Who Is Advance Colorado? We're Launching A New Resource to Help Voters Find Out

A major force has emerged in Colorado politics over the last five years, flooding the state with largely anonymous cash, reshaping dynamics on both the right and left sides of the aisle, and driving the conversation in ways which have directed both state budgets and ballot initiatives. The rise of Advance Colorado represents the most significant sea-change in the state’s political battlegrounds since Democrats first took control of the State House of Representatives in 2004. Despite the magnitude of the group’s influence, few in the local press corps have covered its rise to dominance, and even fewer have examined its inner-workings.

The Colorado Times Recorder has done both.

Since the founding of Advance Colorado, then under the name Unite for Colorado, CTR has followed the group’s evolution from its origins as a dime-a-dozen 501(c)(4) to its current status as the undisputed gravitational center of conservative politics in Colorado. More than a billionaire-funded replacement for the ineffective Republican Party of Colorado, Advance Colorado commands an entire ecosystem, from advocacy organizations, to think tanks, to PACs and media outlets.

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Over the years, the Colorado Times Recorder has done more to understand and reveal the group’s inner workings than any other outlet. We have sifted through thousands of tax documents, hundreds of news stories, and countless other sources, in an effort to help Coloradans understand who is pouring huge sums of money into influencing their votes, and what they expect in return for it.

Beyond the finances, we have covered the group’s persuasion and influence network, using friendly think tanks like the Common Sense Institute to produce research substantiating and legitimizing Advance Colorado’s claims, or otherwise seeking to aid Advance’s political goals; and friendly media outlets like the Gazette and Colorado Politics.

We have also covered the revolving door of consultants, attorneys, and politicians who keep the machine running – and how so much of the network ties back to one man: billionaire Phil Anschutz.

In 2026, the work we have done to chronicle and expose Advance Colorado’s finances and operations has taken on increased relevance. This year, Advance is attempting to place no fewer than 21 initiatives on Colorado’s ballot, aimed at increasing prison sentences, deregulating polluting industries, and cutting taxes for the wealthy. These initiatives are not aimed at improving life for the average Coloradan; they are items from a wishlist representing the interests of Advance’s billionaire backers. If they succeed in passing even half of the initiatives they are sponsoring this year, Advance Colorado will have done more to reshape life and law in Colorado than any single group in the state’s history – and they will have done it for billionaires, not for us.

That’s why we are proud to launch a new project, gathering, summarizing, and visualizing our years of investigative work covering Advance Colorado: to give voters a fighting chance at understanding what we’re all up against. You can find everything you need at: whoisadvancecolorado.org

Our extensive reporting underlying the project is archived below.