By Ernest Luning | Colorado Politics
Heather Graham was sworn in as only the second mayor of Pueblo in more than a century on Feb. 1, following the first-term, at-large city council member’s nearly 25-point win in a runoff against the incumbent mayor, Nick Gradisar.
A Pueblo native and registered Republican, Graham traces her political awakening to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when she organized protests over city policies that restricted operations at her three restaurants — Ruby’s Wine Bar and two Graham’s Grills.
Known for its namesake Pueblo chile and as the Home of Heroes — it’s the hometown of four Congressional Medal of Honor recipients — Pueblo is Colorado’s ninth-largest city, with a current estimated population of just over 110,000 putting it behind Westminster and slightly ahead of Greeley. After voters approved changing the former city manager-council form of government to a strong mayor system in 2017, they elected Gradisar as the first mayor under the new arrangement in 2019.