Michael Bennet, now Colorado’s longest-serving senator in 50 years, is eyeing a full-time return to the state in his bid to become its next governor.

His appeal against Attorney General Phil Weiser in the June 30 Democratic primary is based on senatorial deftness and long experience in public office. His record includes winning a key provision in the 2021 American Rescue Plan to expand the federal child tax credit — a move heralded by the Brookings Institution as leading to a “historic reduction in poverty” across the country before the provision expired after about six months.

When then-Gov. Bill Ritter appointed Bennet to fill a Senate vacancy in 2009, he was new to elected office — but he wasn’t new to public life. He’d served as the superintendent of Denver Public Schools and as then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s chief of staff, after a stint working on corporate mergers for billionaire Phil Anschutz.

Bennet, 61, entered the governor’s race in April 2025, and his decision to run was an exceedingly rare one, since U.S. senators hold one of the most influential political posts in the country.

He said at his announcement event that he saw an opportunity in Colorado to “forge a better politics” than what’s practiced in Washington, D.C. He pledged to build an economic and educational foundation to “drive a stake through Trumpism.”

“We have people all over Colorado that are working in their communities, and at the county level, who are desperate to have a partner in the statehouse, who believe that what we have to do in this state is unify the citizens of Colorado,” Bennet said, listing off priorities like cutting the costs of housing and childcare and raising education levels. “… This is not a moment for rhetoric, it’s a moment for results.”

With so many other Democrats seemingly waiting in the wings, Bennet’s entrance into the race after Weiser threw the political world for a loop — and kept the field from growing.

“I was surprised, just because it seemed like it was outside the realm of what he was thinking about,” said U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat who’s endorsed Bennet, in an interview last fall. But like other backers, she quickly understood the move after a conversation with him.

“When you talk to him, it becomes clear that he felt like this was where he could make the biggest impact, and that’s what we all strive for in public service,” Pettersen added. “… While I was surprised, I understand that his breadth of experience — from superintendent to the Senate — and (with) the opportunities he has in Colorado, I understand why he wants to do this.”

‘We have to unify Colorado’

Bennet quickly lined up major endorsements from across the state. The rollout was a show of force for the campaign, drawing on Bennet’s long history of winning statewide campaigns and his reputation among Democratic leaders.

During the campaign, he’s taken some swipes at outgoing Gov. Jared Polis, a fellow Democrat. That included during a May debate co-sponsored by The Denver Post, when he took exception to Weiser citing his experience in state government.

“I don’t think the state government has done very much to solve our housing crisis, to solve our childcare crisis, to solve our healthcare crisis, to solve the fact that for the first time in a generation, businesses are moving out of our state because they can’t succeed as well in Colorado,” Bennet said.

Bennet, who grew up in Washington, D.C., earned a law degree from Yale Law School and spent much of his early legal career on the East Coast. Before he entered Colorado’s political sphere, he worked for Anschutz, buying up and restructuring distressed businesses, including oil companies and movie theater companies, earning millions of dollars in the process. 

A quick look at the Colorado governor candidates running in this month’s Democratic, Republican primaries

He served in Hickenlooper's mayoral administration beginning in 2003, then was appointed superintendent of DPS in 2005. In that role, he tackled declining enrollment and a stark achievement gap between students of color and white students. He also made the decision to close a storied northeast Denver high school that had struggled in the decade prior.

Since his appointment to the Senate, Bennet has won new terms by increasingly large margins. In 2022, he won nearly 56% of the vote, routing his Republican rival by nearly 15 percentage points.

Bennet ran for president in 2020, though he dropped out of the race early in the Democratic primaries.

He has repeatedly pointed to education and support for children of all economic stripes as key motivations for his public service. That streak continues with his gubernatorial bid.

By last fall, three of his four major policy proposals so far had circled education and childcare. He also has keyed in on housing affordability, aiming to help families dig roots in the Centennial State and help their kids find their own Colorado dream.

“Whether you think you’re the most conservative person in Colorado, or the most liberal or progressive person in Colorado, if our kids can’t afford to live here, it doesn’t matter,” Bennet said in an interview last year. “... We have to unify Colorado -- build a coalition across our state to do hard things -- and I think I’ve got the experience and the leadership skills to be able to help us.”

Former Colorado House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar said that breadth of experience -- and focus on children -- helped bring her into Bennet's camp early in the race. 

“When I look at Michael’s career, he has a history of governing. He’s been a senator, he’s had to really think about policy issues, he’s had to make important decisions when it comes to votes,” Esgar said. “... I think what I’ve always appreciated about Michael is the work he’s really done and the vision he has for Colorado’s kids, throughout his entire career.”

Questions about Senate seat

But Bennet's senatorial experience has also been an avenue of attack.

The question of why he's leaving one of the most powerful political positions in the country to run for office closer to home has followed him on the campaign trail, no matter how many times he says why.

Former U.S. Sen. Tim Wirth, a Democrat who represented Colorado from 1987 to 1993, said he told Bennet he wished he'd stay in the Senate, where he was elected to serve, and that he was "surprised and disappointed" he would end his term early.

"If I were in the Senate, I'd be as visible as possible fighting Trump," said Wirth, a Weiser supporter. "I've told both Michael and (now-Sen.) John Hickenlooper that I wish they were both a lot more aggressive than they've been. They've got effectively safe seats, and they ought to be outspoken."

Bennet has contended with blowback for controversial votes to approve some of President Donald Trump's cabinet nominees last year. During the May debate, Bennet said he regretted voting for Energy Secretary Chris Wright but defended voting for Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins because the state needed support on wildfires.

Bennet has also raised eyebrows with his pronouncement that, should he win the governorship, he'd time his resignation so he could appoint his own successor to the U.S. Capitol.

