Hang onto your wallet, it’s a Colorado legislative session. And the loneliest person under the Gold Dome is Jared Polis, a governor without a nation.
This will be the last regular session of his limited two terms, and he has managed to become disliked by just about everyone.
Of course, no matter how often he claims to be libertarian or business friendly, those on his right are just plain pissed at what he’s done to the state during his seven years. The sad fact is Colorado has never seen a more business-wrecking governor in her history.
The Polis era
A postmortem on the Polis years will reveal the eruption of Colorado’s regulatory Leviathan. Unworkable energy mandates, spiraling minimum wage laws, skyrocketing insurance premiums, taxes and “fees,” an avalanche of new unelected committees, commissions, and boards all with one goal – impede business.
No one from the private sector would say Colorado is better off than it was seven years ago.
Civil libertarians were betrayed over anti-gun laws which leapfrogs those of California and Massachusetts, speech codes like the new crime of misgendering, and the first-in-the-nation regulatory noose around artificial intelligence development. So much for our “computer code is free speech” high-tech guv.
And now this governor is reviled by many of his own party for, on rare occasion, siding with sanity.
There is chatter of big labor backing another bill this session to repeal Colorado’s Labor Peace Act, destroying a near century of business-labor détente. Polis wisely vetoed it last year. (Side note: We must pressure Michael Bennet and Phil Weiser for a clear “yes or no” on whether they will sign it. It will land on one of their desks in 2027.)
The all-powerful teacher’s unions are angry Polis has agreed to include Colorado in the federal Educational Choice for Children Act, created by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, allowing taxpayers a tax credit for donating to private scholarship organizations.
Polis, like every governor, holds aspirations of becoming U.S. senator or president. A successful run for the White House seems very unlikely at this point. There is no way he could make it through a Democratic primary.
First, he is not a rabid socialist, spitting at anyone who has a dollar more than he does.
Polis has stated his support of a low, flat income tax, and even no income tax at all. That’s commendable but absolutely detested in a party now defined by Bernie, AOC and Zohran Mamdani.
Polis’ progressive bullies
Good God Almighty, the “democratic” socialists are ripping him apart for his simple social media post: “Today is a moment to celebrate the ouster of the brutal socialist dictator of Venezuela, who has cruelly impoverished this once-prosperous country that sits on greater oil wealth than Saudi Arabia.”
Then there’s a challenge of how God made him. No, it doesn’t matter he’s gay. In fact, that’s a box to check when running as a Democrat. The problem is he was born Jewish.
The Israel-hating, “from the river to the sea” style of antisemitism now rampant in Democratic ranks would never allow a Jew to be their presidential nominee.
Polis for VP? Again, no. Colorado’s ultra-blue electoral votes will go to whomever the Dems nominate. The VP slot will go to someone who brings the ticket a swing constituency; Colorado is a “sure thing.”
So basically, Jared Polis is now Colorado’s Rodney Dangerfield. The question is, will he lean into it?
There can be a great deal of power when you know no matter what you do, they’re going to dislike you. That power is multiplied being term-limited — free from fretting about reelection.
Maybe he’s had enough of being pushed around from his left?
Polis is not anti-gun, but his signature unleashed the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. He’s not anti-tech, but he unleashed the most dangerous anti-AI law in the nation (even the Europeans couldn’t dream up something this anti-innovation). He wants a lower flat income tax rate yet signed the bill to make tax cuts unwinnable at the ballot box (it forces the ballot language to say a “yes” vote will destroy education and health care and starve old ladies).
If there was ever a time for our governor to stand up to the crazed progressives who’ve bullied him for his entire tenure, now is it.
Jared, show us the real you! We might like it.
Jon Caldara is president of Independence Institute, a free market think tank in Denver.
