Colorado Politics

Tom Tancredo asks supporters for advice on running for Colorado governor

Tom Tancredo can’t make up his mind.

He said as much Friday afternoon when he sent a mass e-mail to Republican supporters and operatives (or potential campaign donors) asking for their thoughts on whether he should run for governor next year.

“I’m reaching out to you today before I have to make a very important decision, because I want to hear from you,” Tancredo wrote.

In the link provided in the e-mail, he reiterates, “Before I make a decision, my wife Jackie and I would like to hear from you.”

Tancredo, of course, is the former congressman from Littleton who has been an alt-right icon long before anybody used the term alt-right. He has been calling for tough immigration reform and deporting undocumented immigrants for decades.

Tancredo got miffed out at the state’s establishment Republicans who didn’t stand up to defend a now-cancelled gathering in Colorado Springs, for which he was to be a guest of honor. The conference at Cheyenne Mountain Resort next spring was sponsored by VDARE, an immigration reform group that has ties to the fatal white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

Tancredo told Colorado Politics he’s only thinking, not running, at this point. The e-mail demonstrates he’s very seriously thinking.

In his pitch Friday, he cited a statewide poll and included a link to a Colorado Politics story about a September survey conducted by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign pollster that shows him leading among current and potential GOP candidates.

Tancredo met with former Trump strategist Steve Bannon in Colorado to discuss a potential run.

Tancredo’s Friday e-mail is addressed to “fellow patriots” and asks:

Should Tom Tancredo run for Governor?

If he gets in, it would mark Tancredo’s third run for governor. He ran on the American Constitution Party ticket in 2010, when Democrat John Hickenlooper won his first term. Tancredo switched back to the Republican Party in 2011 and ran again for governor in 2014, when Bob Beauprez became the GOP nomination.

Tancredo ran for president in 2008, but didn’t get far.

“As you may or may not have heard, a recent statewide poll in Colorado shows if I were to run, I’d be the strongest Republican candidate for Governor in 2018,” he wrote Friday.

“In the crowded field of potentially ten candidates, I’m the only one with double-digit support. In fact, I’m sitting above 25% according to this poll.”


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