Awkward!
Attorney General Phil Weiser’s decisive win in Colorado’s Democratic gubernatorial primary is forcing the long list of elected officials who endorsed U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet to navigate an uncomfortable dynamic.
Weiser will in all likelihood be Colorado’s next governor. That means those Democrats who backed Bennet — including three members of Congress, top state legislators and a big group of local leaders, including Denver’s mayor — and who want to be in the next governor’s good graces must now line up behind the newly minted Democratic nominee with their hat in hand.
“I would certainly hope that there are no hard feelings,” said Grand Junction City Council member Anna Stout, who backed Bennet in the primary.
This isn’t the first time a group of incumbents has backed the losing horse — or donkey, we should say — in a Democratic gubernatorial primary in Colorado. And the general consensus is that Weiser won’t hold a grudge as he heads into the general election against Republican Victor Marx, the ministry leader and Marine veteran.
“Phil is extremely grateful to the numerous elected leaders who reached out to him after his June 30 primary win to offer their full support for his campaign to be our next governor,” Nate Jackson, Weiser’s spokesperson, said in a written statement. “The future of Colorado is on the line, and Phil knows it will take all hands on deck to protect Colorado’s future.”
But any way you square it, the situation is … at least a little weird, especially given that Weiser beat Bennet by 14 percentage points.
Former state Rep. Chris deGruy Kennedy, a Democrat who now leads the liberal Bell Policy Center, was serving in the legislature in 2018 when he backed Cary Kennedy over Jared Polis in the Democratic primary for governor that year.
DeGruy Kennedy was very active in Cary Kennedy’s campaign, so when Polis won, he did some work to make inroads with team Polis before the general election that year.
“I didn’t feel any heat from Jared in that way,” DeGruy Kennedy said. “There can be vindictive people in this space. I do not think Phil is one of those.”
State Sen. Janice Marchman, D-Loveland, said she endorsed Bennet because she thought he would approach the state’s fiscal issues in a way that aligned more with her preferences. But she’s not worried about that decision interfering with her relationship with Weiser.
“Do I think this is going to hurt my legislative agenda or my legislative priorities?” she said. “I really don’t. Phil is an incredibly wonderful person and an incredibly collaborative leader.”
Senate President James Coleman, D-Denver, was another Bennet supporter. He had conversations with Bennet about potentially serving as his lieutenant governor. But Coleman is confident that he will work closely with Weiser and that there won’t be any bad blood.
“I texted him on election night and said congratulations. He got back to me,” Coleman said. “I told him I want to help him in the first two years of his first term to be successful. I’m excited for him to come in.”
House Speaker Pro Tempore Andy Boesenecker, a Fort Collins Democrat who backed Bennet, said he, too, expects to have a great relationship with Weiser. Boesenecker said he talked with Weiser in January about his decision to support Bennet, and told him that he thought Democrats had an abundance of riches between the candidates.
“I’m rooting for Phil’s success and I know that he will be a good partner with the legislature,” Boesenecker said.
Local elected officials are feeling the same way.
Boulder County Commissioner Claire Levy said she backed Bennet in the primary because of his work on the child tax credit in Congress and because of his efforts to find solutions to affordable housing and childcare.
“I have no concerns about my relationship with the attorney general going forward,” she said. “I have always said he’s the best attorney general we’ve ever had in Colorado. And I avoided any negative comments about the attorney general during the primary because I felt that we had two good candidates. While I preferred Sen. Bennet, I did not have any concerns about Phil Weiser’s ability to be an excellent governor for Colorado.”
Stout, the Grand Junction councilwoman, said she’s “excited to work with Phil to make sure western Colorado and rural Colorado have the ear of the governor’s office.”
“I think we were really fortunate as a state to have two exceptional candidates for governor on the Democratic side,” she said.
U.S. Reps. Jason Crow, Joe Neguse and Brittany Pettersen, who all backed Bennet in the primary, were quick to throw their weight behind Weiser after the race was called.
“Colorado is going to be really well served with Phil Weiser as the nominee,” Crow told 9News on election night.
Even Bennet himself got behind Weiser in the days after his primary loss.
“I will do everything I can to help him win,” Bennet said at a Democratic Party unity event. “What we need in Colorado is for him to fulfill his capacity to be a great governor.”
Things are not so copacetic on the Republican side of the race, where Marx won the primary with 40% of the vote after narrowly beating state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer.
Kirkmeyer and state Rep. Scott Bottoms, who came in third in the GOP gubernatorial primary, said they wouldn’t back Marx in the general election. There is debate among some of Kirkmeyer’s and Bottoms’ top Republican supporters about whether to vote for unaffiliated candidate Greg Lopez, a former Republican congressman; vote for a write-in candidate; or leave the governor’s race blank.
At the very least, Bottoms’ and Kirkmeyer’s supporters have not jumped on the Marx bandwagon the way Bennet’s supporters are now backing Weiser. For instance, last week, Bill Owens, Colorado’s last Republican governor, corrected Marx when Marx claimed in a radio interview that he had secured Owens’ endorsement.
“I want to see Marx’s campaign for the next month or so — what issues he is running on and how he handles himself as a candidate — after which I will make a decision,” Owens said.
Owens supported Kirkmeyer in the primary.