2 weeks Ago By Ernest Luning [email protected]
Two-term Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a 56-year-old Democrat, launched his campaign for governor at the beginning of the year saying there was a "straight line" between his work as the state's top lawyer and the issues he described as crucial for Colorado's next chief executive to address, including housing affordability, public safety, environmental protection and the youth mental health crisis. For more than three months, Weiser had the primary field to himself , but that changed on April 11 when U.S.
Sen. Michael Bennet, a fellow Democrat, joined the race to take over for term-limited Gov. Jared Polis after next year's election.
Anticipating Bennet's entry, Weiser told Colorado Politics he had no intention of ceding the nomination to Bennet and was "in it to win it." Nearly a dozen Republicans are also running for the office. A former law professor and dean of the University of Colorado Law School, Weiser clerked for U.
S. Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Ruth Bader Ginsberg and worked in the Justice Department under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. He won election as attorney general by comfortable margins in 2018 and 2022, both times defeating Republicans and then-18th Judicial District attorneys, George Brauchler and John Kellner, respectively.
Since taking office in 2019, Weiser's tenure has been marked by high-profile lawsuits, including a series of wins targeting pharmaceutical companies that have yielded more than $800 million to address the state's opioid crisis. This year, he's joined fellow Democratic attorneys general in more than a dozen lawsuits aimed at challenging actions taken by the Trump administration. Weiser's grandparents survived the Holocaust before immigrating to the United States after World War II.
His mother, Estare, was born in the Buchenwald concentration camp shortly before the U.S. Army liberated the camp.
After growing up on the East Coast, Weiser got an undergraduate degree in political science from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and a law degree from the New York University School of Law. Weiser and his wife, Heidi Wald, a physician, have two children and live in Denver. Colorado Politics spoke with Weiser in Denver on April 9, two days before Bennet's widely anticipated entry into the gubernatorial race .
Our interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Colorado Politics: You’re more than three months into your gubernatorial campaign. Why did you decide to run for governor? Phil Weiser: So I started eight years ago running to be attorney general, because my plan A, that I could serve in a Hillary Clinton administration, was scuttled, and I thought hard and long about what I wanted to do.
And I thought, you can't just wait to be appointed to serve. You need to be one to raise your hand and serve as an elected official. And serving as Colorado as attorney general has been incredibly meaningful, impactful, and I have seen a number of critical areas that I've been working on: How do we improve public safety? How do we address the affordability challenges around housing and childcare? How do we make sure we defend our democracy and rule of law? How do we make sure we protect our land, air and water? I've been doing that work as attorney general.
I want to keep doing that for Colorado as its next governor. CP: Michael Bennet is getting in the primary. What’s your reaction to that? Weiser: I’m in it to win it.
I knew when I got in that others were going to get in. I believe that the voters can and should be given a choice of who they want to serve. My commitment is to always show up in communities across Colorado, to listen hard to what's on people's minds, to show that I'm fighting for them, and to get results.
And I've done that as attorney general. The opioid crisis, for example. When I started running, I listened hard to communities in the San Luis Valley, for example, [Alamosa County Sheriff] Robert Jackson told me 90% of people there who were in his jail were struggling with opioid addiction.
And we went to work for Colorado, and now $875 million were brought back to the state, we set up a nationally recognized model, and last summer, I went to the San Luis Valley to open up a new treatment center for the first time in generations, and Robert was there with me. So I've shown how I serve. The people of Colorado will know when they're looking at who they want for the next governor, that if they want someone who's going to fight hard for them, who will always show up and get results, I'm the candidate.
That's going to be what I'll continue to communicate through Election Day. CP: Are they seeing results in the San Luis Valley? Weiser: They have a treatment center. Basically, when I went there as a candidate for attorney general eight years ago almost, there was no treatment available in the San Luis Valley.
Now that I’ve gotten money by suing Big Pharma, we created this framework, they’ve built a treatment center. Now, people who used to have no other option than end up in jail and go through detox, de facto, now can get in treatment. They've got a sober living center.