He's stuck to that plan, while saying he doesn't have a replacement shortlist and won't commit to identifying possible candidates to voters. He's said in recent public comments only that he would appoint someone who's younger than 50 years old.

Staff writer Seth Klamann contributed to this story.

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Lawmakers passed a bill in 2019 that directed the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to seek federal permission to import selected drugs, including the popular weight-loss medication Ozempic, at a nearly 50% discount.

The request slowly worked through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s process during the end of the first Trump administration and through the Biden years.

Gov. Jared Polis called Monday’s FDA approval a “vital first step” toward saving consumers money. The state estimated importation could save about $46 million on 20 medications over three years.

“Now more than ever, we need to call on drug manufacturers to step up to the plate and stop ripping off consumers with inflated drug costs by putting profits over people. Enough is enough,” he said in a statement.

Canada has rules in place to prevent drug manufacturers from selling to U.S. buyers if those sales could contribute to a shortage, however. The Canadian government places price controls on drugs, meaning they typically retail for less than in the United States.

In addition, major drug manufacturers’ contracts generally don’t allow their Canadian factories to sell to the American market.

Colorado is working with 10 drugmakers to encourage them to allow sales, said Marc Williams, spokesman for the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. They include Abbvie, Amgen, BMS, Gilead, Pfizer, J&J, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Vertex and Viiv Healthcare, he said.

Other medications approved for importation include the cystic fibrosis drug Trikafta, the blood thinner Eliquis and the diabetes medication Januvia. Projected discounts range from 18% to 68%, depending on the medication.

Once the state has suppliers, it will start working on the process for Colorado pharmacies to participate, Williams said. Ultimately, patients would need to check if their pharmacy participates and if their health insurance covers imported drugs, he said. Any imported medications would have to go through quality testing before reaching patients.

Florida received permission to start importing in January 2024, but has yet to bring any Canadian drugs to its residents. At least five other states have also requested authorization.

The Partnership for Safe Medicines, a nonprofit funded by the pharmaceutical industry and state pharmacy associations, described Colorado’s attempt at importation as “misguided.”

“Florida has spent $132 million and still not imported a single unit of medicine, proving that these bulk importation programs are not reducing drug costs for Americans,” executive director Shabbir Imber Safdar said in a statement. “Colorado’s program will not result in lower-cost medicines for its residents but could drain funds from the state’s coffers, ultimately doing a disservice to all Coloradans.”

Individuals sometimes purchase drugs online with the understanding that they come from Canada, but run the risk of getting counterfeit medications if the source isn’t what it appears to be.

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But though some Democratic voters are increasingly critical of their party, it’s far less certain if that discontent is strong enough — or focused enough — to pull off a seismic upset against Hickenlooper, the former brewpub owner and onetime Denver mayor and Colorado governor now finishing his first term in the Senate.

Gonzales’ progressive bona fides in Denver and the state Capitol will have to overcome Hickenlooper’s experience, his comparably vast fundraising and the inherent advantage that comes from being a fixture of Colorado’s political scenery.

“There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of collective outrage at Colorado’s incumbents — like John Hickenlooper, like (fellow U.S. Sen.) Michael Bennet,” said Seth Masket, a political scientist at the University of Denver. “We’ll see what actually happens in the election. But that’s really Gonzales’ best ticket to office — if there’s a lot of anger for incumbents seeming too complacent nationally or not willing to fight hard enough against the Trump administration.”

Gonzales, a 43-year-old two-term state senator from Denver, has framed her candidacy in large part as a progressive critique and challenge to the Democratic Party’s more moderate standard-bearers, like Hickenlooper.

“Does Colorado want to continue with more of the same, go-along-to-get-along politics?” said Gonzales, whose legislative work has focused on immigrant rights and progressive staples like tenant protections. “… Over the past six years, (Hickenlooper) has not met that moment in responding to (voters’ economic) pain — versus my track record, where I have shown up, done the work, advanced progressive and durable policy that has made concrete impacts on people’s lives.”

Hickenlooper, in contrast, repeatedly spoke of his candidacy — and his desired return to office — as laser-focused on responding to President Donald Trump. In a phone call last week, he didn’t acknowledge Gonzales and sidestepped a question about anti-incumbency feelings among Democratic voters.

He said his campaign was about “fighting back” against the president and responding to healthcare cuts and the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. He highlighted his own extensive experience as mayor and governor, and his work in helping to pass the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.

“Right now, with Trump in office, that’s what we need,” said Hickenlooper, who raised $40.7 million in 2020 on his way to defeating Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner. “We need that experience of being focused on his lawlessness and combating his reckless attacks on our traditions, on the American way.”

The primary election is June 30, and mail ballots will be sent to voters beginning Monday. Both Democratic and unaffiliated voters can weigh in on the race.

The winner of the Democratic contest will face off in November against state Sen. Mark Baisley, of Woodland Park, who is running unopposed in the Republican primary.

In a nod to the progressive messaging adopted by both Hickenlooper and Gonzales’ campaigns, Baisley said they appeared to be trying to “out-liberal the other person.” He, too, was hoping to harness voter dissatisfaction — albeit in a far more conservative direction — to fuel what would be an upset win in November.

“There has been such a long run of single-party control in Colorado that everyone’s realizing that their freedoms have been curtailed in an enormous way,” he said.

Hickenlooper seeks a final term

Now age 74, Hickenlooper’s potential second term would end a month before his 81st birthday. He has already said he wouldn’t run for a third term, and he told The Denver Post that he would serve the entirety of his second term, should he be reelected.

“We’re going to have to rebuild better,” he said of his plans for a second term, echoing a slogan from the early years of Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. He has called for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be overhauled, and he’s backed broad reforms to the agency’s practices. “That’s part of what I’m committing to, in my six years — I think we cannot just build back what we had, but build back in a much better form from what we should’ve had.”

