News never stops, right? After our Inside panel had left for the day, the political rumors that had been swirling around for a while came to be true. On a beautiful Friday morning in Colorado, Senator Michael Bennet announced in Denver’s City Park that he is running to succeed Jared Polis as Governor of Colorado. Bennet, who is in his 3rd senate term, has spoken often about the “broken-ness” of Washington. “Business as usual is simply not enough, and that’s why I’m running for governor of Colorado,” Bennet said. He will be running against CO Attorney General Phil Weiser in the Democratic primary in 2026, which will no doubt bring many candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties. The 44th Governor of Colorado will be sworn into office in January 2027.

Here’s what else we’re talking about on this week’s Colorado Inside Out…

Uncertainty continues with the state budget in flux, concerns over tariffs and Denver Nuggets fans left wondering what the team’s future will be now that beloved Head Coach Mike Malone has been fired! I know Colorado Inside Out is not a sports show but heck, Malone’s firing is yet another example of our ever-changing times – you just don’t know what’s going to happen next.  Luckily, Colorado Inside Out has a ‘deep bench’ to sort through what’s happened over this past week!

Tariffs and Federal Trade Policy:
The Insider Panel discussed the recent flip-flops by President Trump on tariffs, with a temporary stay for most countries except China. Here in Colorado, China is our second-largest import source, providing $1.8 billion worth of goods. To that, Independent Institute Research Director David Kopel said: “Shame on Colorado for buying $1.8 billion of products from a totalitarian slave empire.” And with that, our show was off and running.

The Insiders all praised the bi-partisan legislation that both Colorado Senator Michael Bennet and Republican Congressman Jeff Hurd are sponsoring to reign in the President’s trade policies.

• David Kopel: “According to the U.S. Constitution, the Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes and duties… and, the Congress shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations. So, the bipartisan Bennet and Hurd bill is a definitely good start, but the country is becoming more and more like the later stages of the Roman Republic, where a sclerotic Congress delegates away its powers to an executive.”
• Denver Gazette Editor Luige del Puerto: “Trump was elected for certain promises, and if you really look at what he’s done, he’s done it to pursue those promises that he made to the American public. Of course, the question is ‘is it working? Is not working? Is it proper?’ What you can’t accuse the President of is not doing what he campaigned on.

Three and a Half Weeks to Go for Colorado Legislative Session:

• Luige del Puerto on the budget: “$44 billion budget is what they’re working on. The House just passed it. It’s going to go back to the state Senate…. and then, we’ll have a budget here at the Governor’s desk pretty soon. It’s $1.2 billion in deficit. That’s the problem they’re trying to solve.” To that Westword Editor Patty Calhoun said: “They’ve been spending money like drunken sailors and it’s got to stop because we’ve lost federal funding. We’re going to lose more federal funding. The COVID emergency funding is gone. But no matter how this budget is finally settled, we’re going to be in trouble again next year.”
• Colorado Politics Columnist Eric Sondermann is worried not enough attention is going to the big things at stake: “I think it’s time to get back to meat and potatoes in this legislature and not every sidebar social issue that they can address, only because they can because the Democratic votes are there…. We should not focus on issues of speech, on issues of taking away custody of kids from parents because they may have a different philosophy of how to raise those kids who may be going through gender dysphoria, etc.”
• David Kopel concurred and expressed outraged that legislative leadership invoked a rule to cut off debate to bills brought up during a special workday on Sunday. “It’s unusual to have a session on Sunday and they invoked Rule 16 to cut off debate entirely, to censor speech and take away the voice of all the people who elected or voted for Republicans.”

State of Downtown Denver:
At Thursday’s “State of Downtown,” the Downtown Denver Partnership said the city has some bright spots that are working right now:  the pending opening of 16th Street, new businesses moving in, and a beefed-up police presence. Still, there are many challenges that remain and a lot of it is the perception of downtown, according to DDP.

• Eric Sondermann says the perception is real to him. He spoke about a visit he spent along the 16^th Street Mall this week: “My one word for the ‘State of Downtown’ would be “troubled,” and I think that is putting it mildly. It is not remotely come back from the challenges of COVID, from the hollowing out. It is a troubled place and it needs a lot of work. But more than that, it needs honest appraisals and not just rah-rah.”
• David Kopel looked at the jump in the cost of being in Denver: “In 1960, if you bought something in Downtown Denver, you would pay a sales tax of under 3%, about 1% for Denver and 2% for the state. Since then, the state sales tax has gone up to 3% and the Denver plus RTD sales tax is over 6%. Does anybody think that we are getting six times better or more effective government than we did decades ago?”
• Luige del Puerto talked about a recent article his paper, Denver Gazette, that looked into the cost of regulations from the state and the city, aimed at curbing carbon emissions in large buildings and how they’re causing developers to pause to rethink their plans: “The regulations are not practicable, they’re not feasible. It’s going to cost a lot of money… and some developers are saying they are pulling out of Denver as a result.”

International Student Visas:
The number of international university students in Colorado having their visas revoked has tripled recently, reaching around two dozen. The reasons for the visa revocations are unclear.

• David Kopel: “Whatever is going on, it’s not something about international students in general. So, for example, University of Colorado on its four campuses has over 3800 international students, and 12 of them have had their visas revoked under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Student visas are pretty easy to revoke for many reasons, and that includes fraud in the application, including fraud by omission, ties to terrorist organization… threats to national security. But again, we don’t know the story of any of these particular students.”
• Patty Calhoun: “Let’s talk about younger students… some students are really scared to go to school, they’re scared that something is going to happen to them or maybe their parents while they’re gone. So, what we’re seeing is the lack of knowledge is really affecting so many people on so many levels.”

That conversation parlayed into my favorite part of this week’s show where we invited Denver 8^th grader Emerson Hammon to the Insider table. Emmy won the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Civics Bee this week which I was fortunate to emcee; the civic knowledge of these middle schoolers was off the charts! Emmy stood out though, partially because of a well-versed recap of an essay she wrote for the Civics Bee. She dove into what immigrant children and families go through with the worry that they’re unsafe or unprotected while in school: “I first became aware of this when my little sister’s school district sent home an email addressing how they would help protect their students and help students and families navigate immigration raids in schools ….and I thought that was so unfair that children have to go through that.”

Emmy and the two runners-up now head to the Colorado Chamber of Commerce State Civics Bee in May. The winner from that competition heads to DC this fall for the National Civics Bee and the chance to win $100,000 to go towards a college savings plan! This program was founded by Denver-based Daniels Fund. I’m so proud of these Colorado kids and inspired by their all that they know about U.S. History and the steps taken to form our country. They are our future!