The Colorado Democratic Party on Wednesday night voted overwhelmingly to censure Gov. Jared Polis, condemning his decision to shorten the prison sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters.
The extraordinary vote by the party’s central committee — to censure a man who has been the face of the party for most of the last eight years — was the most significant political fallout yet for Polis after granting clemency to Peters, whose role in an election security breach made her a national poster child of President Donald Trump’s efforts to deny the results of the 2020 election.
The censure was approved with almost 90% of the vote.
“This is not a small policy disagreement at all whatsoever,” said Zane Schichtel, a Democrat from Montezuma County. “I think it is a direct rebuke of the principles of accountability and election integrity that uphold our democracy, and as such, we need to treat it for the serious matter that it is.”
As part of the censure, the party will bar Polis from being a featured speaker or honored guest at official Democratic functions. But its real value was symbolic — a party distancing itself from its governor ahead of the 2026 election, and taking a public stand against leniency for an election denier who was convicted of multiple felonies.
Polis announced Friday afternoon that he was using his clemency powers to cut Peters’ sentence in half; he also ordered that the 70-year-old be released June 1 on parole.
The decision was met with glee from the political right, rage from the left and horror from election officials in both parties. County clerks across the state said it would encourage further unfounded conspiracies about voter fraud, and bring additional threats to election workers.
The backlash has only grown in recent days, with some Democrats now going so far as to call for Polis’ impeachment. Shad Murib, the chair of the Democratic Party, said nearly 600 Democrats had signed onto a petition calling for a formal censure.
Peters was convicted in August 2024 of orchestrating a security breach of her county’s election system. Her offenses included three counts of attempting to influence a public official; conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation; official misconduct; violation of duty; and failure to comply with an order of the secretary of state.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the censure. Before the vote, he told CBS4 a censure would be politically motivated.
In a Tuesday interview with The Colorado Sun, Polis said he didn’t regret his decision — far from it. He said he believed it would be “remembered fondly.”
“The nation needs to have a reconciliation and healing.”
So far, the decision has mostly served to inflame political divisions.
“There is no reconciliation without justice,” central committee member Broderick Greer said during the meeting.
At The Sun’s annual legislative recap event this week, protesters drowned out a live broadcast of the governor’s interview with profanity-laced chants and said he should be impeached.
The censure may be as far as state Democrats go to reprimand him. Because Polis issued the commutation two days after the legislative session ended, lawmakers would have to convene a special session to censure him or hold an impeachment vote.
Much like the party’s censure, a legislative censure would primarily serve as a symbolic reprimand.
At The Sun’s event, top lawmakers said there was not enough support in the House or Senate to meet the two-thirds threshold to call a special session. Democrats don’t have supermajorities in either chamber, meaning they’d have to get Republican support for a special session.
Polis wasn’t alone in believing Peters was sentenced too harshly.
The Colorado Court of Appeals found in April that the nine-year sentence handed down to Peters “was based in part on improper consideration of her exercise of her right to free speech” — an argument Polis leaned on to explain his own decision.
“Nobody should be punished for their beliefs, you should be punished for crimes,” Polis said Tuesday.
Only a handful of Democrats voted against the censure, with one saying she outright supported Polis’ decision.
“I think the governor made the right decision,” said Ann la Plante, a criminal defense attorney in Greeley, who did not work on the Peters case. “I believe Tina Peters was way too harshly sentenced. I believe the governor made a brave decision — as unpopular as it is.”
But that argument fell flat with most of the party’s rank and file, as well as its top elected officials.
In a statement read before the meeting, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Crow said the party “must fight for democracy and the rule of law. We must be consistent, courageous, resolute, and willing to call out our own as they fall short.”
This is a developing story that will be updated.