September 21, 2023 10:25 AM UTC

Two-Timing Thornton: Jan Kulmann For Congress Redux?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Earlier this summer, defeated 2022 Republican primary candidate for Colorado’s new swing CD-8 seat Jan Kulmann announced with what seemed like finality that she would not be making another run for Congress in 2024, instead campaigning for re-election as Mayor of Thornton. Colorado Community Media’s Luke Zarzecki reported in July:

Thornton’s Mayor Jan Kulmann will not be running for the Republican seat in the 2024 Congressional District 8 race.

“I am not doing it because I am not a partisan politician. That is the lesson I learned running for Congress,” Kulmann said…

Kulmann, who is running for reelection as mayor in the 2023 Thornton election, said she was hoping to bring nonpartisan politics to Congress.

“I thought being a mayor, I could bring non-partisan politics to Congress and I was wrong. Nobody wants that. They wanted a show and that’s not who I am. So I enjoy being the mayor because it has not been partisan,” she said.

Fast-forward to the present day, and it appears this sentiment is out the window. Reliable sources tell us that Jan Kulmann was in Washington recently to meet with the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and despite Kulmann’s pledge to remain with the people of Thornton and eschew “partisan politics,” Kulmann appears to be seriously considering jumping into the 2024 GOP primary for CD-8. Kulmann is unlikely to formally announce a congressional campaign until after she wins re-election as Mayor of Thornton in November, since premature disclosure of a run for Congress could be a huge political headache for Kulmann after promising Thornton voters she wouldn’t.

Sorry about that.

National Republicans circling back to Jan Kulmann in this high-profile swing congressional race is first and foremost a sign of dissatisfaction with the current field of Republican CD-8 contenders–not to mention the new challenge created by a state Republican Party bent on purity testing candidates, which at least in part affected 2022 CD-8 nominee Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer’s decision to herself not run again in 2024. The two “leading” candidates in the race today, Weld County Commissioner Scott James and freshman state Rep. Gabe Evans, are in no way strong enough to deter other primary candidates. Kulmann, on the other hand, has the strong support of oil and gas interests and the well-known GOP political consultants allied with them.

The timing of these alleged discussions is Kulmann’s most immediate problem. A mayor running for re-election on a promise to serve the people of her community first should not be simultaneously running a shadow campaign for Congress just two months after swearing it off. For Thornton voters, Kulmann waiting until after this November’s election to break her promise from July and announce her run for Congress would be a considerable betrayal.

There’s an easy way for Kulmann to prove these new rumors wrong, and that would be to firmly and publicly shut the door on running for Congress next year. Even the smallest hint of equivocation on this question is a sign that the situation has changed from earlier in the summer. The one thing everyone should be able to agree on is that the voters of Thornton deserve straight answers before they receive their municipal election ballots next month.