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Two of the candidates for Colorado governor squared off in a televised debate on Thursday night, when Attorney General Phil Weiser, the Democratic nominee, and former U.S. Rep. Greg Lopez, an unaffiliated candidate, delved into issues of affordability, data center regulation and gun laws.
The debate’s tone was civil. The policy differences between the two were palpable.
Both candidates called out Republican nominee Victor Marx, a ministry leader and first-time candidate who declined to participate in the debate
On housing, Weiser argued that building more “starter” homes and lowering the barriers to buying them is the right approach. Along with bumping Colorado’s supply of owner-occupied housing by 40,000 by 2035, he proposed cutting permitting fees, incorporating modular homes and giving local governments incentives to modernize zoning rules.
“If we start building modular homes at scale in Colorado, they are 20% cheaper than ordinary homes,” Weiser said. “And I’ve got to tell you, to a modular home, you can’t tell the difference, and they’re 30% quicker.”
Weiser, a former dean of the University of Colorado Law School and U.S. Justice Department official, secured the Democratic nomination in the June 30 primary against three-term U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.
Lopez, who agreed with Weiser that affordability is a problem, said understanding land use is key. He said he would sit down with builders and developers to reduce costs.
“You have to evaluate what it costs to build a home,” Lopez said. “Everybody just thinks that it’s the windows and the lumber. There’s a lot that goes into developing that lot, building that lot, in order to put the house on there.”
Lopez, who served in Congress for six months in 2024 after winning a special election to fill a vacancy, is making his third run for governor. After campaigning last year for the GOP nomination, he left the party and announced his bid as an unaffiliated candidate in January. Earlier this summer, he successfully petitioned onto the ballot.
Weiser advocated for a state law to regulate data centers, saying the goal is to protect community interests, including clean energy standards and utility rates.
Lopez said the jury is still out on data centers, adding he, too, is worried about their water use.
When it comes to gun laws, Lopez said he would oppose what he described as unconstitutional restrictions and roll back new requirements to complete a required firearm safety course administered by Colorado Parks and Wildlife before a resident can buy semiautomatic firearms with detachable magazines.
“Why in the world would we have to take a class to exercise our Second Amendment, and this is hurting poor Coloradans,” Lopez said. “This is hurting those individuals that are not making $60,000, $70,000.”
Those residents, he said, can’t just go to a class and pay hundreds of dollars, “when all they want to do is protect their family.”
Weiser said he has worked with the legislature on gun violence prevention with not only a mental health mindset but also with ensuring Colorado laws comply with the Second Amendment.
“Because I’ve worked with the legislature as they’ve crafted laws, I’ve made sure they meet the basic standard Justice (Antonin) Scalia set out in the Heller decision that says reasonable restrictions on access to firearms are consistent with the Second Amendment,” Weiser said. “Something like a red flag law is a clear, reasonable restriction. If you’re a danger to yourself or others, getting access to a firearm is playing with fire. We can avoid it, and we can save lives.
Both candidates, who held copies of the Constitution, also talked about the state’s election systems.
When it came to supporting Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on commuting Tina Peters’ prison sentence, the two disagreed.
“One of the things that people need to understand is that as a governor, you’re required to make thoughtful decisions about the future of individuals, specifically when they’ve broken the law,” Lopez said. “Look, there is no question that the law had been broken.”
“However,” he added, “the appellate court here in Colorado stated that the judge on that case did not do it correctly.”
Lopez said that, knowing what he knows now, he would still have supported Polis’s commutation of Peters’s sentence.
“She (Peters) was sentenced after a jury of her peers found her guilty, and at every point, essentially up until now, she has been unrepentant,” Weiser countered. “She has taken solace in being part of some political cause, but she has not taken responsibility for her crimes, and to commute a sentence when someone is completely unrepentant is wrong. What Gov. Polis did is wrong.”
Marx, who defeated two Republican lawmakers to win the GOP nomination, declared last month that he only intended to debate Weiser once before the general election — and said he would only do so without a moderator. So far, that hasn’t materialized, and Marx has passed on multiple debate invitations.
The hour-long debate at the Pikes Peak Center, was sponsored by The Gazette, Colorado Politics, KOAA News and the El Pomar Foundation.
Colorado has only elected one Republican governor in the last half century, and national election forecasters don’t expect that statistic to change this year, with every nonpartisan analyst’s site rating Colorado as a safe Democratic seat.
Mail ballots will start to go out to Colorado voters on Oct. 2 and are due back to county clerks by 7 p.m. Nov. 3.
Colorado Politics reporter Ernest Luning contributed to this report.
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