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January 02, 2025 01:03 PM UTC

Phil Weiser First To Throw Hat In 2026 Gubernatorial Ring

  • 11 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D).

In an announcement this morning, Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser gets the jump on what’s expected to be a strong slate of primary contenders for the 2026 gubernatorial nomination, with his January 2 announcement confirming his long-expected entry into the race:

As your Attorney General, I have taken on big fights for the people of Colorado. And there is more work to do to make Colorado a more affordable, safer place to live, to defend our freedoms, and to protect our land, air, and water.

That’s why, today, I’m announcing my campaign to be your next Governor.

I’m running for Governor because I will be a leader for all of Colorado, taking on big fights for the people of Colorado, and providing a vision for a better future.

I’ve dedicated my life to service. Why? Because I owe my life to others who served—starting with men and women in uniform, like the American Army soldiers in World War II who liberated my mom and grandmother from a Nazi concentration camp, and those who welcomed my family as refugees.

In our family, just one generation is the difference between that concentration camp and my opportunity as a first-generation American to work at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for President Barack Obama in the White House, and as your Attorney General. My story, like so many others’, is a uniquely American one.

In a very early poll from conservative-leaning Magellan Strategies last month, Weiser earned high marks for net favorability but suffered from less name recognition and less of a formed opinion in general among voters than the other contenders. During his two campaigns for attorney general in 2018 and 2022, Weiser earned a reputation as a hard-working candidate able to distinguish himself against his opponents without going excessively negative, strengths that will help him in a crowded Democratic primary. Weiser is expected to run on his record of fighting for consumer protections during his two successful terms as AG, with big wins like the opioid settlement and the recent prevention of the controversial Kroger/Albertsons merger under his belt.

And he’s the first. With today’s announcement, Colorado’s 2026 election season is officially on.

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11 thoughts on “Phil Weiser First To Throw Hat In 2026 Gubernatorial Ring”

  2. There's going to be many good candidates if this is any indication. Since it's early I can't say who I'll Iike the most but I'll be watching for anything new. You just never know with these things. 

  4. No curb appeal on this guy, and a whiff of entitlement. As though he's earned it already. I don't know. I'm not excited. Now, if Jason Crow gets in, I'm pumped.

  5. Weiser has been a non-entity as AG. He has done relatively little to protect the state’s environment, he has done little to defend Biden administration initiatives along with other Dem AGs around the nation, his office has been relatively apathetic about consumer protection (though, to be fair, it has done some good things there), and he’s done almost nothing to improve accountability of law enforcement to the law. 

    And, above all, his office is secretive. Weiser and his staff are not only dismissive of the public’s right to know, they are generally hostile to journalists’ effort to find out what the AG’s office is doing. Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. And a penchant for secrecy is definitely smoke.

    My impression is that Weiser has used the AG position as a potential stepping stone. But he hasn’t impressed me as someone who actually cares very much about making life better for people in Colorado. His Republican opponent will, of course, be worse. But I sure am getting tired of being given “bad” and “terrible” as choices on the ballot. 

    1. What is your evidence that Attorney General Weiser has been a non-entity? When did he fail to protect the environment? Which Biden initiatives did he fail to defend? When did he fail to enforce the consumer protection statutes? When did he "fail to improve the accountability of law enforcement to the law?" When has he been secretive and dismissive of the public's right to know? You certainly made a lot of damning assertions but you have not provided any evidence to back them up.

      I follow the Colorado Attorney General's office and Phil Weiser I believe has been an outstanding attorney general. He's gotten more press – good press, earned and unearned, for the great things he's done – than any attorney general since I began following the office in the 1980's.

      He is also very intelligent and goes straight to the heart of an issue. I certainly can't predict who the Democratic nominee for governor will be but if Attorney General Weiser is the Democratic nominee I will have no reservations about voting for him.

    2. You sound you like have no idea of the role of the AG or the AG's office.  Phil has been excellent.  Not perfect, but infinitely better than his recent predecessors, Coffman, Suthers, Salazar, and Gale Norton.  

      1. This is just a random sample, but Weiser's predecessor, the taller Coffman, signed Colorado on to an action against Obama's Clean Power Plan. Weiser took office in 2019, with two years still left in the anti-enviro Tr*mp administration, and not only took Colorado out of the action against Clean Power Plan, but he also enlisted Colorado in a number of multi-state actions against Tr*mp-era anti-enviro actions.

        I'm less certain what Weiser did on environmental issues during the Biden years, but anyone who hasn't really followed his actions can find 6 years worth of press releases here: https://coag.gov/media-center/press-room/

        I'll stay agnostic on the 2026 Guv's race until seeing who else jumps in, though.

  8. Anyone other than Gov Polio will be an improvement 

    Weiser ok but waiting to hear from Neguse. Would love Cary  Kennedy to run again. Need some brave Dems willing to spend some political capital to make needed changes. Polio and Hick just went with the flow of least resistance 

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