By: Ernest Luning | Colorado Politics
Unaffiliated gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez, a former Republican congressman from Elizabeth who left the GOP to run as an independent, has qualified for the ballot by submitting enough petition signatures, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said Tuesday.
He’ll face Democratic nominee Phil Weiser, the state’s two-term attorney general, and Republican Victor Marx, a first-time candidate who runs a Christian ministry in Colorado Springs, as well as several candidates who belong to minor political parties.
Lopez and his pick for lieutenant governor, Taralyn Romero, a Jefferson County property rights activist and health care worker, needed to turn in 1,000 valid signatures from registered voters in each of the state’s eight congressional districts, for a total of 8,000, to make the statewide ballot. Election officials said 11,948 of the 14,723 signatures they submitted were valid.
Lopez represented Colorado’s 4th Congressional District for the last six months of 2024 after winning a special election to fill the vacancy created when former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck resigned mid-term. He didn’t seek election to a full term in the state’s most heavily Republican seat, which is anchored by Douglas County and covers the Eastern Plains.
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