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Former State Senator Mike Johnston will address the mayoral runoff debate on Thursday, May 11.
CNN
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Former Colorado senator Mike Johnston will become the next mayor of Denver after his opponent, Kelly Braff, was asked to make concessions in Tuesday’s runoff election.
“I called Mike and I hope he is surrounded by people as beautiful as I am tonight. And our city is in trouble and needs a lot of work.” So I wish them the best of luck in their future work,” said former CEO Braff. She is a member of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, and if elected she would have been the city’s first female mayor.
Johnston is poised to succeed Democratic incumbent Michael Hancock in Colorado’s largest city for a limited term.
Both candidates finished in the top two in April’s crowded first round and advanced to the runoff, with Johnston at 24% and Braff at 20%. Although the race is officially nonpartisan, both candidates are recognized as Democrats.
Johnston was appointed to the Colorado Senate in 2009 and served for a fixed term in 2017. He worked as a teacher and principal for more than a decade before becoming a member of the Colorado Legislature, and served as an advisor on educational affairs during the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama.
Both Johnston and Braff benefited from outside spending, with Johnston benefiting more, according to the latest data released by the Denver Clerk’s and Registrar’s Office before the election.
Wealthy donors such as LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former DaVita CEO Kent Tilley have joined the pro-Johnston super PAC Advancing Inc. Poured money into Denver.
Better Denver, a super PAC whose donors include the National Association of Realtors, has endorsed Brough and lied about its role in building Colorado’s coronavirus testing program and passing gun control legislation. ran an ad denouncing Johnston.
Johnston’s campaign said the ad “deliberately misleads voters with false statements and out-of-context ‘supportive evidence’.” He also asked the TV stations to stop airing the ads.
Both candidates have pledged to focus their campaigns on the homeless problem and make crisis resolution a top priority.
In the ad, Johnston said he was running for mayor because he had a “moral duty to house everyone in Denver.” “That means building new homes now with the mental health, addiction and job training services people need to rebuild their lives and get back on their feet,” he said.
His mayoral campaign includes Denver’s first Hispanic mayor, Federico Peña, U.S. Congressman Brittany Pettersen, and third-placed progressives Lisa Calderon and State Representative Leslie Herod. Several of the candidates who lost in the first round of voting in April backed them. , finished fifth.
Johnston has run for president on two other occasions in recent years. He ran for governor in 2018 but lost in the Democratic primary to Jared Polis, currently in his second term. Johnston briefly ran for the U.S. Senate during the 2020 election cycle, but he declined shortly after Hickenlooper entered the race.
Braff was Denver’s first female Human Resources Director and the first woman to head the local Chamber of Commerce. She previously served as Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s chief of staff and is currently the state’s next senator.
She has endorsements from the Denver Police Union and the Denver Metropolitan Real Estate Agents Association, as well as former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, the city’s first black mayor, and former Democratic Governor Bill Ritter, who served more than a decade as Denver’s district attorney. rice field.
In his first year in office, Mr. Brough promised to eliminate unauthorized camps.
This article has been updated with Brough’s concessions.
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