Gonzales has served in the legislature since her election in 2018. A Yale University graduate, she was an organizer and worked for a prominent immigration law firm in Denver.

She said she would support “Medicare For All,” a proposal that typically means single-payer health insurance coverage for all Americans in a program run by the government. To achieve its passage and other reforms, she would advocate for ending the Senate’s filibuster, the rule that requires at least 60 senators to agree to end debate and move to a vote. She supports expanding the U.S. Supreme Court and instituting term limits for both justices and federal lawmakers.

She said she would not support U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York to continue on as the Democratic leader. She also said she would not support sending any military aid to Israel.

“I’m not only going to talk about standing up to Trump,” she said. “I also want to share the vision where all Coloradans can thrive.”

Hickenlooper said he supported giving Americans “universal (health insurance) coverage” but did not commit to supporting Medicare for All specifically. He highlighted legislation he sponsored to increase healthcare pricing transparency.

He said he was open to court reforms that would include term limits and a set number of appointments per presidential administration. Asked about Schumer, he said that he didn’t think the New York senator wanted to continue as minority leader and that other, younger lawmakers were interested.

He noted that the filibuster had prevented some Republican priorities from passing under the Trump administration, but he said he wasn’t “ruling out addressing the filibuster.” In 2021, he said he wanted to “change the filibuster” to pass voting rights legislation.

Hickenlooper recently voted against sending bulldozers and some munitions to Israel. Campaign spokesman Jess Cohen said Hickenlooper “would continue to vote against weapons that fuel the war,” which Cohen said included the conflicts in Iran, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

Scant polling has been released about the race. A February poll, released by the progressive Working Families Party, showed Hickenlooper with a 32-point lead — 45% to 13% — over Gonzales, with his other challengers in the low single digits. Thirty-seven percent of respondents were unsure.

But the race tightened significantly after the respondents — 739 likely Democratic primary voters — were read “neutral-to-positive” biographies of the candidates. Those biographies were not included in the poll release. The results had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Gonzales faces name ID disparity

When it comes to fundraising, meanwhile, Hickenlooper has been dominant.

By the end of March, the most recent reporting deadline, he had raised $5.7 million in total contributions and had more than $4 million in the bank. Gonzales, who entered the race in December, had raised $443,000 by March 31 and had just over $114,000 on hand, according to federal campaign finance reports.

The fundraising disparity will make it harder for Gonzales to increase her name recognition across the state, already at a deficit against a well-known figure like Hickenlooper. Hickenlooper is taking the race seriously enough that he’s running ads to support his campaign, Masket noted. But the strength of his name recognition alone presents a formidable challenge.

“That’s hard, particularly against someone like Hickenlooper, who’s been in public life in Denver and Colorado for several decades now, and he was a popular governor, a popular mayor,” he said. “That’s very hard to overcome.”

Gonzales has criticized Hickenlooper’s support for several Trump cabinet nominees; Hickenlooper voted to confirm 10, the third-most among Democratic senators.

He voted against 13 cabinet nominees last year, according to Ballotpedia, and Hickenlooper said he’d voted against 96% of Trump’s appointments overall. He said he wouldn’t vote again for any of the nominees he did support.

“I thought they would push back on the president,” he said. “I thought that a good executive — even a bad executive — if they get a senior staff that challenges them and pushes back, they make better decisions. … And yet this group of appointees, not one of them have come outside their shell and pushed back.”

To offset the fundraising disparity in the campaign, Gonzales has launched a statewide tour, and she earned her place on the ballot at the party’s statewide assembly earlier this spring. (Hickenlooper initially participated before withdrawing from the assembly process, instead filing petitions to make the ballot.)

Last month, Gonzales appeared on the livestream of Hasan Piker, a leftist personality who has backed progressive Democratic candidates in other states. On Wednesday, Gonzales’ campaign announced that she and Melat Kiros, who is hoping to ride a similar upset wave and unseat longtime incumbent U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver, would participate in a Denver rally with Piker on June 14.

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Another bill signed by the governor aims to rein in the skyrocketing cost of Medicaid-like coverage for some immigrants without legal status in Colorado.

The immigration detention bill, House Bill 1276, requires local health agencies to conduct unannounced inspections of detention facilities to ensure they meet food, water, housing and medical standards. Those facilities could face up to $50,000 in fines for any violations.

Only one detention center currently operates in Colorado — a privately run facility in Aurora owned by the Geo Group and contracted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The law applies only to state-, county- and privately run facilities. It would not cover detention centers owned wholly by the federal government.

“We have a responsibility to do everything we can to keep our communities safe from the violent and unconstitutional overreach of ICE,” said Sen. Iman Jodeh, an Aurora Democrat and sponsor of the law, in a statement. “We hear all too often about death, sickness, overcrowding, and other unacceptable conditions in ICE detention facilities, but there is almost no transparency. This law is about increasing oversight, ensuring frequent inspections, and protecting health and safety.”

Earlier versions of the bill included transparency requirements for the handling of federal immigration subpoenas received by the state — related to controversy about Polis’ cooperation with such a subpoena — and a prohibition on ICE agents entering nonpublic areas of jails. Both were stripped to avoid a veto from Polis, sponsors said.

On Thursday, Polis also signed House Bill 1411, which will limit healthcare services provided under the Cover All Coloradans program. The program seeks to mirror Medicaid coverage for low-income children and pregnant women who are immigrants without legal status.

Costs for the program blew past initial estimates, from an expected $14.7 million to $105 million, while the state also grappled with another budget deficit north of $1 billion.

