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