{"id":1313582,"date":"2019-08-15T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=986061"},"modified":"2019-08-15T10:00:13","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T16:00:13","slug":"john-hickenlooper-ending-his-2020-white-house-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/john-hickenlooper-ending-his-2020-white-house-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"John Hickenlooper ending his 2020 White House bid"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"John
Democratic president candidate and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper walks on stage before speaking at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding at the Surf Ballroom, Friday, Aug. 9, 2019, in Clear Lake, Iowa.<\/strong>
AP Photo\/John Locher<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

DENVER (AP) \u2014 John Hickenlooper will drop out of the Democratic presidential primary on Thursday, according to a Democrat close to him.<\/p>\n

The former two-term Colorado governor, who ran as a moderate warning of the perils of extreme partisanship, struggled with fundraising and low polling numbers. His planned departure from the 2020 race was confirmed Wednesday night by a Democrat who wasn\u2019t authorized to speak publicly before the announcement and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper, 67, is not expected to announce a decision Thursday on whether he will run for Senate in Colorado, though he has been discussing the possibility with advisers. Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, up for reelection in 2020, is considered one of the most vulnerable senators in the country because of Colorado\u2019s shift to the left.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper became a political giant in Colorado for his quirky, consensus-driven and unscripted approach to politics. He once jumped out of a plane to sell a ballot measure to increase state spending and won two statewide elections in a purple state during Republican wave years. He was previously the mayor of Denver.<\/p>\n

He launched his longshot White House bid<\/a> in March, promising to unite the country. Instead, he quickly became a political punch line.<\/p>\n

Shortly before taking his first trip to Iowa as a candidate, Hickenlooper, who became a multimillionaire founding a series of brewpubs, balked at calling himself a capitalist on national television. Then, at a CNN town hall, he recounted how he once took his mother to see a pornographic movie. With the campaign struggling to raise money, his staff urged Hickenlooper to instead challenge<\/a> Gardner. But Hickenlooper stayed in and hired another group of staffers in a last-ditch effort to turn around his campaign.<\/p>\n

Positioning himself as a common-sense candidate who couldn\u2019t be labeled a socialist by Republicans, Hickenlooper couldn\u2019t make his voice heard in the crowded Democratic presidential field<\/a> of about two dozen candidates. It didn\u2019t help that, by Hickenlooper\u2019s own admission, he\u2019s a mediocre debater and erratic public speaker. In the end, he couldn\u2019t even scrape together enough money for many of his trademark quirky ads, only launching one in which avid beer drinkers toast Hickenlooper by comparing him to favorite brews.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper softened his denials of interest in the Senate in recent weeks as his campaign finances dwindled and pressure increased from other Democrats. He started telling people he\u2019d make a decision by the end of this week.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether Hickenlooper plans to run against Gardner, whom national Democrats have urged him to take on since last year. He\u2019s repeatedly said he\u2019s not interested in the Senate and prefers an executive position.<\/p>\n

But if Hickenlooper did run against Gardner, he\u2019d first have to get through another crowded Democratic primary field. Numerous Colorado Democrats have launched primary bids for Gardner\u2019s seat, and many have indicated they\u2019d stay in the race, even if Hickenlooper enters the contest.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper isn\u2019t the first Democratic hopeful to end his 2020 presidential bid. U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell of California announced his departure<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace contributed to this report from Washington.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic president candidate and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper walks on stage before speaking at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding at the Surf Ballroom, Friday, Aug. 9, 2019, in Clear Lake, Iowa.AP Photo\/John Locher DENVER (AP) \u2014 John Hickenlooper will drop out of the Democratic presidential primary on Thursday, according to a Democrat close to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1313582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-07 06:50:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1313582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1313582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1313582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1313582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}