Colorado voters will choose a new governor this year, with Governor Jared Polis term-limited and unable to seek a third term. Ahead of the June 30 primary election, KUNC is interviewing each of the Democratic and Republican candidates running to succeed him.
We begin with Democratic candidate Phil Weiser, Colorado’s current attorney general. KUNC host Mike Lyle sat down with Weiser to discuss his campaign, priorities, and the issues facing Colorado voters.
MIKE LYLE: A top concern for Colorado voters right now is affordability. What are some specific policies that you would implement as governor to bring down Coloradans' everyday cost of living?
PHIL WEISER: I want to talk quickly about housing, health care, and child care. I hear about those concerns again and again on housing, both for renters. I've been focused on this in my job as Attorney General. That'll continue as governor, going after the shenanigans, junk fees, fixing rents from algorithms that renters have had to face. I've brought back millions of dollars. I'm going to be on the case also as governor, protecting renters with respect to those who want to be able to buy a home and having more affordable homes built.
We've got important work to do, because right now, starter homes that we used to have 20 years ago, so teachers could afford to live in the communities where they worked, those homes don't exist. We've got to start building them, and a lot of them. That means we have to create incentives to build those homes, not incentives to build mega mansions like we have today. I want lower permitting fees if you're building a starter home than if you're building a mega mansion. I want to make it quick and easy to get them permitted.
On the health care front, too many people are trying to make money off you when you're sick. Our health care system is broken. We can fix it. Primary care for all, the smartest, best form of care, going after those, engaging in raising prices, whether it's big pharma and prescription drugs, whether it's efforts to roll up practices by private equity to monopolize practices. We're going to crack down on those drivers of cost, and we're going to make sure that people are treated fairly in the health care system. As for child care, I hear this all the time, young people saying, I don't know if I can afford to actually have a family, so I might not have a family, or I'll move to a state where I can afford it, or I'll drop out of the workforce.
Those are terrible potential outcomes. How about we lean in to building more childcare? We don't have enough capacity, and the state can help with the child care solutions fund. Those are my approaches on housing, on health care, on child care. For those who want more details, philforcolorado.com can give it to you.
LYLE: Other than affordability, what are two other top issues that you would like to prioritize as governor, and how would you address them?
WEISER: Two other issues I want to mention is our kids' future and setting them up for success, and ensuring that we have a thriving, growing Colorado, including a growing number of businesses here with respect to our kids' future. I had a round table recently. We talked about it on our website, Phil forcaro.com where I heard from Jason that kids, right now, by and large, from social media, it's easier to get access to a gun and fentanyl than a job.
That's a call to action. We need to invest from cradle early child care, which we talked about, all the way to career, and that means youth mental health, that means a mentoring program, that means a Colorado Corps calling young people to service in teaching, nursing, firefighting, law enforcement, and counseling, and that means technical training, career, and technical education has not been funded enough. We need to do better. That's my commitment to the next generation. I also want to say, I want there to be jobs for you. I want you to want to stay here in 2025. The population of Colorado grew by the lowest amount since 1990. It could easily decline our state's population in 2026 and businesses are leaving, saying it's hard to operate here.
I want businesses to know we've got the wind at your back. If there are challenges you're facing, it's my job as governor to work to address them, to make this environment one where you can grow, hire people, give people great opportunities, and for me this is personal, because I spent the last 25 years as a leader in Colorado's startup and business community, founding Startup Colorado and the Bridge Entrepreneurs Network, that'll be part of my work as governor as well.
LYLE: Now, many Coloradans are also worried about the state of our democracy. So, when it comes to the democratic process, what is working and what is not, and what would you do to address those problems?
WEISER: We have a lot of challenges on democracy. The biggest one that looms large is campaign finance, and you can look at my governor election as a case study, right now Senator Bennet has a super PAC powered by out-of-state billionaires, powered by companies, powered by dark money. My campaign, every ad that people have seen is coming from donations capped at the lowest amount in the nation, almost, and all the. Closed, and in my case, 90% of those donations are from the people of Colorado. That's the way politics should be, from the grassroots.
The idea that Sen. Bennet has 10 times the spending from a super PAC and out-of-state billionaires than his own campaign, that's not how it should be. The way I want to change that is to do something that Hawaii has just done to get corporate spending out of our politics, not authorizing corporations to spend on campaigns, they shouldn't be able to influence who their regulators are, who the next governor is. It should be up to the people. A second big issue that really worries me is the voting suppression of this lawless, bullying administration. I've gone to court multiple times against the Trump administration to protect our right to vote. We've got a gold standard system in Colorado that's been threatened by this president, who said he'd move Space Command because he doesn't like Colorado's mail ballot system.
My answer is I'm going to stand strong, defend our democracy. I believe in what Colorado's core principle is: everyone should be able to vote safely and securely. I'll defend our system. And a third concern I have is people listening to one another. There's too much demonization, too much hate, too much yelling, not enough listening. As governor, I'll set a tone that I bring people to the table, and that we're respectful to one another, and I won't tolerate hate or demonization. I'm going to be all about honoring everybody and their right to be heard.
LYLE: Finally, as Attorney General, you've been involved in a number of lawsuits against the federal government. Now, you would be in a very different position as governor. What would your approach be to working with or fighting back against the Trump administration, while making sure Coloradans' best interests remain at the forefront?
WEISER: First, it's important to note that the governor is the partner with the attorney general, making key decisions about whether we as a state ever bend the knee or accommodate, or do we stand strong for principles we believe in, like the one I just mentioned about protecting our elections. That's why I brought a lawsuit against the decision to move Space Command, that was motivated by the president's agenda to undermine our elections.
I also want to emphasize the governor's role as the voice, as the moral authority for the state of Colorado, when you see governors like JB Pritzker standing strong against the National Guard being called up or the army being brought in to Illinois, that makes a statement, and I'm going to make a statement, like you saw from the Mayor of Minneapolis and the Governor of Minnesota, that I'm not going to tolerate lawless efforts from ICE or anyone else to harm Coloradans. We need to know that our leader, our governor, can stand strong. And one of the differences between me and Michael Bennet, he's voted for more of Trump's cabinet than almost any Democrat in the Senate, and he says he thinks that gives him a better working relationship.
I've got a different view here. When someone's harming you and breaking the law, I'm going to stand strong for the principles I believe in. I'm going to lead with moral clarity. In Colorado, we have core values. We're concerned about climate change. We believe that diversity is a strength. We believe in a mail-in ballot system that makes it this easy, safe, and secure to vote as possible. Those Colorado values, those rights that are protected by our Constitution, are ones I fought for, and I will fight for as governor, just like some of our greatest governors, like Ralph Carr, fought against the effort to put Japanese Americans in internment camps.
