Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser visited The Lincoln Center in Fort Collins Feb. 20 to host a town hall highlighting his 2026 gubernatorial campaign. Current Gov. Jared Polis is ineligible to seek another term, leaving the seat open to a slate of fresh candidates who will spend the next several months competing for a chance to become Colorado’s next chief executive come Nov. 3.

First elected attorney general in 2018, Weiser cast himself as a candidate prepared to stand up for the rights of Coloradans in the face of federal overreach. He said his legal experience, including his part in numerous lawsuits against President Donald Trump, has prepared him to confront pressing issues like affordability, climate policy and executive interference.

“The next governor cannot be a governor who says, ‘I’m going to do one thing,’” Weiser said. “We’ve got too many challenges ahead on housing, on health care, on childcare, on water, on how we build transportation systems and so much more. I’ve done this work. I’m ready to get to work on day one.”

After a supportive introduction from Sen. Cathy Kipp, Weiser opened his remarks with a pledge to shield Colorado from Trump’s efforts to expand executive authority over states. He cited the 54 lawsuits his office has filed against the Trump administration since 2025, noting that many were decided in Colorado’s favor.

“This federal government is intimidating and bullying states and undermining commitments, including treating people equally and fairly, treating immigrants lawfully and addressing climate change,” Weiser said. “I’m not going to be bullied. I’m going to make sure that I represent Colorado and I fight for our constitutional rights.”

A handful of local representatives attended the forum to show their support for Weiser, including Kipp, Fort Collins City Councilmember Amy Hoeven and Larimer County District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin.

“From my vantage point as an elected official these last five years, no one — no one — has had boots on the ground around the state of Colorado more than Phil Weiser,” McLaughlin said. “We cannot, in this great time of turmoil in this country, lose Phil Weiser as our representative in government.”

Weiser highlighted several accomplishments from his time as attorney general, including his opioid response efforts that he said contributed to a 31% reduction in fentanyl deaths in 2024, protections for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and broad endorsements from leaders in Colorado’s agricultural sector.

“I was reminded of Phil’s resume and how impressive it is,” attendee John Yocum said. “His efforts to stand up against the Trump administration, with all the lawsuits and everything, that was a big thing for me.”

Weiser specifically touted his record taking on corporate consolidation, noting his role in breaking up monopolistic practices in Colorado’s health care sector. He pointed to his background as former President Bill Clinton’s senior counsel to the assistant attorney general in charge of the Antitrust Division, and he said his campaign includes proposals to curb corporate consolidation and reduce the influence of dark money in state politics.

“So many people are seeing wealthy corporations and billionaires do better, and they’re getting squeezed,” Weiser said. “We, right now, face a real moment of truth for our democracy. Do people believe it’s working for them?”

He tied his efforts to local concerns, beginning with housing affordability in Northern Colorado. Citing past partnerships with Larimer County officials, Weiser proposed creating a statewide chief housing officer position to streamline permitting and infrastructure coordination to reduce costs and accelerate development.

“I’m worried about young people not staying in Colorado,” Weiser said. “If you look at our population numbers, the growth is as slow as it’s been since 1990. One of the core challenges is how we ensure an affordable Colorado where people can afford to buy a home (and) have access to child care and health care.”

He added that student and youth engagement would be essential to addressing issues like mental health, climate change, health care and workforce shifts driven by artificial intelligence.

“(Colorado State University) students should know that I am deeply committed to working with you as we confront a series of challenges that are going to affect our future, and I need you as part of how we meet this moment,” Weiser said. “I believe deeply our democratic republic is a team sport, and getting young people involved, engaged, informed is going to make us stronger as a campaign and is going to make me stronger as a governor.”

Weiser opened the floor to questions, giving first priority to students. Several attendees pressed him on how he would respond to federal immigration enforcement and what protections the state could offer to vulnerable communities.

“I think his No. 1 priority needs to be insulating Colorado from federal influence and federal violence,” attendee Rhys Williams said. “All the other problems we have in Colorado are serious problems, but we cannot fix those if there are masked thugs walking around shooting people in the streets.”