All that's paid for by the funds and the framework that I set up. Also in the San Luis Valley, I enforced our Victim Rights Act. There was a district attorney down there who had been violating the law, mistreating victims [former 12th Judicial District Attorney Alonzo Payne].
We went to work, and he’s no longer a district attorney. In fact, he would end up being disbarred. There's a new district attorney.
I'm fighting to protect the water in the San Luis Valley, and I'm fighting for citizens of Costilla County against a massive fence that would harm their access to critical resources. So that's the San Luis Valley. We can go through other parts of the state.
Everyone in Colorado knows I'm there to fight for them. I want to keep doing that. I've been the people's lawyer; I'll be the people's governor.
I'll be there for the people of Colorado. And I want communities to know I care about you, you matter to Colorado. I’m listening to you.
I worked with the Grand Junction DA [21st Judicial District Attorney Dan Rubinstein] to prosecute Tina Peters. That was a bipartisan effort, thoroughly grounded by a commitment to the rule of law, protecting our democracy. And it doesn't matter about party.
The DA that I mentioned in the San Luis Valley was a Democrat [and Rubinstein is a Republican]. We’re going to do things the right way in Colorado. I believe in the Colorado way, and that’s how I want to serve as governor.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser speaks during an interview with The Associated Press on Nov. 21, 2024, in Philadelphia. Weiser spoke about his gubernatorial run with Colorado Politics on April 9, 2025, in Denver.
CP: We’ve had a governor, Jared Polis, who took office the same time as you did. Anything you would have done differently? Weiser: What I would say is, my focus is going to be different, in that it's also going to be a different time. So when people say, what's going to be your emphasis, how will it be different than Gov.
Polis? The housing and the affordability issues are ones that have now been percolating up. There's going to be a lot of work where we're going to have to follow through. Proposition 123 has been passed, some laws have been passed.
What I'm going to do is take the same sort of playbook that I've used in opioids, which is, you bring people together — local, regional governments — you work together on solutions, and you work to support people in making progress. And there's a framework for some future work in housing that’s going to be top of mind for me. Another main focus is going to be water.
The challenges that we're facing around the Colorado River right now are going to be crucial for our state. And my worry has been, we've not made the investments we need in water infrastructure — something I've been very vocal about, that we have to build the tools for what is going to be an ongoing drought situation. And then the third thing I'd mention is youth mental health.
I'm really concerned about the state of young people — too much time on their phones, too much time on social media, too little connection. We sued Juul [an e-cigarette company], got some money to use from that to build more school-community partnerships to help young people build more positive relationships. Those are three areas that I'm going to lean into as top priorities — housing, how we manage water, how we help young people and youth mental health — that haven't been the same issues that Gov.
Polis had to focus on, has been confronted with. CP: Youth mental health and housing both seem to have gotten much worse during the pandemic. Did Democrats react the right way to COVID? Weiser: First, when you talk about Gov.
Polis’ leadership and you talk about the pandemic, I think you can compare him to anyone nationwide and recognize the following point: he was very collaborative, trying to work with and give flexibility to local governments to make decisions based on data. And that's an important model. It's part of who we are in Colorado, which is, we do have a strong understanding of local control and collaboration.
Second, he also had a real commitment to data. There were states that had bans on any outdoor activities, that there was no data to support that. And we had less of those restrictions in Colorado.
And I also think it's important to try to, where we can, bring people along and see the value of social norms in terms of how people behave, and we were, I think, very thoughtful in Colorado, trying to not be too overly regulatory. Where could things have been better in the pandemic? I think to the point about youth mental health, there's probably an under-appreciation for keeping kids out of school, how it was going to affect them from a behavioral health, from a learning perspective, and we're now left having to, I think, do some real repair work, because young people who lost certain learning, lost certain relationship skills, that’s something we need to really be mindful about and address. CP: What does it mean to be a Democrat these days? The Democratic brand is in the tank.
