DENVER (AP) — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis donned a pair of safety glasses, grabbed the handle of the electric saw and ran the buzzing blade through a stack of printed regulations dating back decades.
Polis’ pre-Christmas news conference was meant to highlight how he was repealing unnecessary regulations, and it caught the attention of a prominent Republican — one the Democratic governor’s party has come to despise.
“Good job,” Vivek Ramaswamy, the sassy MAGA student recruited by President-elect Donald Trump to cut government spending, wrote on the social media site.
Polis reposted Ramaswamy’s message and continued to chatter with him on the website about the closure of a federal cheese factory in Missouri. It was just the latest example of Polis, who prides himself on his quirky independence, navigating a challenging path with the fresh government.
As Democratic governors across the country adjust to Trump’s victory — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, for example, turned to Trump to find common ground while California Gov. Gavin Newsom has braced for legal battles — stings Polis out.
In the days after the election, he joined Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to form a supposedly nonpartisan group of governors to “protect democracy,” an apparent repeat of Democrats’ resistance during Trump’s first term and in Consistent with Newsom’s united approach.
But days later, Colorado’s governor hesitated and went beyond Hochul’s conciliatory appeal.
Polis welcomed Trump’s nomination of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, noting that he had worked with Kennedy before. Polis later defended his comments by saying he personally supported vaccinations and hoped Kennedy would take on “big pharma and corporate companies.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, Polis explained his reach with his trademark refrain, not often heard in today’s hyperpolarized politics: “We can get good ideas from the left and the right.”
“There might be some people who say too easily that they are either for or against what is going on in Washington,” he said. “I think it’s a little more nuanced.”
Some Democratic operatives and activists began texting each other in disbelief after Polis praised Kennedy. The Colorado governor has been on the shortlist several times as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, but now some Democrats are pushing him down several spots.
“I think a lot of Democrats learned the wrong lessons from this race, and he is the prototype of that,” Bakari Sellers, a prominent Democratic strategist in South Carolina, a top state with early primaries in 2028, said of Polis. “After 18 months, when people look at the failings of this government and you were the one who put up with them, they will remember that.”
Polis supporters view the governor’s actions as what is known as “old Jared.” The openly gay, wealthy entrepreneur-turned-politician has a clear libertarian bent. He opposed imposing mask or vaccination mandates during the coronavirus pandemic, pushed for the elimination of all federal income taxes and spoke at length about the benefits of capitalism and free trade.
“Jared doesn’t want to start a fight; That’s not his style,” said Ted Trimpa, a veteran Democratic strategist from Colorado who has known Polis for decades. “It’s not what he does. He’s not Gavin,” Trimpa added, referring to the California governor who has highlighted his own ideological opposition to Trump.
“I think he will always look for ways to work with Trump, even if he vehemently disagrees with other things Trump does,” said Democrat Steve Fenberg, the outgoing state Senate president who has been Polis for more than a year knows and works with him for a decade. “The question is, how can this be reconciled when Trump attacks actual institutions and norms?”
Asked whether he could reconcile his fears with his concerns that Trump could threaten the republic, Polis said: “I’m never afraid to speak out when I disagree.” He has concerns about some of Trump’s proposed measures, but rarely criticized Trump himself. as other Democrats often do.
One likely area of disagreement is immigration. Trump has used Colorado as an example of what he believes are the costs of uncontrolled migration.
He held a rally in Aurora, a city of 400,000 people east of Denver, where videos emerged of heavily armed men going door to door at an apartment complicated recently housing Venezuelan migrants. The night the video was taken, a man was shot.
Trump used the incident at a single apartment building to paint a picture of a city the size of Tampa overrun by immigrant gangs. He promised to call his national mass deportation program “Operation Aurora.”
The city government had a long-standing dispute with the owner of the apartment building and announced that it would be closed in the next few weeks. Last month, police said more than a dozen people arrested and attacked a couple in the same building when their apartment was also searched.
Polis, who founded a charter school for immigrant children in 2004, clashed with Trump during the campaign over migrants and safety and said crime overall was down in Aurora and Colorado. He now says he is committed to working with the fresh government to deport criminals, but draws the line at taking further action.
“As far as people who haven’t violated state law, I don’t think they can expect much cooperation from local employers or communities in Colorado,” Polis said.
For Fenberg, the state representative, Democratic resistance no longer appears to be a successful strategy during Trump’s first term. Polis’ approach to the fresh administration could offer a roadmap, he said.
“We will need leaders like Jared to show us what the new formula should be to be successful as an opposition party,” he said.
