Timothy Reichert, a Republican who is president and CEO of Denver-based Economics Partners, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday to run in Colorado’s 7th Congressional District.
Reichert, who lives in Golden, is expected to self-fund much of his campaign. He is spending $500,000 of his own money to kick off his congressional bid.
“I have studied the economy my entire life and I know what it will take to get our country and our middle class back on their feet,” Reichert said in a statement announcing his candidacy Thursday. “I promise to be a new voice and problem solver for our district because I know we can champion the middle class and challenge the status quo that is failing us in Washington.”
The 7th District is anchored in Jefferson County and is currently represented by retiring U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Arvada.
The district was redrawn for the 2022 election as part of Colorado’s once-a-decade redistricting process, becoming more competitive and shifting west to encompass mountain counties including Lake, Chaffee, Park and Fremont.
The new 7th District is forecast to favor Democrats by 7 percentage points. That’s based on an analysis of the results of eight statewide races between 2016 and 2020.
Cook Political report, a nonpartisan election prognosticator, ranked the 7th District as solidly in Democratic hands when Perlmutter was running for reelection. Despite the district’s Democratic lean, it’s still within the 8.5 percentage point margin that The Colorado Sun considers competitive.
A spokeswoman for Reichert’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment Wednesday. On Thursday, however, Reichert formally launched his campaign.
State Sen. Brittany Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat, is running to replace Perlmutter. Two Republicans are already seeking to unseat Perlmutter this year: Erik Aadland, an Army veteran who was initially running for U.S. Senate, and Laurel Imer, who served as a 2020 delegate for President Donald Trump and ran unsuccessfully for a state House seat two years ago.
Reichert’s Economics Partners biography says he has “experience in the fields of applied economics, transfer pricing and valuation.” Prior to founding Economics Partners, Reichert, who has a doctorate in economics, was a managing director at Duff & Phelps, a multinational financial consulting firm.
Reichert and his wife, Martha, supported former President Donald Trump in 2020, each donating $12,500 to a joint fundraising committee with the proceeds divided between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.
That’s the only federal political donation he appears to have made in the last 10 years, according to the Federal Election Commission records.
Reichert wrote a May 2010 opinion piece titled “Bitter Pill” in which he argued that contraception is “socially damaging” and that it “increases the incidence of infidelity.”
Reichert also cited research showing “that increased use of contraception among African American women and their partners increases mistrust between the partners due to higher risk of infidelity.”
He argued that “contraception is, contrary to the rhetoric of the sexual revolution, deeply sexist in nature.”
The opinion piece ran in “First Things,” which says it is “published by the Institute on Religion and Public Life.”
A spokeswoman for Reichert, responding to questions last week from The Sun about the piece, said that Reichert does not advocate banning contraception.
“Tim is an economist and a Roman Catholic. As a Catholic, he accepts his church’s position on contraceptives. As an economist, he was honored to explain why that position is reasonable,” the spokeswoman said. “He shows how contraceptives have disenfranchised poor and minority women — a point made by other economists who have done similar research.”
The 2022 primary election in Colorado will be held on June 28. Democrats are battling to keep control of Congress in November.
Colorado Sun correspondent Sandra Fish contributed to this report.
UPDATE: This story was updated at 6:33 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022, with comment from Timothy Reichert and details about his campaign.