Weiser: I will say, if you look at Colorado, the Colorado Democratic Party brand — and again, I give credit to a lot of Democratic leaders, including Gov. Polis — is definitely better (than it is nationally). And part of what we need to make sure we do as Democrats is, we are showing up, we’re listening, and we care.
Part of the problem that I think has happened for many Democrats is they're viewed as out of touch, they don't care, they’re not listening. And for us to have a viable brand in Colorado — and of course, nationally — people need to know we care. And that's something that I learned closely from Ken Salazar, which is you need to make sure you go everywhere, people feel heard, and you're building relationships.
And part of what it means is, people don't think about you as red team or blue team, but you’re Team Colorado. We care about one another, and I've shown that I'm here to fight for everyone in Colorado. And if we can do that as Democrats, we're going to do fine.
By contrast, if people think we don't care, we're not listening or we're condescending, then we're in trouble, and we should be in trouble. CP: OK, those are process or approach aspects. But what do Democrats stand for? Weiser: Fighting for people who are, in many cases, living paycheck-to-paycheck and feeling that the economy and our society isn't working for them.
For people who are saying, Can I afford to buy a home? For people who are saying, Do I have the education and training to get a good-paying job. For people who are saying, Are you protecting me in my community? We have to be seen as fighting for people, caring about people, particularly people who aren't getting the world handed to them on a silver platter. That's been the brand of the Democratic Party.
That's Democratic Party that my parents and my grandparents grew up with. That's what I believe Democratic Party stands for. CP: What’s the disconnect, especially among young people, then? Some of that, with Gen Z in particular, has to have been the pandemic, all that isolation at a crucial time in their lives, but voters across the board have soured on Democrats.
Weiser: I think there are a few things going on. One of the challenges, if a lot of people looked at the Biden administration, they would say, what did the Biden administration do for me, and we as Democrats have to be really mindful, are we delivering results? Are we making a difference in people's lives? And what I'll tell people is, look at what I've done as attorney general. I have a record of delivering — so, on the opioid crisis, we've brought back this money, we’ve made sure the money was spent well to deliver tangible results.
That's what we need to be doing, showing results. And one of the challenges that I will continue to think about is, how is the work we're doing affecting people's lives? Making sure that we're doing that work, making sure people know we're doing that work. CP: There’s a lot going on in the legislature.
The governor has a veto pen, and one of the bills in there now, Senate Bill 3, setting training requirements for ownership of certain firearms, has been provoking calls for Gov. Polis to veto it. Would you sign that bill? Weiser: I don't know chapter and verse all the currents, but directionally, yes, I believe the concept of, if you're going to have a very dangerous weapon, the responsibilities that come with gun ownership is an appropriate concept.
I've not looked at all those details, but conceptually, it's an idea that I would look at. And more generally, with gun safety, here's the way I look at these issues: How do we think about options for keeping people safe that are a little bit like we did with driving? When I was growing up, the No. 1 way young people died was car accidents.
Now, I think guns is No. 1, fentanyl is No. 2, car accidents is No.
3. Part of what happened is, we kept asking things like, will mandatory seat belt laws save lives? Will putting in automatic cushions, so that when you have a car accident people are getting these protections? If we can save lives by people having better training, a better commitment to safe storage, I'm all for it. CP: But driving a car is not a Second Amendment right.
How do you explain that to folks — there are plenty of Coloradans who say that the bill is infringing on their constitutional rights. Weiser: I believe in the Second Amendment. And if you read the Heller decision, it says reasonable limits on gun ownership to protect public safety are allowed.
And this is the question I'd ask about this bill: Is what's being asked of people reasonable? And I want to make sure that we're thoughtful about implementation, because some people would say, my dad has trained me how to use a firearm safely. So particularly for rural communities, the Second Amendment has to be understood in the realities that their communities are operating. And the idea of having some training is one that I want to make sure is fair and works in different communities.
Most responsible gun owners I know would say, of course we're going to train anyone before we give them a firearm. How do we implement that is important, so that we're not just making it so easy for people who are dangerous, untrained, getting firearms and doing bad things. Obviously, we've seen a real uptick in gun violence.
