John Hickenlooper Launches Colorado Senate Campaign

(Bloomberg) -- Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper announced a bid Thursday to unseat Cory Gardner, as Democrats target vulnerable Republicans in an effort to win control of the Senate.

“I’m running to give Colorado’s priorities and values a voice in Washington,” Hickenlooper said in a message on his campaign website. “Right now we’re represented by a senator who works to undo our progress by voting 99% of the time with Donald Trump and going along with Mitch McConnell’s obstruction and partisan political games.”

Hickenlooper, who dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination for president earlier this month, last year rejected calls from Washington Democrats to enter the race against Gardner, who is regarded as one of the most vulnerable Republican senators in the nation. He undertook a bid for the Democratic nomination for president instead but his campaign failed to gain traction and he pulled out of the race earlier this month.

The Colorado seat is seen as a must-win for Democrats if they are to win control of the U.S. Senate in 2020. Gardner, 45, is a main target for Democrats seeking to flip at least three seats to gain the majority as Colorado has been trending Democratic. Trump lost the state by almost 5 percentage points in 2016 after Gardner was elected two years earlier with only 48% of the vote.

The Denver Post published a poll earlier this month that showed Hickenlooper with a 51-point lead over two other Democratic front-runners in the state’s crowded primary race for Senate.

Emerson College poll released this week found Hickenlooper leading Gardner 53% to 40%.

Hickenlooper, 67, was Colorado’s governor from 2011 until January. Trained as a geologist, he co-founded the Wynkoop Brewing Co. in Denver before serving two terms as mayor of that city, until he ascended to the governor’s office.

Hickenlooper made the first two rounds of Democratic debates but did not make a lasting impression. His message that he’s a moderate with a record of bipartisanship has failed to resonate. A RealClearPolitics aggregate of polls has him failing to reach 1% support among primary voters, which means he might not have qualified for the third round of debates Sept. 12-13 in Houston.

--With assistance from Emma Kinery.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Wasserman in Washington at ewasserman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kasia Klimasinska at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net

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