This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
Former state lawmaker Janak Joshi has filed paperwork to run for U.S. Senate. He’s the first well-known Republican name to enter the race to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper.
Joshi is a retired physician, who owned a medical clinic and dialysis centers. He was forced to surrender his medical license in 2008. Joshi has said he chose to retire rather than fight the complaint.
In 2024, he ran for the Republican nomination for the 8th Congressional District. While he got the party’s endorsement under the leadership of controversial chair Dave Williams, Joshi lost the primary race to Rep. Gabe Evans.
Joshi also served at the state House from 2013 to 2016 from El Paso County. He faced a primary challenger in 2016 and lost.
Joshi is known as a hard right conservative. In the 8th Congressional District GOP primary, he described himself as the “Pro-Trump, America First Republican.”
He raised more than $240,000 for his congressional race, including $175,000 of his own money that he put into his campaign. Hickenlooper currently has more than $2.2 million dollars cash on hand.
While Joshi filed his FEC paperwork on July 7, there’s no campaign website up and running yet. He’s working with i77 Strategies, a campaign consultant group headquartered out of Virginia.
One other candidate, George Washington Markert, a former Marine Colonel, has filed paperwork to run for the Republican nomination next year. His campaign stresses his military background, with an ad asserting, “We don’t need a politician in the Senate. We need a Marine.”
On the Democratic side, Karen Breslin, who has run for Senate and the House before, and Nichole Miner have filed paperwork to challenge Hickenlooper.
Independent analysts rate the Colorado Senate race a Solid D seat. The last Republican to win a Colorado Senate seat was Republican Cory Gardner in 2014.