On Tuesday, state Senate minority leader Morgan Carroll announced a bid for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 6th District — a seat no Democrat has ever won.
District 6 includes her current state district, Aurora, and eastern Arapahoe County.
Carroll, as she says it, has deep ties to working class Colorado, the plight of minimum-wage workers and the service industry. She presents herself as a dedicated progressive with a populist bent.
Steve House, head of the Colorado GOP, sees it differently. He wrote in a press release, “The fact is that Morgan has the record of a San Francisco liberal who doesn’t reflect our Colorado values. Time after time, Sen. Carroll has stood with the most extreme elements of her Party to raise taxes and fees on hardworking families, increase regulations on small businesses and try to destroy Colorado’s energy industry.”
The seat in the 6th District is currently held by Rep. Mike Coffman — incumbent big shot who defeated former speaker of the Colorado House Andrew Romanoff in one of the most expensive and closely watched races of the 2014 midterms.
The district, which splits evenly between registered Democrats and Republicans, voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012.
Since re-election in 2014, Coffman has been trying to clean up the mess that is the half-built Veterans Affairs hospital in Aurora. It’s a defining issue for him, not only as a military veteran himself, but as the chairman of the House Veterans Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee.
Many predicted Coffman would run against Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in 2016, but earlier this summer Coffman announced he would defend his current seat instead for the fifth time.
“The theme of the campaign is going to be about real results,” Carroll told The Aurora Sentinel on Monday. “Congress has been paralyzed. It’s a crisis of confidence to get anything done.”
Carroll rolled out a campaign kickoff video timed with the announcement, and will set out on a “listening tour” later this month.
Photo still via Morgan Carroll for Congress campaign video.