We need to respond with measures that are reasonable under the Second Amendment, that are managed fairly, and that are going to save lives. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser speaks during an interview with The Associated Press on Nov. 21, 2024, in Philadelphia.
Weiser spoke about his gubernatorial run with Colorado Politics on April 9, 2025, in Denver. CP: Do you support suing to declare TABOR unconstitutional? Weiser: My job is going to be to defend TABOR, the lawsuit against TABOR is under a constitutional provision known as the republican form of government clause. This lawsuit would have to go to the Supreme Court and make a new law.
And so it is fair to say this lawsuit is a long shot. My job will be to defend the state in this lawsuit. I will commit to continue to do that.
I've done it once before; I'll do it again. And my view about TABOR is, it is problematic, it needs to be fixed. The way I want to approach fixing it as governor is to go to the ballot to make sure that we're basically relieving our state of what currently is a fiscal straightjacket, what is a hard cap that is causing very painful cuts that are being done at a time that's not a recession, but a time when this cap is running up against spending.
CP: TABOR is tremendously complicated. Some of its advocates forget that a majority of the local governments in the state have deBruced [voted to lift TABOR spending caps] — but that's built into TABOR, the ability to do that. Colorado did it, with Referendum C, way back 20 years ago.
Would you want to keep the portions of TABOR that require voting on tax increases? Weiser: I think the voting on tax increases is pretty settled in terms of the public's desire, and it's a healthy burden that you as a public official have to go to the public and say, I want to raise revenue and spend it on this. That’s, for me, not the part of TABOR that I am so concerned about right now. What I'm concerned about is this hard cap that is a straightjacket.
And what's happened is, whether it's Medicaid spending, more education spending, we have a cap that currently is more restrictive — because it's based on population growth and inflation — than the spending is in those areas. So even though we're taking in the revenue, we're forced to make cuts that are very painful. Some of the cuts the legislature did this year are one-time cuts that we can't just do again next year.
That's why I think there needs to be a structural approach, which is going to involve some TABOR reform. The way I want to focus on this is to make sure we're doing it thoughtfully with some public engagement. Dan Ritchie had a proposal years ago called Building a Better Colorado.
I really wish we had seen that through as a way to address TABOR. I think part of the challenge is when we put things on the ballot without the public process, without as much public awareness, and without clear state leadership pushing it, it hasn't worked. That's what I think we need to make sure we do this next round.
I'm willing to put in that work to make sure that we do something like Ref C, that we can have a fix. And part of what we need to do is educate the public — here’s what we have currently under TABOR, and if we don't address it, here are the consequences. Alternatively, if we come up with more flexibility, here's what we can do with it.
CP: Say you win election next year — what would Colorado look like four years after you take office? Weiser: We will be a model state that will have found ways to have a partnership with the state government, local governments, making housing construction quicker and cheaper, particularly for the middle part of the market that currently isn't being served. We will have protections for consumers — they’re not being taken advantage of by junk fees or predatory tactics. We will make sure that we're managing our water smartly for all of us, helping our state grow, helping agricultural areas continue to thrive, perhaps planting some different crops.
We're going to need to make sure we protect our outdoor recreation economy. We protect against wildfires, and we continue to do the work we're doing meeting the challenges around climate change. We're going to make sure that we are safer as a state, investing in more responsible policing, community policing, protecting victims, advancing gun violence measures and addressing the drugs in our communities.
And we're going to make sure young people have a brighter future, making sure we're addressing these youth mental health issues, creating opportunities by improving our educational system and having a voluntary call to service for young people to serve in policing, in fighting wildfires, in counseling, nursing and teaching. We're going to have a real spirit that we in Colorado care about one another. We're working together to meet our challenges, and this is how we heal our republic.
CP: Let’s talk about public safety. Colorado has been ranking near the top of crime statistics since the pandemic. How do you explain that? And what role, as attorney general, do you play? Weiser: I want to be a part of how we get more well trained, effective policing in Colorado.