The new law eliminates long-term services for people who aren’t already using them beginning in January. It also caps dental services and limits behavioral health services, among other changes. Members of the Joint Budget Committee, Democrat and Republican alike, frequently called it one of the toughest bills of the session because it takes access to healthcare away from children who had no say in their ailments or where they live.

To help manage insurance costs for homeowners, Polis signed Senate Bill 155. The law creates a new state enterprise that will assess a fee on homeowners insurance policies; the majority of the money generated must go to help homeowners retrofit residential property against extreme weather events like wind and hail.

The effort is part of Polis’ final-year effort to lower Colorado’s home and auto insurance costs.

“Homeowners insurance premiums have skyrocketed in recent years, squeezing household budgets and costing families thousands each year,” Sen. Kyle Mullica, a Thornton Democrat and bill sponsor, said in a statement. “This law is a commonsense approach to reduce costs and make Colorado homes more resilient and disaster-ready for years to come.”

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If Democrats regain control of the House this fall, DeGette could lead one of the most powerful subcommittees in Congress. She says she would have the chance to bring a “Medicare For All” bill — one of the Democrats’ white whale policies — to a vote. She also vows to use that position to make strides toward banning government restrictions on abortion access.

But her opponents in the June 30 primary, lawyer Melat Kiros and University of Colorado Regent Wanda James, say it’s too little, too late.

“She’s not really done anything effectively in the last 10 years,” said Kiros, also a barista who’s pursuing a doctorate in public policy.

“We don’t have leadership in Congressional District 1,” said James, who is also a marijuana entrepreneur. “Seniority, when you have done nothing and not been effective, is not good.”

But DeGette is fiercely defending her record, saying her opponents don’t understand what the job actually takes and that she’s accomplished plenty in her three decades in Congress.

“I’ve never seen anybody pass a piece of legislation to lower costs through ‘disruption,’ ” she said in an interview with The Denver Post, referring to her opponents’ strategies.

The Democratic primary in dark-blue Denver could effectively decide the election for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District. The three-way race heated up earlier this year when Kiros soundly defeated DeGette in the Democrats’ Denver County assembly. Though the party assembly process isn’t typically representative of the people voting in the full primary election — in which Democrats as well as unaffiliated voters can participate — the event raised eyebrows among political observers.

It was the first time DeGette, 68, had lost a county assembly vote since she was initially elected in 1996.

“I think she has lost some contact with her constituents based on what you saw at the county assembly,” said former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, who has endorsed James. “It’s just time for a change.”

DeGette went on to narrowly earn her place on the ballot in late March at the 1st Congressional District party assembly, just clearing the eligibility threshold while Kiros, 29, won top billing. James, 62, landed on the ballot through a petition process.

Whoever wins the nomination will become the favorite in the November midterm against other general election candidates, including presumptive Republican nominee Christy Peterson.

If DeGette loses, the new representative would enter Congress as a freshman lawmaker. Karen Middleton, the president of the Cobalt Abortion Fund, an abortion-rights advocacy group based in Colorado, said that could be a problem during a critical moment in healthcare policy.

“Every time you turn over a member of Congress, you lose seniority, you lose committee assignments, you lose leadership,” she said. Cobalt hasn’t endorsed any of the three primary candidates.

A look at DeGette’s accomplishments

One of the main criticisms lobbed at DeGette in the primary campaign so far has focused on the number of her bills that have become law.

During her time in Congress, DeGette has been the primary sponsor of 205 bills. Seven of them either became law or were incorporated into other bills that later became law, according to data from GovTrack.us.

But focusing on that figure alone shows a fundamental misunderstanding of civics, said James Owens, a spokesman for DeGette’s campaign. Members of Congress do far more work than just introducing bills, he pointed out. They secure funding for projects in their districts, serve on committees, provide services to constituents, bring amendments, and work behind the scenes to build coalitions and shape policies.

Lawmakers can also find ways to weave their policies into other bills that may not bear their names.

“The effectiveness of a legislator is in their ability to get policy passed. And she’s been able to do that through all these different mechanisms, and those various avenues aren’t captured by a simple Google search,” Owens said. “Folks in Denver don’t care if your name is on the bill or if you were pushing to get it included in another bill, they just want the legislation to pass.”

Owens said by his count, DeGette has had a major role in passing more than 40 pieces of legislation for things like preventing maternal deaths, tightening oversight over prescription drugs, allowing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products, and funding for projects in the district. Her team says she also played a role in shaping parts of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

DeGette was an architect of the 21st Century Cures Act, which then-President Barack Obama signed into law in 2016. That’s another bill that doesn’t include her name because a Senate version of the legislation, which was designed to accelerate biomedical research, is what eventually passed, Owens said.

DeGette says she’s also been instrumental in educating fellow members of Congress and building coalitions on complex issues like abortion access. She’s been one of two chairs of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus since 2005.

“The next day after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, I called (then-Speaker) Nancy Pelosi on her cell phone … and I said, ‘Nancy, we need to put the Women’s Health Protection Act on the floor next week — and I will guarantee you I have the votes.’ ”

The House later passed that bill, but ultimately it failed in the Senate. DeGette said she has begun working on a plan to bring that legislation back if Democrats regain the House majority.

“I’m sure both of my primary opponents are pro-choice,” she said. “… But if you have a brand new person coming in saying, ‘Put my bill on a very important topic on the floor next week,’ they’re not going to have any ability to do that.”

DeGette is one of 45 members of the Democratic caucus on the litigation task force, which files legal motions and amicus briefs to support and challenge certain efforts in the courts. Earlier this month, she was one of several lead signers on an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court that encouraged the justices to protect access to the abortion medication mifepristone.

DeGette has been the prime sponsor on eight unsuccessful bills related to stem cell research but was able to work with Obama on his executive order to overturn restrictions on stem cell research in 2009.

