Republican Janak Joshi, a former state lawmaker from Colorado Springs, has formally launched his campaign to challenge first-term Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper in next year’s election.

Joshi, who made an unsuccessful run for Congress last year after moving to Thornton, joins retired Col. George Market, a 30-year Marine Corps veteran from Broomfield, in the GOP primary.

Colorado Politics reported in early July that Joshi had filed paperwork to run for the Senate seat held since 2021 by Hickenlooper, a former two-term governor and two-term mayor of Denver. At that time, Joshi acknowledged that he’d formed a committee but said he would make an official announcement at a later date.

Nonpartisan election analysts rank Colorado’s U.S. Senate seat among the Democrats’ safest seats on the 2026 map. Republicans haven’t won a statewide election in Colorado in nearly a decade.

Declaring that he “fought toe-to-toe” against Hickenlooper when Joshi was a legislator and the Democrat occupied the governor’s office, Joshi said in a statement that he “(has) no choice but to go toe-to-toe with Hickenlooper again. In the legislature, I was a thorn in his side. Now, I’m going to send him packing and deliver common-sense results for Colorado.”

Added Joshi: “America is at a crossroads. This country gave me and my family the opportunity to find the American dream. Hickenlooper and radical progressives in D.C. are trying to destroy it. I With your support, we can cut through the political circus that is Washington D.C., and deliver for (Coloradans).”

A spokesman for Hickenlooper’s campaign called Joshi “too extreme” for the state.

“Janak Joshi is a far-right politician,” Hickenlooper aide Jess Cohen told Colorado Politics in a text message. “He’s a self-described pro-Trump Republican who said he’d be proud to answer to Trump’s MAGA supporters in Congress. He’s too extreme for Colorado.”

In an Aug. 6 appearance on the Chuck & Julie Show, Joshi told conservative podcast hosts Chuck Bonniwell and Julie Hayden that he’s stood by his principles since his first run for office more than two decades ago.

“I am not a new face in Colorado politics, but my principles have never changed from day one,” Joshi said. “I mean, they are very simple. They are smaller government, lower taxes and less regulations. And, basically, the points I’m running on is economy, healthcare and immigration.”

An immigrant from India, Joshi said last year when he announced his congressional campaign that he arrived in the United States more than 50 years ago “with a suitcase, $100 and deep convictions to serve others first and uphold the rule of law.”

“I am a legal immigrant. I came to this country legally,” Joshi said in the podcast, adding that he was frustrated at seeing “people who just sneak in and jumped the lines.” Joshi noted that he had to fill out forms, get a physical exam and line up a financial sponsor when he immigrated.

Joshi maintained that he sticks to his beliefs, regardless of partisan pressure.

“I am man of principles,” he told the podcasters. “I have even voted against the Republican bills because they were increasing the regulations or increasing our budget, and I will be the same person. I will fight for people. I am a people person. As a physician, I love to talk to people, and that’s what I will be doing, and I’m always available so people can always reach me.”

Joshi is a former physician. He voluntarily surrendered his medical license in 2008, a year after the state suspended his license following his admission of “unprofessional conduct” in the care of a 76-year-old patient.

Elected to the first of three terms in the state House in 2010, Joshi lost his bid for a fourth term in a contentious 2016 primary against fellow Republican Larry Liston, a former state lawmaker who was later elected to represent an El Paso County state Senate seat. Joshi also made unsuccessful runs for the Colorado Springs City Council in 2003 and 2017.

Joshi said he expects to surprise the pundits.

“Right now, my goal is just to raise enough money to prove that I am a credible candidate, and hopefully there won’t be anybody else (running), and hopefully everybody will rally behind me, particularly our Republican Party,” Joshi said. “And I think we can win. This is a winnable race, and even though people may think that it’s not on the national news, yet we will be and we will flip this.”