One of the challenges around car theft is in some jurisdictions, they don't have enough law enforcement officers. When someone says my car has been stolen, they won't even send out a law enforcement officer. That's unacceptable.
We shouldn't be leaving victims on their own. We should make sure victims know that law enforcement is here to protect you, that we take crimes like auto theft or catalytic converter (theft) very seriously. My office has been prosecuting auto theft cases only at the gang level, organized crime.
We don't do the street-crime level, but we need to make sure that we as a state have a clear message we are committed to effective policing. I'm working on improving our police training, working on police recruitment and retention efforts. We have to make sure that we have all the tools we can and that we're constantly looking for the best strategies.
One of the challenges that unfortunately happened is we let the Colorado Commission on Criminal Juvenile Justice end, which was a vehicle for how we improve our criminal justice system. I'm going to keep asking, How do we make Colorado safer? How do we make Colorado more just? That's experience I'll bring to bear as governor. CP: We’re sitting here at a table on a sidewalk near downtown Denver, and it certainly doesn’t feel at all unsafe, contrary to what some say about the city.
What’s the explanation, though, for why Colorado has ranked so high in crime stats? Weiser: Part of the challenge is, it's different in different communities. So if you're in Fort Collins, or you're in Boulder, I don't know that you have the same fear of car theft or an assault that you do in Denver. And so one of the challenges is to look across different communities and say, what’s happening, what explains both the data as well as people's impressions and perceptions.
And Denver, unfortunately, when you have a downtown like the 16th Street Mall, with less foot traffic, maybe less clear lighting in some areas, people may feel less safe. So we organized a conference in our office’s Peace Officer Standards and Training program, and we talked about, what are data-driven strategies to fight crime? And one of them is to look where are hot spots. Pueblo set up a real-time crime center to help get that intelligence, where do we see crime happening? And then ask, what strategies can basically address those hot spots.
We need commitment across our state for real, effective collaboration and support, because in some places we see effective crime-fighting strategies. In other places, we see concerns. We're at our best in Colorado when we're learning from one another, a role the governor can play.
The power of convening, bringing people together, asking what's working, providing support for the best practices and making sure we're learning from one another, CP: It seems that as attorney general you are leading or joining lawsuits against the federal government and the Trump administration, it seems like almost on a daily basis. How do the attorneys general decide where to file those lawsuits? Because so far, they've all been in states with what I think are 100% Biden- and Obama-appointed U.S.
district court judges and appellate courts. Weiser: So, it depends on the issue, but I do think you're correct to say that we aren't picking where we file and how we frame the cases at random. We are looking hard and long at how do we make our best case and where we make them.
And it's a very high-functioning team between myself and other state attorneys general, as we continue to collaborate on defending the rule of law, protecting our states. And in every one of these cases, I'm asking a question: Is Colorado harmed by this action, and is this action illegal? And if you look, by and large, you've seen us convince judges that yes, there's harm and there's a violation. CP: Are there any states attorneys general lawsuits that you haven't joined? Weiser: Yes, Colorado has not joined every one of them.
In some cases, we in Colorado might not be affected by something. In other cases, I might have thought the legal theory wasn't as compelling, but those are the two questions I ask if you say, why did you join this? Or why did you not join it? Either Colorado wasn't harmed, or I didn't think it was necessarily illegal. But if I did join it, it means I think Colorado was harmed and the administration did things illegal.
CP: Has Colorado taken the lead on any of these? Weiser: Yes, yes, the one that we just won a relief involving public health funding was Colorado-led? We did file in Rhode Island, but it was us who were the lead in that lawsuit. And Colorado had $220 million at risk, which provides crucial public health and behavioral health funding, including money that's relevant for what we're doing now, addressing measles and other concerns around building our infrastructure for public health. CP: Are you confident that the courts are going to be a backstop against the country moving in an authoritarian direction, as President Trump's critics say is happening? Weiser: I believe they have been.