Despite those actions, the Center for Effective Lawmaking, a joint project from Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia that analyzes items moving through Congress, ranked DeGette as below average in effectiveness in eight of 14 terms analyzed.

The center rated five of her terms as average. Only one term, her first, was rated as above average.

The group considers how skilled members of Congress are at moving their agenda items forward. It has ranked U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, who represents Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, as one of the most effective lawmakers in the House. Neguse, a Lafayette resident, is the House’s assistant Democratic leader.

But DeGette’s team says rankings like that lack context and don’t take into account all legislative accomplishments.

For instance, DeGette presided over the House vote for President Donald Trump’s first impeachment in 2019. Pelosi also assigned DeGette to be one of the nine impeachment managers for Trump’s 2021 impeachment trial in the Senate.

Promises for her next two years

If her fellow Democrats regain the majority, DeGette believes that, as the current ranking Democratic member of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee, she would become chair of that subcommittee.

Then, she would be able to decide which bills come before it. She would set the agenda, which would allow her to bring legislation implementing Medicare for All to the committee. For it to be successful from there, she said, she would lean on her connections to build a support group.

“It’s having the vision and the ability to write the legislation, and then to push the legislation through and having the contacts to make that happen,” she said. “Legislative politics is a team sport, so you have to be able to be the captain of the team.”

Both James and Kiros are also supporters of Medicare For All, a proposal that can vary in details but typically means single-payer health insurance coverage for all Americans in a program run by the government.

DeGette said her hope is for Democrats to use the next two years to regain power on the national stage.

If the party wins a majority in the House or Senate in the midterms, she said that will allow Democrats to begin developing major policies that they can enact if they then win the presidency in 2028.

“I actually see the next two years as a huge opportunity,” she said.

DeGette has defeated primary challengers before, but this time her opponents have lined up long endorsement rosters. Kiros lists several state lawmakers and local elected officials, including Reps. Javier Mabrey and Denver City Councilwoman Sarah Parady. James counts Webb and his wife, Wilma, as well as Ken Salazar, a former U.S. senator and Interior secretary, along with several other current or former elected officials.

Both challengers also have fundraising in the six figures, with Kiros reporting about $375,000 in contributions through March 31 and James reporting about $234,000.

But DeGette has more than held her own, reporting contributions approaching $1 million, including heavy support from political action committees. And she touts endorsements from a litany of labor unions, abortion-rights groups and other organizations on her website.

Kiros and James offer something new

If Kiros is able to continue her momentum from the assembly process and win the primary, she would join a wave of young Democrats nationwide who are seeking to oust longstanding political figures.

Kiros, a Democratic socialist, sees herself aligning with members of Congress like U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania.

She said that after Democrats lost the 2024 presidential and many congressional elections, she believes the party needs more competitive primaries.

“We need to make sure that we’re sending the best of the best to the general. And particularly looking at Democrats that have been there for decades — and so I looked at the congresswoman,” she said, referring to DeGette. “There’s nothing in her record to point to that shows that she’s fighting for working people right now in a way that’s meaningful and tangible.”

DeGette responded to criticism that she has been in office for too long during her interview with The Post.

“I think there are people in Congress who’ve been there too long. But I think the voters of the 1st Congressional District know me, and they know that I’m a fighter for their values, and you need both,” she said. “You need people who have the experience and the leadership roles to know when the time is right to get these things done, and that’s where I’m at.”

While Kiros is aligned with some of DeGette’s values, she has distinguished herself with her views on the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. While DeGette has focused her comments on the need for humanitarian aid, Kiros has more directly criticized Israel and questioned its legitimacy as a state.

She said in a recent interview that she wouldn’t support providing offensive or defensive weapons to the country.

James, a Navy veteran and the owner of the cannabis company Simply Pure, said that if she was elected, she would do a better job of using the bully pulpit than DeGette does.

“I’ve lived here now for 20 years, and I don’t think that I have ever seen my congresswoman being interviewed on any television show,” she said. “I don’t believe I have ever seen my congresswoman stepping out and holding Congress or the other party to task anywhere.”

DeGette has taken a somewhat lower-profile approach to her position than some of her colleagues. She is less active on social media and appears at public events less often than some of her colleagues in Colorado’s congressional delegation.

She was absent, for instance, during a recent news conference in Denver with Mayor Mike Johnston and Democratic National Committee leaders as the group considers hosting its 2028 presidential nominating convention in her district. U.S. Rep. Jason Crow was present, but DeGette said she had a conflict. She said she did meet with the DNC delegation during its visit.

“Diana DeGette is nonexistent and has been nonexistent as long as I’ve been a resident of CD1,” James said. “That’s why I’m running. … In Colorado’s capital city, CD1 should be leading the conversation.”

Mail ballots for the Democratic primary are set to go out starting June 8. The 1st District generally follows Denver city boundaries and includes Glendale and Holly Hills.

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In February 2024, the only mammographer at the Aurora VA facility left, forcing it to close its breast-cancer screening program and refer any veterans needing mammograms to community providers. The community care program connects patients to someone outside the VA system when they need services that the VA doesn’t offer in their area.

The VA’s Office of the Inspector General found that community care staff in Aurora couldn’t keep up with the deluge of images submitted by other centers, and that outside providers also created delays by not sending images promptly. The system didn’t have a reliable way of tracking which women were due for mammograms and sending them reminders, the OIG’s report said.

The report didn’t determine whether the processing delays caused any harm, such as late cancer diagnoses.

The VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System said it determined none of the women with abnormal mammogram results were hurt by the delay, and that it has cleared the backlog.

In a statement, the VA said it was in the process of implementing all the auditors’ recommendations, and the percentage of veterans due for mammograms who actually completed them is now in line with the national average.

