Jared Polis Emerges as the Democrats’ Answer to Ron DeSantis

He is a governor of a swing state that has been trending toward one party in recent years, becoming a locus of its electoral hopes in the process. Tuesday’s election brought him a margin of victory well into double digits. His party is led by an aging figure, seemingly ripe for the toppling.Who else could it be but Governor DeSantis, whose star is in ascent in the Sunshine State? Meet Governor Polis of Colorado, who thrashed his Republican opponent, entrepreneur Heidi Ghanal, by 57 percent to 40 percent, outpacing President Biden’s 55 percent mark in the state from 2020. With Messrs. Polis and DeSantis both rewarded by voters with a second term, those looking at the horizon beyond Mr. Biden and President Trump could alight on these two governors who have reached the political summit of their respective states and now could be angling for roles on the national stage. Mr. Polis, who served in Congress before helming the Centennial State, has long been a groundbreaker. He was the first openly gay man elected governor of a state and the first Jew elected governor of Colorado. In 2014, he was the first representative to accept donations in bitcoin. Mr. Polis is also among the wealthiest of solons. In the years before the turn of the millennium, at the peak of the dot-com boom, he founded an electronic greeting card company, an online florist, and others, selling to larger concerns for north of a billion dollars. In April, Mr. Polis signed into law a bill that allows abortion with no restrictions whatsoever. He also pushed for the establishment of universal free kindergarten while championing school choice. Mr. Polis demonstrated electoral strength even in Republican strongholds. Conservatives themselves are taking note. A column from George Will in September was headlined, “Why Colorado Gov. Jared Polis Could Answer Democrats’ 2024 Prayers.” Mr. Will praised his “knack for leavening his high-octane progressivism with departures from that church’s strict catechism.”Mr. Polis is having none of it, rejecting suggestions that he could offer a respite from a “spirit-crushing Biden-Trump 2.0.” One of his campaign spokesmen told CNN that the governor is “not considering anything like that and is focused on running the state of Colorado. … [H]e plans to serve his entire term as governor of Colorado.”The governor’s mansion at Denver is just under 1,600 miles from the one in Tallahassee where Mr. DeSantis likely still has chants of “two more years” — alluding to a possible presidential run in 2024 — ringing in his ears. Should that come to pass, Mr. Polis is increasingly looking like a contender. Both Messrs. Polis and DeSantis have the benefit of charting their courses around less than formidable incumbents. President Biden enters his ninth decade burdened with low poll numbers, elevated levels of inflation, and visible infirmity. Election Day left Mr. Trump a wounded politician, less Svengali than stumbling block.

Jared Polis Emerges as the Democrats’ Answer to Ron DeSantis

Jared Polis Emerges as the Democrats’ Answer to Ron DeSantis

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