Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announces run for governor in 2026 election

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced on Thursday that he's running for governor.  

Weiser, a Democrat from Boulder County, is currently serving his second term as the state's attorney general. Colorado's gubernatorial election will take place in 2026.

"I'm running for governor because I will be a leader for all of Colorado, taking on big fights for the people of Colorado, and providing a vision for a better future," Weiser said in his campaign announcement.

Weiser says wants to work to make it more affordable to live in Colorado as well as make it a "safer place to live, to defend our freedoms, and to protect our land, air, and water."

Gov. Jared Polis was re-elected to his second term in 2022 and has hit his term limit. So far, no other no other well-known state politicians have thrown their hat in the ring.

Weiser has been in the news recently for leading Colorado's lawsuit to block the merger of grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons. What would have been the largest U.S. supermarket merger in history crumbled last month after a federal judge in Oregon and a state judge in Washington issued injunctions to block it, saying that combining the two chains could reduce competition and harm consumers. Weiser said in December that he still was awaiting a decision from a state judge on Colorado's lawsuit, which also included a challenge to an allegedly illegal no-poach agreement Kroger and Albertsons made during a 2022 strike.