I have seen, in the cases we've brought, that judges have looked at the law, looked at the facts, and by and large, they ruled our way, and the administration has said they're complying with these rulings. There was a moment where the president made a suggestion that he wouldn't comply and would try to impeach a judge, and then Chief Justice Roberts took the very rare stance of publicly calling out the president in that statement. And I think the American people overwhelmingly think the president is not above the law.
The president can't disregard court orders. And what we saw here last weekend in Denver, 8,000 people showing up, a very clear message — we believe in the rule of law in America. We are going to hold on to it.
CP: Do you anticipate that the Supreme Court will agree with you? Weiser: There's two separate points there. We're not going to necessarily win every case we're bringing, there’s some cases where the court might rule against us. But let's take birthright citizenship, because it's such a clear constitutional protection.
If you're born here, you're a citizen. That case will get to the Supreme Court. I'm very confident we're going to win that case.
I'm also confident that the result will be that the administration accepts the court's ruling. Now let's take another case. We went to court against the Treasury Department, who is giving DOGE access to people's Social Security numbers and bank information, and we want a ruling in that case.
If the Treasury Department — whether it's the secretary or the assistant secretary — doesn't follow a court ruling, there's a procedure for civil contempt, which would then make them pay, literally and figuratively, for failing to follow court orders. And I think there's a price to be paid in the court of public opinion as well. The public overwhelming says it's very important that we not have an executive branch that's acting above the law, that we live under the rule of law.
CP: What's your reaction to the constant stream of news out of Washington? In a matter of days this week, what’s gone on with tariffs and the administration deporting immigrants to El Salvador, raising Fifth Amendment issues. Weiser: Let me take a couple of points. I'm going to first pick your point about the Fifth Amendment, commitment to due process of law.
It is deeply offensive to me, as attorney general, as a citizen, that the government could say we can pick up whoever we want and ship them off to a foreign country without any legal process. That is anti-American. Our nation was built on the principle that everyone's got to be treated fairly, and that we have an independent judiciary, and we don't have a king.
I'm going to fight hard for that principle. When I was at the Hands Off rally, due process of law is now an applause line. People want to commit to protect this critical safeguard.
Today, there's an executive order that, on the face of it, suggests Colorado will be told by the federal government that we can't adopt policies to drive towards more renewable energy sources. We've been doing that Colorado for 20 years. That is our right as our state to have its own sovereign authority to make decisions about our energy, about how we protect our land, air and water.
I'm not going to let the federal government try to tell us what to do — that’s a violation of the 10th Amendment. So it’s a challenge, and I will tell you, look at the work that I and my team are doing. We're rising to that challenge.
We can meet that challenge, and ultimately, we're going to come through this difficult time, and we'll be stronger for it. One way I'll say it is, in this moment, everyone has one of two reactions, to feel defeated, to feel despair, or to feel invigorated that we're going to fight for our Republic. I believe we're going to preserve our Republic, and on the other side of the Trump presidency, Colorado is going to be a national model for how we govern ourselves, how we treat each other.
And the reason I want to be governor is because I love Colorado and I love America. My family came here as refugees. I'm a first generation American.
My mom and my grandparents survived the Holocaust, they were liberated by the U.S. Army.
I believe in our values, and I believe in Colorado, and if we can do a good job standing up for people, fighting for people, we're going to get through this time, and I believe we're going to learn some important lessons in the process. CP: What have. you learned on the campaign trail this year? Weiser: I would say a big lesson, which is consistent, is people are hungry for positive leadership, about how I can fight for people, and how we bring people together to make life better in Colorado.
That's what Colorado wants. That's the leadership I've offered. And what is, to me, so energizing is the level of support.
So whether it's legends like Roy Romer or Polly Baca, or whether it's Robert Jackson, the sheriff in the San Luis Valley, or John Stult, a county commissioner southeast Colorado, or Bernie Buescher from Grand Junction, I've got support all across Colorado, deep support. And that's what energizes me, that I'm doing this to serve the people of Colorado, and I feel a lot of that commitment behind me, and I'm going to keep running hard to the tape..
