Weiser: “I want to lead from the grassroots, listening to the people”

ASPIRANT TO THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDACY FOR GOVERNOR OF COLORADO| Phil Weiser, Attorney General of Colorado. (PHOTO/El Comercio de Colorado)

ATTORNEY GENERAL SEEKS TO BE CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR OF COLORADO

Jesús Sánchez Meleán

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We spoke with the candidate in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Phil Weiser, who proposes shielding healthcare and education against budget cuts. Weiser plans to boost affordable housing and use public health inspections to halt ICE detention centers in the state. Weiser asserts that his prior experience as attorney general prepares him to take over the executive branch and stated: “I want to lead from the grassroots, listening to the people.”

Jesús Sánchez Meleán: What spending priorities will you suggest to the Colorado Legislative Assembly?

Phil Weiser: My priority is to protect healthcare and education, as well as critical investments that give our society a great return. We can save money by being smarter on public safety and corrections. We are spending a lot of money on prisons because we do not help people get jobs when they leave jail, so they do not end up back in prison.

We need to manage a smart, lean, and very well-scrutinized budget. I am going to spend time listening to people on the ground, asking them: how do we save money? There are groups that receive support from different providers—Medicaid, for example—who say, “We have ideas on how we can save money on Medicaid.” I want us to gather ideas from all sectors. Coloradans want a leader who leads from the grassroots. That is what I will do as governor.

JSM: Will you push for a reform of TABOR?

PW: We need to reform and improve TABOR. We are going to keep the requirement that the public chooses if their taxes go up. We are not going to change that, but we have limits on the types of taxes. We have this hard cap that sets state spending based on population growth and inflation. Those restrictions prevent investing in early childcare, early childhood education, and other areas all the way through to a career path.

I want to invest in our future, which is why I plan to go directly to the people of Colorado, just like I did when I took on the challenge of the Kroger-Albertsons merger. I held 19 town halls. For TABOR, I will hold civic assemblies across the state. And I will say: if we don’t improve TABOR, if we don’t give ourselves more room to invest in our future, we are mortgaging our children’s future. We are eating our seed corn.

Weiser: “I want to lead from the grassroots, listening to the people”

JSM: What will be the flagship program of the Weiser administration?

PW: We are going to make it more affordable for everyone to buy a home. Too many teachers across Colorado cannot afford to buy a home in their community. And that is true for young people, police officers, and nurses. We are going to build starter homes like never before, giving people access to the promise that you can own a home.

JSM: How do you plan to use your power as governor to address the expansion of the number of ICE detention centers in Colorado?

PW: I am going to fight back against ICE. I am the child of a refugee. I am a first-generation American. I am so horrified that this administration has treated immigrants illegally and unfairly and is stoking fear. We need to make it clear that we do not welcome these tactics.

We do not welcome ICE detention centers. There will be a series of tools that I will have as governor, including the Public Health Inspection Authority, to make sure these centers do not operate, or if they do operate, that people are treated fairly.

JSM: What tool does have been attorney general provide you to be the chief executive of Colorado?

 PW: There is no better job to prepare to be governor than being attorney general. Some say AG stands for “Almost Governor.” You can work with every single agency in state government and with local governments and elected officials. And the majority of those officials have endorsed me, except for the members of Congress. That says something. I am the candidate of Colorado.

Weiser: “I want to lead from the grassroots, listening to the people”

JSM: How will Governor Weiser use the veto power?

PW: When someone has a bill, they want to push forward, I will start by asking: what problem are you trying to solve? I want to understand what their concern is, and I will work to reach a solution with them. In 2025, one of the state representatives was a victim of sexual assault by an Uber driver and she wanted to do something about it. Governor Polis ended up vetoing the bill. It passed this year, but my point is it shouldn’t have taken that extra year. The conversation should have started sooner.

JSM: How will you use the clemency power?

PW: I do not want to use the clemency process to interrupt, get in the way of, or jump the gun on the existing process. I want to respect the existing process. And, if I am going to grant clemency, one of the most important questions is whether the person who is a convicted felon is repentant. In the case of Tina Peters, she wasn’t. She is now saying she was in prison due to some retribution against her. And that is simply wrong.

JSM: In this decade of public office, what has been your main achievement?

PW: Facing the opioid crisis. I learned about the importance of the issue by listening to people and seeing that so many communities were hurting. In the Alamosa County jail, for example, 90% of the people who were there were struggling with addiction. I got to work to correct that.

JSM: Is there anything you regret in this period of your public life?

PW: I don’t know if I have any regrets because I feel I have done things the right way. There are things I have learned. There are things that were harder than I thought they might be. We haven’t won every single case we brought, but we have always done the work the right way.

IN INTERVIEW| The Attorney General of Colorado, Phil Weiser, during his interview with Jesus Sanchez Melean, Editor of El Comercio de Colorado.(PHOTO/El Comercio de Colorado)

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