Former U.S. Rep. Greg Lopez, a candidate for governor of Colorado, has left the Republican Party and plans to run as an unaffiliated candidate for the office held by term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.

Lopez, who served six months in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2024 after winning a special vacancy election, announced Saturday in an online video that he and his wife changed their voter registration a few days earlier because he believes neither political party has a corner on the answers to the state’s problems.

“The system itself is broken. Both parties raise money better than they solve problems. They divide better than they listen,” Lopez said in the video.

“The fastest growing group in our state, unaffiliated voters, feel politically homeless,” he said. “I want you to know I see you because today I am one of you. On Dec. 30, 2025, my wife Lisa and I changed our party affiliation to unaffiliated, not because it was convenient, not because it was safe, but because it was honest.”

His departure from the primary leaves 20 Republicans running in this year’s election for an office the party hasn’t held since 2007, when the only GOP governor elected in the last 50 years, Bill Owens, finished his second term.

On Monday, state Sen. Mark Baisley, R-Woodland Park, who along with Lopez was one of the leading Republican gubernatorial candidates, withdrew from the race and joined the primary for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat John Hickenlooper.

The field of Republicans still running for governor includes state Sen. Barb Barb Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton; state Rep. Scott Bottoms, R-Colorado Springs; Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell; Colorado Springs-based ministry leader Victor Marx; former congressional candidate Joshua Griffin; and conservative podcaster Joe Oltmann.

Two of the state’s leading Democrats are running for the job: three-term U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser, who faces term limits.

Lopez’s announcement came a day after formerly independent congressional candidate Matt Cavanaugh said he had affiliated with the Democratic Party for his bid to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank in the 5th Congressional District.

Lopez is making his third run for governor after losing in the Republican primaries in 2018 and 2022.

Announcing his party switch, Lopez acknowledged that his new status is double-edged.

“This means I won’t appear in a primary ballot. I won’t have party machines behind me. I will have to earn every ounce of trust directly from you, and I’m willing to do that, and it’s a little bit scary,” he said.

Added Lopez: “Colorado doesn’t need another politician who answers to party bosses or national talking points. Colorado needs a governor who wakes up every day asking one question: what actually works for the people of this state.”

Without a political party to nominate him, Lopez will need to collect the signatures of at least 8,000 registered voters — with 1,000 coming from each of the state’s congressional districts — to qualify for the November ballot.

It’s an easier hurdle for an independent candidate than Republicans and Democrats face to reach their primaries for the same office, since state law requires major-party candidates to gather 12,000 signatures — 1,500 from each congressional district — from voters who belong to their party.

Noting that he left the Democratic Party to become a Republican more than 30 years ago when he was mayor of the then-small town of Parker, Lopez said he hasn’t changed his values, just his team colors.

“I’m staying true to who I’ve always been; I’m simply changing who I answer to,” he said. “Why now? Because unaffiliated voters are now the largest voice in Colorado, and the problems we face won’t wait for another cycle of partisan excuses.”

While the state’s electorate was nearly evenly divided between Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters as recently as a dozen years ago, the ranks of the unaffiliated have swollen in recent years, bringing the category to just under 50% of the state’s active, registered voters.

Among voters who are affiliated with a party, Democrats maintain a slight edge over Republicans, with minor-party members accounting for a tiny fraction of the total.

Colorado voters have never elected an unaffiliated governor, though a handful of states have in recent decades, including Alaska’s Bill Walker, who was endorsed by the state’s Democrats and was elected to a single term in 2014.

Former Republican U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chaffee was elected governor of Rhode Island as an independent in 2011 and became a Democrat two years later. Another often-cited example, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, was elected in 1998 on the Reform Party ticket and switched to the Independence Party of Minnesota while in office.