By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice
A couple of Republican women called Rich Guggenheim and asked if he’d be interested in running for office.
His first instinct was a joke. “Running what? Running my mouth? I can definitely… I’m really good at doing that.”
When they told him it was Senate District 25, he recognized the seat right away.
“Nobody else wants to run, huh?”
The seat was previously held by Faith Winter and is now filled by appointed Sen. William Lindstedt.
They told him they’d tried. No one would do it. He said yes. He joked that a win might come with a therapy bill for them.
After saying yes, he said he earned 90 percent of the vote at county assembly. When he launched his campaign at Satire Brewing in Thornton on April 22, the early support started to take shape.
He said he had 12 donors and just over $1,200 raised in the first week—“$100 is the average per person… I think that’s great.”
SD 25 includes Northglenn, Westminster, Broomfield and parts of Adams County.
“I keep saying we need good people to step up and run, and I guess I’m that good person, so it’s time for me to walk the talk.”
Where he comes from
Guggenheim was born in Salida. His father worked at the Climax molybdenum mine until layoffs moved the family to Dolores. He built a career in agriculture and horticulture, worked in extension education and hosted a gardening radio show called The Avant Gardener before joining the Department of Agriculture.
He lives in Northglenn near the N line light rail, in a part of the district he describes as quieter than most.
“I’m right by East Lake,” he said. “The other day I was out there and there was a bald eagle sitting in a tree.”
“Small town Colorado is where I’m from.”
The turning point
Guggenheim was a Republican before working on the Obama campaign. He became a Democrat during that time and, by his own description, drifted ideologically progressive.
The shift back started during COVID.
“It was during COVID and President Biden’s administration that I really started to say, ‘Hold a minute. This doesn’t add up.'”
Then the break sharpened.
“What really woke me up was coming out of COVID, going to Pride… and seeing how very little of Pride actually had to do with LGB rights.”
By 2024, he had made the shift and voted for President Trump. Today, he describes himself as a “conservative libertarian, small L.”
“I believe that government and individual rights are at equilibrium,” he said. “The bigger the government, the smaller the individual rights.”
That philosophy often puts him at odds with both parties.
When Minneapolis moved to allow gay bath houses, Guggenheim publicly supported it—not as a cultural issue, but as a property rights issue—and said he lost conservative allies over it.
“If you own that property, you have the right to do whatever you want on property that you own, as long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of other people,” he said. “If you want to build a church, that’s your right. If you want to build a bath house, that’s your right.”
For Guggenheim, the argument comes back to a broader principle.
“I want the government as much in the background as possible so I can live my life how I want to live my life.”
“If a community is only inclusive to a certain point… it’s focused on control.”
The issues hitting home
He said it comes up quickly when he talks to people.
Older homeowners tell him they’re worried property taxes could push them out of homes they’ve already paid off.
Younger residents don’t see a path to homeownership at all. Business owners describe rising inspections, fees and regulatory hurdles.
And from his background in agriculture, he sees a direct line from policy to prices.
“There’s a direct correlation between what you do and the regulations you impose on those people who produce our food and the cost of food at the grocery store in your community.”
After winter windstorms forced power shutoffs across the Front Range, he started questioning how reliable the system really is.
“What good does wind power do if every time the wind blows the power goes out?” he said.
“I don’t care if your energy is green or brown. If the grid is black, it doesn’t do us any good.”
Guggenheim said securing elections is a priority.
“I support paper ballots. I support same-day voting. There was something about going to a polling place, standing in line and filling out a ballot in that booth. We lost that ‘I voted moment’ when it shows up in your mailbox and you don’t know what happens to it.”
“Once trust is lost, it’s really hard to get back,” he said. “If you want to build trust, you’ve got to be transparent.”
But the issue that drew his sharpest words was one he said the legislature has refused to act on.
“For three years we have tried to get legislation passed that would make buying and selling a child for sex, literally raping a child, to make that a felony. And the Democrats, three years in a row, have failed to do that.”
From the Supreme Court steps to the ballot
Guggenheim’s political profile extends beyond Colorado.
While serving as director of legislation for Gays Against Groomers, he co-authored an amicus brief in United States v. Skrmetti, a case over Tennessee’s ban on gender-transition procedures for minors. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled 6–3 for Tennessee in June 2025 and cited the category of briefs that included his filing in its majority opinion.
He was there the day the case was argued, speaking on the steps of the Supreme Court. A video of that speech made its way onto X, where it picked up over 21 millions views after being shared by Elon Musk.
That opportunity, he said, started with a simple ask. He was approached about contributing to a brief on a case involving gender-affirming care—something he hadn’t done before.
He said he decided to take it on anyway, writing from both his scientific background and his experience as a gay man. He framed the issue as a modern form of conversion therapy and laid out what he sees as the harms.
“We have to stop coupling sexual orientation with gender ideology ’cause they are not the same thing,” he said.
From whistleblower to candidate
Guggenheim is a plant health programs manager at the Colorado Department of Agriculture. Guggenheim is also fighting his own agency. During a November 2025 managers’ meeting, he pushed back on a DEI training initiative in a department that runs on federal grant money—and CDA opened an investigation into him the same day he filed a complaint with the U.S. Attorney General.
His appeal and whistleblower complaint are pending before the State Personnel Board. He said the experience only strengthened his resolve.
“As tough as it’s been… it’s made me even more determined to fight this and expose it.”
He also pointed to what he sees as structural problems inside state government, including positions across the state’s 19 departments that he says function as legislative liaisons for the governor’s office.
“They’re essentially lobbyists for the governor telling the legislature what to do,” he said.
Guggenheim said cutting those roles would be one of the first places he’d look to reduce spending.
“When we’re talking about a $2 billion shortfall, that’s one of the easiest things I can think of cutting.”
“I don’t know why the executive branch is trying to affect the legislative branch like that.”
“I would DOGE the whole state.”
The Senate math
He said the Senate is where he sees an opening.
“If we only flip a few Senate seats, then we could have a majority… and put the brakes on a lot of what’s going on.”
He said he’d like to serve on the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, where his background at the Department of Agriculture would carry into the work at the Capitol.
As he builds his campaign, he’s also keeping track of what he’s learning—filings, deadlines, all the small steps—putting together what he calls a “playbook” for future candidates.
“Nobody’s taken the time to do that repository of knowledge. I hope to give it to other people.”
Walking the talk
“There’s been plenty of times, and it’s only a month into it, I’m like, ‘What have I got myself into?'” he said.
But he keeps coming back to the people who asked him to run in the first place — and the ones who showed up when he said yes.
“Sometimes you gotta realize that there’s people behind you pushing you forward,” Guggenheim said. “And that is important sometimes because it takes those people’s support to keep you going.”
More information about his campaign is available at richforsd25.com. He can be found on X and Facebook at Rich for SD25.
Guggenheim recently appeared on Unleashed with Heidi Ganahl. The full interview is available on Spotify, YouTube and Rumble.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong date for Guggenheim’s campaign launch. He launched April 22, not April 24.
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