Colorado state Sen. Chris Hansen is joining the crowded field of candidates hoping to become the next mayor of Denver in 2023.

Hansen, D-Denver, filed paperwork Monday morning to enter the mayor’s race. He follows around a dozen other candidates into the race, including state Rep. Leslie Herod, director of Emerge Colorado Lisa Calderón, longtime Denver City Councilwoman Debbie Ortega, former Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce CEO Kelly Brough and anti-gang activist Terrance Roberts. 

Mayor Michael Hancock, a Democrat, is term limited, with his term expiring next year.

Hansen said he has been considering running for mayor for the last year, saying he wants to make Denver more safe, more affordable and more green. 

“I was really finding myself feeling frustrated about the direction Denver has been going in the last couple of years,” Hansen said. “Denver is not living up to its full potential. … I’ve got two teenage boys who I want to grow up in a great city. I want them to have a great city to build their own families.” 

Hansen has served in the state legislature since 2016, winning terms in the House of Representatives in 2016 and 2018, then in the Senate in 2020. He is currently serving his first Senate term, which expires in January 2025. During the last legislative session, he was vice chair of the Joint Budget Committee – the legislature’s most powerful committee responsible for the state’s annual budget. 

Hansen said, as mayor, he would use this experience to make Denver’s budget evidenced-based, making targeted investments with measurable impacts.  

“It’s going to take everything that we’ve got in Denver to turn this around,” Hansen said. “The next mayor really needs to figure out how to double down on those things that are working, and perhaps make some cuts to places where we’ve had less success. I want to bring that entrepreneurial mindset to the budget.” 

Some of Hansen’s specific goals as mayor include increasing affordable housing along major transportation corridors, expanding the city’s partnerships with nonprofits such as the Salvation Army to address homelessness, and filling personnel shortages in the Denver police and sheriff’s departments. 

Setting him apart from some of the more left-leaning mayoral candidates, Hansen said he supports enforcing Denver’s camping ban by sweeping illegal homeless encampments and supports increasing funding for law enforcement: “We need a world-class police department for Denver to be successful, and I’m all in on making those investments,” he said. 

Hansen also differs from the pool of candidates in his identity, with the biggest name candidates so far all being women and people of color. Denver has never had a female mayor before. 

“I obviously can’t change my own characteristics of who I am, but I also think the Denver voters will make a decision that will be very well-rounded,” Hansen said. “I really want to be a pragmatic problem solver for Denver. That’s the kind of campaign I want to run and then let the Denver voters make the best choice.”

He added: “My wife is of South Asian descent. My kids are half Indian. It’s also a big part of who I am and my lived experience, raising two brown boys in Denver.”  

If Hansen were to be elected as mayor next year, a vacancy committee would select a replacement to fill his seat representing Senate District 31, including 19 whole neighborhoods in central and east Denver.

Other state lawmakers who’ve been repeatedly named as potential candidates include Denver Democrats Rep. Alex Valdez and House Speaker Alec Garnett, who was on Monday named chief of staff to Gov. Jared Polis starting in 2023. 

Denver’s municipal election is on April 4.