Hickenlooper hints at presidential bid, but will El Paso County vote for him?

There are just over 100 days left in Gov. John Hickenlooper’s final term, but his time in an elected office may have just begun.

“This will always be my home base. I might rent out a room in Washington every now and then. You never know,” said Hickenlooper is a previous interview with news partners KDVR.

Hickenlooper started a political action committee called ‘Giddy Up,’ something political analysts say is usually the first step when someone wants to test the waters before announcing a bigger run.

“Those giddy up voters are probably the base that he`s looking to appeal to, mainstream, across-the-aisle voters that are a little tired of the polarization,” said Robert Preuhs, a political science professor at MSU Denver.

KRDO asked El Paso County residents whether or not they’d vote Hickenlooper if they were to run for the presidential office and the answers were right down the middle.

Some said, “I think it’d be great. He seems to be pretty bipartisan to say or likes to come across the aisle. I’d love to see that,” and, “he’s been a good governor for Colorado. I don’t see why not. It’s about time we had a president for Colorado.”

Others said they would like to see President Donald Trump and the current administration stick around for another four years. Richard Smith said, “he’s doing everything that he said he was going to do, so I have no problems with him.”

“I like how the economy is going right now so I think I would stick with what we’re doing so I would stick with what we’re doing,” said Lydia Todd.

Hickenlooper has been asked several times whether or not he’d consider running for president but his answer is usually the same. He has said he won’t consider running for anything until his term as Colorado’s governor is over at the end of 2018.