It looks like the departure of three candidates from the Senate Democratic primary means more room in the pool for new candidates to take their place, and Denver businesswoman Denise Burgess didn’t waste any time.
She announced her candidacy Monday as former candidates Mike Johnston, John Walsh and Don Baer were still gathering up their millions in donations and going home.
Burgess comes with an impressive resume, and could present a strong challenge to John Hickenlooper’s hope that he’s the only moderate running on their side of the aisle.
Burgess is the owner of Burgess Construction and Engineering Services, sits on the board of trustees at the Colorado School of Mines and is a former chair of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
She was inducted into the Colorado Black Hall of Fame last year, and has won numerous awards for her public service including the 2002 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., humanitarian award.
We’ll break it down for PeakNation in words, rather than just a photo gallery like Colorado Politics — there’s only two white males still in the primary race — old, white dude Hickenlooper and younger, white dude Andrew Romanoff.
The other eight candidates are all women — black, white, and hispanic women.
Burgess joins two African American women already campaigning for the nomination — Stephany Spaulding and State Sen. Angela Williams.
Lorena Garcia is the only hispanic in the race. And there are four white women — Michelle Warren, Diana Bray, Alice Madden, and Tirsh Zornio.
The question now is, will this be the year of the woman for Colorado Democrats? Or, will they simply divide and dilute their constituency?
One thing’s for sure, while the men are buckling to the demands of establishment Washington to drop out of the race and hand the nomination to Hick, the women have all stood their ground, and at least one more has joined in the fight.