Citing his numerous lawsuits against the Trump administration, Weiser said he would continue to use state authority to resist federal actions he deems unconstitutional. He added that a governor must also work to mend social divisions by projecting stability and unity.

“We need a governor who sets a tone that, in Colorado, we know that all of us care about all of us and that we’re not going to let people start picking on immigrants or the LGBTQ community and get away with it,” Weiser said. “Because in Colorado, we care about all of us.”

When asked about protecting gender-affirming health care — which has been suspended by several Colorado medical facilities seeking to retain federal funding — Weiser framed the issue as a matter of life and death.

“If we’re telling young people, their physicians and their families, ‘You can’t be your best authentic self,’ we’re going to lose people in this country,” Weiser said. “People’s lives are going to be upended. So we are hard at work on this. We are committed to having your back.”

Audience members directed multiple questions toward AI, data centers and climate policy. Weiser said he plans to regulate data centers in ways that make sense for each individual community, ultimately prioritizing environmental protection and reasonable energy rates.

“(Data centers) cannot be allowed to push up our electricity rates,” Weiser said. “They need to be bringing and using their own clean energy. We need to make sure that where we’re embracing them is where it makes sense for communities, and there are opportunities for those win-wins, but we’ve got to work together to plan in a smart way for where and how we build the infrastructure of the 21st century.”

He highlighted multiple facets of his climate policy that ultimately aim to integrate clean energy infrastructure throughout the state’s economic sectors. Weiser said he wants to boost public transportation, including building a railway between Fort Collins and Pueblo, incentivize electric vehicle sales and monitor orphaned gas wells that produce methane.

“We have had an extraordinary revolution in solar and in storage, and we need to enable more innovation around the electric grid to allow these technologies to enter and to give people more choices on affordable and cleaner energy,” Weiser said.

Questions about public school funding also dominated the discussion. According to the Colorado Education Association, Colorado is facing a $4 billion education shortfall, recently exacerbated by new federal policies that effectively divert public education funds to tax vouchers for private schools. Weiser said he would not support such initiatives in Colorado.

“The Trump administration is pushing a voucher initiative, and there’s only one candidate in this race whose position is ‘hell no,’ and that’s me,” Weiser said.

Colorado already spends well below the national average on public education, in part due to the revenue limits under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Weiser said he opposes proposals that would shift more funding responsibility onto local districts and argued that TABOR itself must be reexamined.

“I will be personally invested in doing town halls all across Colorado to explain how TABOR is a fiscal set of handcuffs that’s forcing us to eat our seed corn and mortgage our future,” Weiser said. “I believe we will bring the people of Colorado along to come up with a proposal to give us the type of investment that we need in our educational system.”

Conor Duffy, candidate for Larimer County treasurer, said he endorsed Weiser largely because of these education policies.

“Phil is the only candidate in the race who has publicly come out against school vouchers, and that’s very important to not only our students, but it’s very important to the budget situation within the county,” Duffy said. “TABOR inhibits us from being able to properly fund our schools, properly fund our teachers and properly fund our future.”

Weiser also outlined his plan to protect access to childcare, proposing a Childcare Solutions Fund and an online state portal that would connect families with centers that meet their needs.

“Affordable, accessible child care is like infrastructure,” Weiser said. “It’s like roads. If you don’t have it, you’re not going to have a thriving community. We need to invest in it and drive solutions forward. We also need to make it easier for people looking for child care to find it and to find sources of support that are out there.”

For many community members, the night reinforced the belief that Colorado Democrats must take a more assertive stance in the face of national political upheaval. Several attendees said they are looking for candidates who are willing to move beyond rhetoric and take decisive action.

“I’ve been really disappointed by our senate and current senator’s sometimes lackluster response to what I see as kind of an existential crisis regarding democracy,” attendee Kathie Kunz said.

CSU graduate Amber Wright said she hopes Weiser will continue to protect the rights of his constituents as governor, even if that means working outside of the traditional political frameworks.

“From any governor and elected official, I want them to be radically creative about what comes next because, one way or another, we’re going to live through a lot of change and some kind of system collapse,” Wright said. “I hope to be supporting people who are not only looking to fight right now but build something new and completely different.”