Colorado Politics

2020 ELECTION | Hickenlooper to appear at CNN town hall Wednesday night

Democratic presidential candidate John Hickenlooper will appear at a televised CNN town hall Wednesday night in Atlanta.

The hour-long question-and-answer session in front of a live audience will be the former Colorado governor’s biggest chance yet to make an extended impression on the national stage since launching his 2020 run two weeks ago.

Dana Bash, CNN’s chief political correspondent, will moderate the town hall, which airs on the cable news network at 8 p.m. MDT.

Cord-cutting viewers – and those away from their TVs – will be able to stream the town hall without charge and with no log-in required on CNN’s website, the network has said.

The 67-year-old geologist-turned-brewpub owner, who served two terms as mayor of Denver before his two terms as governor, has been pitching his conciliatory approach to getting things done in a primary field overflowing with senators perhaps better known for their fiery rhetoric.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, another Democratic presidential candidate, made news Monday at her CNN town hall when she called for eliminating the Electoral College and appeared to connect on a personal level with the audience in Jackson, Mississippi.

Last week, Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, reported raising more than $600,000 in the 24 hours after his CNN town hall, which dramatically raised the 37-year-old longshot’s profile in the crowded primary field. 

Hickenlooper supporters are staging more than two dozen town hall watch parties around the country, including get-togethers in Denver, Colorado Springs, Las Vegas and Houston. According to his campaign, Hickenlooper plans to call in to all the volunteer-organized watch parties as soon as he finishes the town hall.

The town hall won’t be Hickenlooper’s first appearance on the national stage since declaring his candidacy. He’s taken part in brief interviews on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and CBS’s “Face the Nation” and joined Seth Meyers on the comedian’s late-night talk show.

After the town hall, Hickenlooper is planning a campaign swing through New Hampshire, which holds the country’ first primary in February, with an event devoted to marijuana policy in neighboring Vermont.

According to his campaign, Hickenlooper has scheduled a roundtable discussion Friday afternoon in Manchester, New Hampshire, followed by meet-and-greets Saturday at a brewery in Concord and a Mexican restaurant in Lebanon before crossing into Vermont to talk pot in Burlington.

Back in New Hampshire on Sunday, he’ll mingle with voters at a diner in Littleton, a brewery in Plymouth and a music hall in Newmarket.

John Hickenlooper speaks to the media after announcing his run for president at Wynkoop Brewing Co. in downtown Denver on Wednesday, March 6, 2019.
(Photo by Andy Colwell for Colorado Politics)
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