John Hickenlooper, the former two-term governor of Colorado, is attempting to promote that he’s able to bring people together “to produce the progressive change Washington has failed to deliver” by announcing Monday morning that he will be running for president in 2020. “I’m running for president because we need dreamers in Washington but we also need to get things done,” said Hickenlooper in a video announcing his bid for Democratic nomination.
Hickenlooper, with President Trump in mind, said that the main reason why he was going to run for president is that “we’re facing a crisis that threatens everything we stand for.” In reference to a quote that he’s using on the campaign trail, Hickenlooper said: “as a skinny kid with coke bottle glasses and funny last name, I stood up to my fair share of bullies.”
Hickenlooper is a 67-year-old geologist turned into a successful startup brewpub owner. He also served two terms as Denver mayor, as well as two terms as the Governor of Colorado. Despite his background, Hickenlooper joins a large field of competitors just trying to get the nomination for Democratic candidate. As he finished up his second term in Colorado, Hickenlooper became the second sitting or former governor to announce his bid for candidacy, following Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee, who announced his candidacy on Friday.
The two former governors face a slim chance at winning the bid, especially since they’re competing against big names, such as Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Kirsten Gillibrand. The former Housing and Urban Development Secretary under Barack Obama, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, is running, as well. You can also look forward to Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, Rep. John Delaney of Maryland, and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg making a run for the Democratic bid.
But those aren’t the only Democrats you’re going to see trying to grab that bid for the presidency. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke from Texas, Sen. Sherrod Brown from Ohio, former Vice President Joe Biden, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Rep. Eric Swalwell of California have all announced that they are in the running for the coveted Democratic nomination.
During his video to announce his bid, Hickenlooper put attention on the struggles that he experienced during his first term as governor of Colorado. He certainly had his hands full with the droughts, forest fires, and floods, the mass shooting at the movie theatre in Aurora in 2012, and the unbelievably historic recession. “We beat the NRA by enacting universal background checks and banning high capacity magazines,” he stated.
The democratic contender also boasted that his state passed through a divided health care legislation, which now covers “nearly 95 percent of all Coloradans.” Hickenlooper also takes credit for bringing fossil fuel companies and environmentalists together to conceive “the toughest methane emission laws in the country” and moving the state from “40th in job growth to the number one economy in America.”
Despite the fact that many of his Democratic rivals are in total support of the Green New Deal, as well as “Medicare-for-all”, Hickenlooper has expressed some hesitations while in New Hampshire last month. “We will get to some version of single payer, but single payer doesn’t include getting rid of insurance companies,” Hickenlooper explained when he was asked about Medicare-for-all.
When Hickenlooper was asked about the Green New Deal, which intends to change the economy to fight against climate change, he admitted that he didn’t know all of the details, but “I’m going to guess that 99 percent of what’s in the Green New Deal I will be happy to embrace.” But he also explained that support for the Green New Deal should not be “a litmus test that you’re either with us or wrong.”
Hickenlooper will have to do a lot to prove himself, especially considering that the Republican National Committee believes that he’s just another “liberal” jumping on the bandwagon. “John Hickenlooper is the latest tax-and-spend liberal to join the race. But according to Hickenlooper, he’s actually ‘a lot more progressive’ than his far-left opponents. In a primary dominated by socialist policies like the $93 trillion ‘Green New Deal,’ that puts him way outside the mainstream,” said the RNC Communications Director, Michael Ahrens. On Thursday, Hickenlooper is planning to kick off his campaign trail in a “hometown send-off” in Denver, Colorado. The following day, he plans on heading to Iowa to campaign for two days.
