Andy Rougeot knows he’s an unconventional candidate for Denver’s next mayor, but that’s the point.

“I’m running for mayor because I love this city,” the 33-year-old Army veteran and small business owner told Colorado Politics ahead of his campaign launch. “I love the opportunity I’ve enjoyed here, but the opportunity is being shut for far too many people.”

The first-time candidate, who lives in Highlands with his wife, Rosalie, and their 2-year-old daughter, with another child on the way, said he decided to run for Denver’s top job because the city’s crop of politicians has “failed to deliver” for the the city and its residents.

“People are just fed up. They’re fed up with rising crime, they’re fed up with homelessness, with the inability to buy a home,” he said. “Where has all that political experience got us in the city of Denver?”

Denver voters will pick a new mayor next spring from among what’s likely to be a crowded field as term-limited Mayor Michael Hancock, a former Denver City Council president, reaches the end of his third four-year term in office. A half dozen candidates have already declared, with several state lawmakers, city officials, business leaders and community activists hinting that they’re considering bids.

The city’s general election is April 4 – following a voter-approved move from its traditional date in early May – with a runoff scheduled for June 6 in races where no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote. In addition to mayor, Denver voters will elect an auditor, clerk and recorder and city council members to four-year terms.

Rougeot could stand out from the field in another way – as a registered Republican.

Though Denver’s municipal election is nonpartisan, the overwhelmingly Democratic city hasn’t elected a Republican mayor for more than 60 years, but that doesn’t daunt Rougeot.

“It doesn’t really matter if you’ve got a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ after your name,” he said. “Our political class is not putting the people of Denver first. People want to live in a safe community, people want lower crime, people want to be able to buy that first house. They just want somebody who can actually deliver on those issues.”

A former Army intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan and earned a graduate degree at Harvard Business School, Rougeot said hs experience running a business and raising a family has prepared him to lead Denver into its next chapter.

In a campaign video posted online Wednesday morning, Rougeot outlines his three-point platform, including cracking down on crime, tackling homelessness and increasing the availability of affordable housing.

“Enforcing the camping ban is not only the right thing to do, it’s the humane thing to do. Getting people to take that hand that’s been reached out to them – we have to actually help these people help themselves,” he says. 

“We need to make sure we have enough housing in the city of Denver so everybody can live here. We’ve turned too far in favor of worrying about the person who’s committing the crime and not enough about putting the victim ahead of the criminal.”

After “moving around a lot” while growing up, Rougeot got his undergraduate degree at Colby College, a liberal arts school in Waterville, Maine, and was stationed at Fort Carson after joining the Army as an intelligence officer. He deployed to Afghanistan as part of a special operations command attached to Army Rangers.

Rougeot and his wife moved to Denver after he left the Army with the rank of captain. Applying principles learned at Harvard, he bought RG Maintenance, a company that repairs keypads and gates for self-storage facilities statewide. He said he’s grown the business from 12 employees to roughly 40, creating jobs for welders and other skilled workers with an emphasis on hiring veterans fresh out of the military.