care. He won’t need to languish in a private equity-owned nursing home, some of which operate with staffing shortages and produce substandard care.
But change is in the air.
My travels around the state are convincing me that the days of rule by wealthy politicians and their ultra-rich funders is numbered. At most events, and I have attended around a dozen in the last month, people will thank me for running and share their fatigue with the status quo, at times specifically mentioning Polis, Hickenlooper and Bennet.
Coloradans are demanding that the political system work for them. And I will be leading that charge.
Sincerely,
Karen
Thoughts from the Candidate - Moderates Like Hickenlooper Gave us Trump - May 9, 2025
Famed civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, when speaking before the segregated 1964 Democratic National Convention, asked “Is this America?” as she recounted the violence and hatred directed at Black southerners who fought for their rights.
That phrase echoes in my head these days: Is this America? Can the president just dismantle federal agencies and departments, unilaterally cut spending, disappear people off the street, threaten law firms for representing clients of their choosing, harass universities for allowing political demonstrations, erase the contributions of women and people of color in American history, demean and demonize immigrants, and do so with crudeness befitting a high school bully?
A typical Trump statement: “The Democrats are really out of control. They have lost everything, especially their minds! These Radical Left Lunatics are into the “Impeachment thing” again. They have already got two “No Name,” little respected Congressmen, total Whackjobs both, throwing the “Impeachment” of DONALD J. TRUMP around, for about the 20th time, even though they have no idea for what I would be Impeached.”
My favorite part of his screed is how he calls Democrats “radical left lunatics” - I am surprised he hasn’t trademarked the phrase.
The Democratic Party hasn’t been reliably left in decades, let alone radical left. Decades ago, with the rise of the Clintons, the party abandoned its core commitment to working people, by developing the party’s brand as corporate-friendly and eager to coopt Republican talking points on welfare and crime. Clinton pledged to “end welfare as we know it,” but not poverty as we know it, while mass incarceration was exacerbated by the 1994 Crime Bill that Clinton signed and Biden drafted.
In truth, Trump owes his political existence to the party’s rightward tilt, creating an opportunity for Trump to court working people. His willingness to be one of them - by donning a McDonalds uniform and working the drive through window, or, riding in a garbage truck - was effective political theatre, made possible because the Democratic Party no longer focused on the concerns of working people.
In short, business-friendly, moderate politics created Trump. Had the political system been responsive to the needs of working people, and had Democrats led that charge, it would have been far more difficult for Trump’s politics of grievance and resentment to take root.
My opponent John Hickenlooper calls himself an “extreme moderate,” but the political spectrum has shifted so far to the right, that moderate likewise shifts to the right. It is hard to remember that Richard Nixon once supported a guaranteed minimum income, that there was a species of Republican known as a liberal Republican and that even George H.W. Bush pledged to be the “environmental president.” Today, to be moderate is to be friendly to essentially old school conservative concerns: slowing government spending, reducing or slowing regulation of business, and upholding “law and order.”
I am not suggesting that Hickenlooper is on board with all old school Republican concerns, but my sense is, based on listening to his recent statements and ideas he shared during his presidential campaign, that he sees business and government as potential collaborators, that government can help spur innovation and via such cooperation with business, societal problems can be addressed.
I heard talk of this sort in the late 1980s and 1990s, as a journalist covering policy conferences and organizations like the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Governors Association, and various industry and trade associations. In recent decades, the goal of business interests has been to ignore societal concerns entirely and lobby for policies that advance the interests of the largest corporations.
But Hickenlooper still apparently believes that serving corporate interests can still be good for society at large. His bipartisan Fix the Forests Bill - about which I will say more in the near future - is essentially a logging bill. And, at a Colorado Springs town hall, he spoke about the value of improving government efficiency. To be sure, no one would disagree that efficiency is a good thing, but when Trump is openly destroying our system of government, it seems odd to elaborate on a Republican talking point, kind of like worrying about whether the doors are locked when the house is on fire.
Often in political contests, two candidates of the same party have similar perspectives about many issues, and maybe the choice for voters is about style, or personality, or background. In my contest with Hickenlooper, the policy differences between us are stark.
I believe that Congress should understand the interests of the industries that lobby them and how legislation will affect those industries. Lobbying has its place. But I do not believe those industries should have a veto power over legislation that is good for Colorado or the American people. Nor do I believe that business-friendly policies are usually the better ones. The public interest and corporate interests are at times at odds. I will always side with the public interest.
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Thoughts from the Candidate - We Are On the Move! - May 3, 2025
In recent weeks, we have been extraordinarily busy with the outpouring of interest in the campaign and the wonderful people who have joined our effort.
In the last week, I, with the help of our amazing campaign team:
participated in an empty chair forum for Rep. Boebert sponsored by Lone Tree Votes. We had a packed room, or about 230 people on hand. We used Boebert’s own words as her answers. It was entertaining and sobering. I questioned Boebert on the Constitution.
spoke to the Larimer Democrats annual dinner, where I emphasized how important it is to stand with working people and defend American values including the rule of law, tolerance and diversity as our best path to defeating defeat Trump’s fascism.
attended Phil Weiser’s Town Hall to meet with some folks afterwards and was impressed by Weiser’s dedication and passion. He drew a full house to a beautiful church in Colorado Springs.
spoke to the Adams County Democrat Club along with AG candidate Michael Daugherty and State Treasurer candidate John Mikos, both of whom are impressive candidates. I spoke for about 30 minutes and fielded some important questions about how I would differ from Hickenlooper. I said people in elected office need to sound the alarm about the grave risk to our democracy and that Hickenlooper should be educating Coloradans about the seriousness of this moment.
tonight I will speak at the Logan County Democrat’s dinner along with CD 4 candidates Trisha Cavalrese, John Padora and Ike McCorkle.
next week, I may be speaking at the state capitol and have a TikTok live interview with a creator that has a sizable following. They have provided questions, and they are thoughtful and meaningful questions.
In recent weeks, I visited with Las Animas Democrats in Trinidad, had a thought-provoking conversation with Colorado Newsline’s Quentin Young, sat in on the John Hickenlooper Town Hall in Colorado Springs, and attended the April 19 Saturday’s Hands Off rally at the state capitol. We also had a Tiktok video get traction, so lots of comments to respond to also. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8jV1nQV/
As I attend these events, I hear often that people are ready for change, that Hickenlooper was fine as governor and mayor, but they think he is not the right person now.
Kyle Clark recently interviewed Hickenlooper and Hickenlooper said sometimes a “strongly worded letter” is all that can be done. I posted on social media that this perspective is, in my view, inaccurate and dangerous.
As the historian Timothy Snyder has said, democratic institutions don’t defend themselves. If Democratic members of the Senate won’t defend Congress from Trump’s power grab, they are inviting Trump to install himself as dictator.
Our campaign is rooted in resistance to fascism. Trump will not destroy our Constitution. Not on my watch. And I know millions of Americans feel the same.
Thank you for your interest. We welcome your feedback.
Karen