March 14, 2025 10:51 AM UTC

Teller County Sheriff Guy Launches Half-Assed Campaign for Governor

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Lauren Watson and Blake Sammann report for KKTV in Colorado Springs, there is a new Republican candidate for Governor in 2026 who has zero chance of winning if his campaign kickoff is any indication of things to come:

Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell will run for governor in the 2026 Colorado Gubernatorial Election, according to campaign filing records on the Colorado Secretary of State’s website.

Mikesell kicked off his campaign Thursday by announcing his candidacy to a small group of supporters in front of the Pioneers Museum in Colorado Springs. [Pols emphasis]

Mikesell said the state is facing a number of crises, including financial, crime, immigration, water, and more.

Mikesell says he should be Colorado’s next Governor because “I have stood in the gaps of major forest fires, I have dealt with floods, I have dealt with mining operations gone haywire and I’ve stood in all those circumstances and come out on top.” Standing next to five random white guys at a campaign kickoff event is probably not the next thing to add to that list.

According to KKTV, Mikesell is the TENTH Republican candidate already filed for Governor in 2026, a list that includes Colorado Springs State Rep. Scott “There is No” Bottoms, Roxborough Park State Senator Mark Baisley, and seven other names we’ve never seen before. You can learn more about Mikesell from the announcement speech on his website; if you’re short on time, the TL;DR version is essentially that everything in Colorado is in crisis.