While the majority of veterans are men, about 15,600 women received health care through the Aurora facility in the fiscal year ending in September 2024, according to the OIG.

It didn’t specify how many of them were between 40 and 74, the ages when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that women get regular mammograms. Men also occasionally need mammograms if they have symptoms suggesting breast cancer.

At least 4,815 sets of images got caught in backlogs when staff didn’t upload them to their electronic health records, according to the report. Surgical staff at the facility told the auditors they had to spend time chasing down images so they could prepare before removing lumps, and sometimes had to postpone surgeries because they didn’t have the images in time.

Auditors said part of the problem was that the number of images needing to be uploaded increased by 5,000 in one year, while staffing didn’t. The complexity of the process and the fact that some providers sent the images on disks also contributed, they said.

In other cases, the images didn’t even make it to the VA. The Aurora facility recorded that it didn’t receive images for 524 women’s mammograms in March and April 2025. The inspectors couldn’t tell if any of them had cancer, and if so, what the delay meant for their diagnosis and treatment.

About 10% of the women who get a mammogram in a typical year will get a call to come in for additional testing, with a slightly higher rate for those getting a first mammogram, according to the University of Rochester Medicine. Only about 0.5% have cancer, though.

Community providers interviewed by the inspectors said they didn’t know they were supposed to send the actual mammogram images, and thought a report on their findings would be enough. Some thought they needed special authorization to share the images.

The VA was supposed to follow up three times if they didn’t get the images, but did so less than 10% of the time because of a lack of support staff, according to the OIG.

Inspectors also found problems with the systems for tracking if patients completed their follow-up testing and for notifying women due for mammograms, increasing the odds that someone could fall through the cracks.

The Veterans Health Administration and the undersecretary for health agreed with the inspectors’ recommendations, which included improving image-sharing technology and adding staff. They said it could be difficult to ensure community providers understand the VA’s expectations, however, since a third-party administrator works with them.

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As days pass, the pain expands, wrapping around your shoulder, chest, and back, pulling on your ribs, your shoulder blades. By the time you arrive at your next physical therapy appointment a week later, your jaw muscles are hard stones, both shoulders and several cervical vertebrae are out, ribs are displaced, including one poking out from under your shoulder blade three-quarters of an inch.

Your specialized physical therapist does their best to safely reset everything, massaging the worst of the muscles, though, even with an hour, there’s never enough time. She maneuvers the rib back into place because she must. You gasp. It feels like being stabbed.

This injury happened seven weeks ago. I am still recovering.

I have two types of a rare connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome — hypermobile and vascular — meaning my collagen is weak or partially absent. My symptoms are legion, but among the most debilitating is joint subluxation, or partial dislocation. I attend physical therapy twice monthly and routinely have 6 to 12 bones that must be reset.

Five weeks ago, I was informed by my physical therapist that Colorado was making 2% cuts to Medicaid reimbursements for providers and that my therapist may be unable to continue seeing Medicaid patients and remain sustainable. This is a consequence of the state budgetary shortfall caused by H.R.1, the Republican tax measure passed last year by Congress that made the biggest cuts ever to Medicaid.

Just 37% of physical therapists in Colorado accept Medicaid (compared to 80% of general practitioners). So there is already a shortage. As Colorado providers cannot charge Medicaid patients directly — to protect patients — I could not pay the provider directly even if I could afford the out-of-pocket costs (which I can’t). There are no other specialists in my area — seeing a non-specialist would risk well-meaning but dangerously harmful care.

Despite claims by my U.S. representative, Gabe Evans, that my Medicaid and access to care would be unaffected by H.R. 1, I now have proof to the contrary.

So, imagine the scenario I described, but now imagine not being able to get help, living with a rib jutting out of your back, a neck that continues to get tighter and tighter. If I lose access to care, it is not a question of if I end up in a wheelchair, bedbound, unable to live independently, but when. I am terrified. I am exhausted and terrified.

People like me are often invisible. Our conditions are under-researched, still mysterious, perhaps unknown to most providers altogether. We’re told we are too unwell to work, but must show up for the full-time job of navigating and coordinating a litany of medical providers, mountains of medical and governmental paperwork, traveling to and from specialists, trialing new medications and managing side effects–all while buried by our symptoms. You don’t see us. But we are here. We, too, are human. We matter.

Medicaid is our health system’s foundation — as the H.R. 1 cuts take effect, they will bring devastation to healthcare for all Coloradans. More providers will struggle, and more people, whether on Medicaid or insurance through your employer or the ACA, will lose access to care.

Though just beginning, these cuts threaten all of us. I am the canary and I am here to tell you the mineshaft has been poisoned and is verging on collapse.

I say this in grave seriousness, without exaggeration or hyperbole or partisan inflation. It is a plea from someone looking down the barrel. Please, do not abandon us to die.

People like me are often the opening sacrifices in situations like these. They come for us first. But make no mistake, they are coming for you next.

Lydia Cruz is an artist and writer living in Greeley. She manages many chronic medical conditions, including both Vascular and Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

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The Denver-based organization delivers physician-led, home-based primary care to seniors who struggle to leave their homes. It brings longitudinal, relationship-driven care directly to where patients live and where they feel most comfortable.

“Our mission is simple: to empower our patients, their loved ones, and our community by bringing individualized, compassionate care home,” says Jessica Maslow, senior vice president for human resources.

That mission shapes every decision the organization makes. It guides how Bloom builds its care teams and develops its people.

Results that prove compassionate care works

Bloom operates at the intersection of high-touch clinical care and high-performing population health strategy, and the numbers back it up.

Through ACO REACH (Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health), Bloom achieved a gross savings rate of 24.6%. Patient healthcare costs ran nearly 25% below Medicare spending targets.

