Joe Biden heading to Colorado for fundraiser with Ken Salazar ahead of Super Tuesday
Democrat Joe Biden is set to return to Colorado for a high-dollar fundraiser at the home of former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in February, just two weeks before voters cast ballots in the state’s Super Tuesday presidential primary.
The event, set for Feb. 17 at the northwest Denver home of the former U.S. senator and his wife, Hope, will be the second visit to the state by the former vice president, the front-runner in national polling as the early-state contests loom.
Ticket prices range from $500 to $2,800, with well-heeled supporters able to qualify as co-hosts for the event if they raise $20,000, according to an invitation obtained by Colorado Politics.
Salazar endorsed Biden in September, skipping over Michael Bennet, the Colorado Democrat who was appointed to fill Salazar’s Senate seat when he resigned in 2009 to join the Obama administration.
Colorado's Ken Salazar endorses Joe Biden's presidential bid
“Joe is a uniter,” Salazar said at the time. “He is results-oriented. We need to have him in the White House today because the country more than ever before needs someone who can unite the world.”
The invitation to the February fundraiser touted Biden’s “progressive plans to protect & build on the Affordable Care Act; reinvest in our children, educators, and schools; and commit to a 100%-clean-energy economy with net-zero emissions by 2050.”
According to the scant polling ahead of Colorado’s March 3 presidential primary, Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren were the early favorites in a state Sanders carried by a wide margin in 2016 when Democrats held caucuses instead of a primary.
Mail ballots start going out to Colorado voters in three weeks. For the first time, the state’s unaffiliated voters will be able to vote in either major party’s presidential primary.
Colorado's 'Super Tuesday' presidential primary ballot set with 17 Democrats, 7 Republicans
At this point, Colorado’s Democratic primary ballot lists 15 active presidential candidates, plus two who have withdrawn from the race since the ballot was approved.
Salazar, who ran the Interior Department for the first four years of the Obama administration, is the second former cabinet official to throw a fundraiser for Biden in Colorado. Former Clinton-era energy and transportation secretary Federico Peña, the former mayor of Denver, was among the hosts of a Biden fundraiser in Denver in September.
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