Colorado Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne announced Thursday she is entering the governor’s race in 2018, touting her experience and an extension of the current Democratic administration.
Her decision, first reported Wednesday by The Denver Post, comes a month after she filed paperwork as a candidate but declined to commit to the race because she wanted to secure the support necessary to mount a campaign in the crowded Democratic primary.
Gov. John Hickenlooper picked Lynne, a former health insurance company executive, for the state’s No. 2 ranking job in March 2016. Lynne initially said she wouldn’t run to succeed him in two years, but now she enters the race with Hickenlooper’s support and the power of the office to help boost her bid.
LG Donna Lynne announces bid for Colorado governor #copolitics #COGov #coleg pic.twitter.com/gpAnfjwPtm
— John Frank (@ByJohnFrank) September 7, 2017
“I have seen how our government works, and I know what we need in the next governor,” Lynne said in front of family and friends at a cafe near the state Capitol. “We made tremendous progress under Gov. John Hickenlooper but there is more that we can do.”
A first-time candidate with no political base of support, Lynne faces a difficult challenge in her bid to top four prominent challengers — businessman Noel Ginsburg, former state Sen. Mike Johnston, former state Treasurer Cary Kennedy and U.S. Rep. Jared Polis — who have been securing support and raising money for months now.
Her campaign is aimed at moderate Democrats, and she is expected to court business leaders, tapping her experience as the former president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado.
“I think I’m the pragmatic person (in this race) with more experience than any other candidate in managing millions of dollars of budgets, large organizations … and I think that really matters,” she told reporters after the announcement. “I know policy but I also know how to get things done.”
In her current role, Lynne also serves as the state’s chief operating officer. She said she will keep the job, in addition to her role as lieutenant governor, and continue to lead the administration’s efforts on health care. The moment she made her announcement, Hickenlooper was testifying in Washington on a health care plan that Lynne helped draft with other governors, including Ohio’s Republican Gov. John Kasich.