For the second consecutive year, Bloom ranked as the top-performing High Needs ACO on quality and scored above the 98th percentile in all ACO REACH outcomes.

Bloom patients averaged 326.7 days at home in 2023. This placed the organization in the 99.8th percentile. Unplanned hospital admissions occurred at a rate 25% lower than other High Needs ACOs.

These results show what Bloom’s leadership has long believed: compassionate care and measurable outcomes can coexist.

A culture built on ownership and purpose

What distinguishes Bloom from competitors goes beyond clinical results.

The organization grounds its culture in four core values — Innovation, Excellence, Commitment, and Integrity — and actively enables team members to think like owners and act with purpose.

Leadership development programs like LEAD and Sequoia provide employees with structured pathways for growth,. At the same time, interdisciplinary care teams of physicians, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, social workers, and nurse specialists support both patients and providers.

“We create flexible, autonomous work environments. These reduce burnout and allow clinicians to practice at the top of their license,” Maslow says.

Colorado has a culture of wellness, work-life balance, and a collaborative healthcare ecosystem. This makes it an ideal home base for that vision.

“Innovation is not optional in healthcare; it is essential,” Maslow says. “The needs of our aging population are evolving rapidly, and traditional care models are not sufficient to meet them.”

Growing thoughtfully to reach more patients

Bloom’s near-term priorities are to increase its reach without sacrificing the quality and culture that define it.

The organization plans to deepen its presence in Texas and enter new markets, including St. Louis. It will scale its provider workforce through stronger talent pipelines and recruiting infrastructure.

Data and technology will drive process efficiency and improve patient outcomes, but will not replace the human bond at the heart of every house call.

With more than 75 medical providers and over 700,000 house calls made, Bloom continues to prove that the future of medical care for America’s aging population does not lie in a waiting room. It lies at home.

No. 3

Bloom Healthcare

Years named: 7
Founded: 2002
Headquarters: Lakewood
Employees: 442
Facts: Bloom Healthcare’s providers deliver coordinated, hands-on care in assisted living communities and private homes to help patients age in place. The company works to reduce seniors’ risk of needing emergency room or inpatient care.

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The latest legislation, in contrast to those earlier stutter-starts, is flying through the legislature. By Saturday afternoon, Senate Bill 189 had met little resistance, had passed both chambers and was headed to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk, as the clock ticks down to the annual legislative session’s adjournment Wednesday night.

The proposal represents a near-total rewrite of the state’s initial attempt to protect Coloradans from being discarded by a discriminatory AI system when they apply for jobs, bank loans or housing. Passed into law in 2024, those rules — which haven’t yet taken effect — have become a piñata for nearly every group with an interest in them. Lawmakers are now preparing to scale them back to a requirement that applicants be made aware when AI is involved in a consequential decision about their lives.

“The amount of interest and money and scale of this stuff begs for some type of regulation,” said Sen. Robert Rodriguez, a Denver Democrat who’s been at the center of the AI negotiations since 2024. “… It’s important that we do safety stuff. Polling, bipartisanly, on data centers and all the other stuff — it is not going well, and people want us to do something.”

But figuring out the right something has been “a complicated piece,” he said.

In truth, the fight over the state’s AI regulations has largely happened outside the House and Senate doors. Only a few lawmakers have been involved in the up-and-down negotiations over the past 24 months.

The seesaw has more regularly been occupied by an array of tech and business groups, local venture capitalists and AI firms, hospitals and schools, and consumer protection and progressive groups. Those interests have sometimes–competing and -overlapping goals, and they’re also powerful enough to tank lawmakers’ plans: After a would-be AI deal was announced by lawmakers in August, a howling lobby scuttled it within half a day.

Polis, who has called for a moratorium on state-level AI regulations, convened those outside forces in a closed-door task force to hammer out a negotiated armistice that could be delivered to the legislature for passage.

With that framework now drafted into a bill, the legislature finds itself in odd, if not unprecedented, territory. Any changes risk fracturing the fragile truce among the legislative lobby, and the task force members have repeatedly pleaded with lawmakers to leave the bill as-is.

Perhaps wary of another late-session fight over wonky AI regulations, legislators have largely obliged, and the bill has sailed through the Capitol at a brisk pace since it was introduced May 1. Through all of its votes in the Senate and House, only eight lawmakers — all Republicans — voted against it. A brief attempt to amend it beyond the bounds of the deal was voluntarily dropped Saturday.

“Hopefully, everybody’s happy,” Rodriguez told reporters Thursday, “and hopefully you’re not coming back next year saying, ‘Oh God, here we go again.’ ”

A bill focused on decisions

At its core, SB-189 is effectively a notification bill for companies and other entities that use AI in consequential decisions.

Starting on Jan. 1, it would require those companies or agencies to disclose to people that AI will play a role in their job application, their college acceptance or their loan approval. The bill requires companies to provide “clear and conspicuous notice” to those consumers or applicants, but how that will work in practice isn’t detailed in the measure itself.

If an applicant’s resume is rejected, the bill would allow that applicant to ask what personal data the system used. If that data was incorrect, then the consumer could correct that information and request that a human provide “meaningful review” of the decision.

That’s a marked shift from the current regulations, which would require more intensive work by AI companies to curb bias if they took effect next month, as currently scheduled. That effective date has been delayed repeatedly to give lawmakers more time to work on changes.

SB-189 “puts it more on the individual to say, ‘OK, instead of making sure that the systems are free of risk prior to them being deployed, what we’re going to do is we’re going to let you know these systems are used, some of the information about them, what categories of data is being used,’ ” said Travis Hall, the state director for the Center for Democracy and Technology.

“And if there’s an adverse decision against you,” he said, “you’ll have some ability to correct it.”

