The Denver Press Club was packed with Republican gubernatorial candidates on Thursday evening, and despite a lineup of suits that stretched nearly half the length of the narrow upstairs meeting hall, the nine attendees comprised fewer than half of the total number of GOP hopefuls who have registered to run so far.
Some will be familiar to those who follow Colorado’s Legislature: State Sens. Mark Baisley (R-Roxborough Park) and Barb Kirkmeyer (R-Brighton) both attended. Their House colleague Scott Bottoms (R-Colorado Springs) did not attend. Former Congressman Greg Lopez, whom Eastern Plains voters picked as a placeholder for the remaining six months of Ken Buck’s congressional term, was in attendance. He has run multiple times for U.S. Senate and Governor. He also previously served as the Mayor of Parker.
For other participants, this campaign is not their first rodeo, despite never having held elected office. Financial coach Jason Clark is on his third tilt at the Governor’s mansion. IT consultant Jon Gray-Ginsberg is making his second run at the office, while Joshua Griffin, an Army vet and entrepreneur, briefly ran for the Fifth Congressional District in 2024 but decided to aim higher in 2026. Along with Bottoms, two other Southern Colorado candidates missed the forum: Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesal and the primary’s most recent entrant, Victor Marx, who runs an evangelical ministry in Colorado Springs.
Bob Brinkerhoff, a retired state trooper from Baca County, Will McBride, a personal injury lawyer from Lone Tree, join Denver retiree Kelvin “K-Man” Wimberly as first-time candidates with their sights set on Colorado’s top office.
While the candidates in attendance largely agreed on the conservative fundamentals of less government and lower taxes, they also shared, for the most part, a pair of rather nuanced positions on the rule of law. Asked whether they would call on President Trump to deploy National Guard troops in the state, all expressed some level of concern with federal soldiers conducting domestic law enforcement — some more forcefully than others. Jason Clark asked if he could swear in his response and after moderator Ernest Luning encouraged him not to, Clark went with “F-bomb No.”
However, overall the field was also in broad agreement about another criminal justice matter: the pardoning of Tina Peters.
All but one said they would pardon the former Mesa County Clerk, who was prosecuted by a Republican District Attorney and found guilty by a jury in a solidly red county. Only Kirkmeyer, seated between Lopez and “K-Man” Wimberly, gave herself some wiggle room, saying, “If presented with new facts, I would consider it.”
When asked by moderators to offer their own ideas, some candidates stretched the bounds of traditional Republican philosophy. Griffin wants the state to “redirect all our marijuana tax into a state sovereign wealth fund.” Gray-Ginsberg had two exotic plans: a pipeline from the Gulf to Colorado that would “solve all our water problems,” and 3D-printed homes, presumably subsidized by the state, to address the housing crisis.
Another short-answer question gave the field a chance to compare and contrast themselves with Gov. Jared Polis, who was criticized when he chose his Lt. Gov Dianne Primavera to head up a new agency he created, the Office of Saving People Money on Health Care, a position for which she is paid a second salary. Asked if they would do something similar with their lieutenants, the candidates roundly criticized the double-dipped paychecks, but some said they would delegate specific projects. Moderator Luning then asked a follow-up: Do any of them already know who they want to be their Lt. Gov.?
Baisley said he had a couple but didn’t want to share them yet. Clark, who had just said he’d charge his second-in-command with fixing the state’s roads, said that he indeed had someone in mind: former House Minority Leader Mike Lynch (R-Wellington), who was previously under Clark’s command when they were cadets at West Point. Lynch resigned his statehouse leadership role after a previously undisclosed arrest for driving drunk and armed came to light. Clark also informed Kirkmeyer that, should she win the primary, he was available to serve as her lieutenant.
Clark also made a point of describing himself as a “Libertarian Republican,” while giving an exuberant “shout-out” to Libertarian Party of Colorado Executive Director James Wiley, who was in the audience. The LPCO and its affiliated PAC, the Chainsaw Caucus, have endorsed numerous Republican legislators, but neither entity has yet endorsed a gubernatorial candidate.
However, at least one other candidate besides Clark appears to be angling for their endorsement, if not more. McBride is the title sponsor of the LPCO’s upcoming state convention on Oct. 18, which the party is promoting by saying it will feature a “surprise announcement.” McBride has speaking slots at both the afternoon convention and the evening gala.
Correction: A previous version of this article mistaken used the name “Lynch” in place of “Clark” in the last two paragraphs.
