State Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat, announced on Thursday that she will run for the open Jefferson County commissioner seat.

That seat is currently held by Commissioner Tracy Kraft-Tharp, a former state lawmaker, who announced this week she will not seek a second term.

“This seems like the next best opportunity for me to apply my skills in service to the community,” Zenzinger said in a statement Thursday. “Honestly, that’s what it’s all about. I get huge satisfaction from serving the people of Jefferson County and wherever people can benefit most from my emphases on transparency and accessibility.”

Zenzinger chaired the Joint Budget Committee in the 2023 session and will be its vice-chair in 2024. She is term-limited in 2024.

Zenzinger has had one of the more unusual careers as a state lawmaker. She was first selected by a vacancy committee in 2013 to replace Sen. Evie Hudak, who resigned rather than face a recall over votes on gun control legislation. 

Zenzinger lost her first election bid in 2014 to Republican Laura Woods, but, in a 2016 rematch, she defeated Woods. She handily won reelection in 2020.

Zenzinger has bounced on and off the Joint Budget Committee, replaced when some of her positions didn’t sit well with leadership, including Gov. Jared Polis. 

“Don’t count me out,” Zenzinger said when she went back on the JBC at the end of 2022, returning as the committee’s most experienced member. 

Zenzinger is one of her caucus’s most independent members, teaming up with Republicans, including with JBC colleague Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican, for example, in opposing the governor’s land use bill in the 2023 session. The measure eventually died when Senate Democrats refused to consider the version adopted by House Democrats. 

She briefly considered making a run for Arvada mayor this year, but decided to stay with the JBC for one last session.

She said she will finish her term at the state Capitol in early May, then launch into the election campaign for the county commissioner race. She has already filed her candidacy for the seat and is so far running unopposed.

A scramble for the Democratic primary is already on for her Senate District 19 seat, pitting Rep. Lindsey Daugherty against Obi Ezeadi, who briefly worked as an intern in Zenzinger’s office in 2023 but left when he announced his bid for the state Senate.