Colorado’s proposed retreat has drawn mixed reactions. Under the existing rules, companies were required to undertake impact assessments intended to blunt the potential that AI systems could discriminate against someone. But those assessments were among the most criticized parts of the rules — and though Rodriguez privately sought to bring them back into SB-189, doing so risked shattering the peace.

“That’s been the big piece for the (venture capitalists) and the startups,” who would struggle more to comply with the requirements than larger AI firms, Rodriguez explained. He thought that would have been a “nice way to go,” and it would’ve provided some protections to companies that completed the assessments.

Still, he agreed to drop it.

“If you ask me, that’s the wrong choice,” said Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat, a policy advisor at New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.

To her, SB-189 “is very limited” without the risk assessments — which, she argued, can prevent bias before it impacts someone trying to get healthcare or a bank loan. She was sympathetic to concerns from smaller companies, but she said the current law “does very little compared to what it could be.”

Risk assessments “might be burdensome, but that doesn’t mean they’re not good,” she said.

Jim Samuel, an associate professor at Rutgers University who focuses on artificial intelligence and data science, was more supportive of the bill’s approach.

He argues that bias is inherent in data because humans are biased. AI can never be perfect, he said, because humans aren’t perfect, and attempting to tweak the information that feeds into artificial intelligence would have unintended consequences.

The best option, Samuel continued, was to provide transparency and education to consumers.

“We need to ensure fairness. We need to ensure there’s no injustice in our system,” he said. “So if something like (AI-driven discrimination) comes to light, we need to already have regulations in place, which will protect the consumer. That’s where transparency comes in. If my credit application is rejected, I need to have an explanation for why.”

He called for continued oversight of AI companies and refinement of laws to protect consumers. Echoing calls from some consumer groups, Hall, from the Center for Democracy and Technology, said SB-189 was a starting point.

“It’s not nothing, and it is a little bit like — crawl, walk, run,” he said. The rules set to take effect next month were akin to walking, “and we’re going back a little bit to a crawl. But we’re still moving forward. And it does provide some traction for accountability in these systems.”

Nationwide interest

As other states weigh AI regulations, Colorado’s SB-189 is simultaneously broader and narrower than what’s been adopted elsewhere, Hall said.

“There’s a smattering of laws across the country, but they’re narrow in scope,” he said.

Some address specific industries, like healthcare or insurance. Texas adopted a law similar to Colorado’s soon-to-be-rewritten rules, though Hall said it applies mostly to government agencies, rather than the private sector. Connecticut lawmakers also just passed an anti-bias AI law that’s mostly focused on employment-based discrimination, and Illinois recently changed its human rights laws to prohibit AI discrimination and require companies to notify consumers when AI is used.

One uncertainty facing all of the states’ attempts at regulation is the potential for federal intervention, whether from Congress or President Donald Trump’s administration. In an executive order last year, Trump sought to undercut states’ individual AI regulations, and specifically criticized Colorado’s rules, as he caleld for a national AI framework. And last month, after Musk’s xAI sued to challenge Colorado’s earlier AI law, the Department of Justice joined his lawsuit.

Colorado lawmakers this year have taken aim at other areas where AI’s tentacles have reached. The legislature has advanced bills regulating how the technology is used in healthcare and in psychotherapy.

Another bill would place some guardrails around AI chatbots used by minors. All three of those measures have passed the full House and were advancing in the Senate as of Friday.

The increased national and state focus comes as the public grows increasingly wary of AI.

“To a certain extent, there’s also a little bit of a cultural consciousness (and people) understanding the moment that we’re in,” Hall said.

A Pew Research Center poll from last summer found that only 10% of Americans were more excited than concerned about AI, while 50% were more concerned. More recently, a Quinnipiac University poll from March found that though more people were using AI, more people were also growing concerned about it. Fifty-five percent said the technology was doing more harm than good.

In a continuing call-to-arms for lawmakers, 74% of respondents also said the government was not doing enough to regulate AI.

“Does this bill go far enough? Well, it depends on who you ask; I’m pretty sure if you ask literally anybody who worked on it, the answer is no,” Denver Rep. Jennifer Bacon, another of SB-189’s sponsors, said before the final vote Saturday. “But it’s a good starting place because we need to keep an eye out, not only on how businesses are developing but any potential impacts and harms that may be happening to any one of our constituents. And the only way we can do that is by what’s in this bill.”

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Brandon, 41, already relied on his dad for all of his daily needs, ranging from setting up the lift to move him from bed to his wheelchair to scrubbing him down in the shower and pouring his morning coffee into a cup with a straw. That was the way it had been since Brandon broke his neck in a vehicle accident almost nine years earlier, and they made it work, with a hefty dose of gallows humor to keep from screaming.

Monty Patterson trusted the doctors at UCHealth knew what they were doing, but opening someone’s skull always carries the risk of doing further damage. What would happen if Brandon lost control of the limited muscles he could use in his arms or his ability to speak?

“I said, ‘If you’re just doing this so you can play video games, I’m gonna smack you,'” Monty said in an interview at University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora while Brandon was hooked up to a computer tracking his brain activity. “He said, ‘No, I’m doing this so I can play video games and further science.'”

Brain-computer interfaces that allow people to control artificial limbs using their minds exist at the boundary of science and science fiction. As is, a paralyzed person who has had the surgery and undergone the lengthy process of training the program can control objects on a screen and complete some movements with a robotic arm. But a system that would allow patients to regain the full abilities they had before their injuries, while possible, remains only a hope.

Brandon Patterson, who is paralyzed from the chest down and has limited use of his arms, was the first person in Colorado to have a brain-computer interface implanted into a part of his brain involved in decision-making during a surgery in February.

The researchers working with him aim to determine whether putting electrodes there, rather than in areas specific to movement, will produce better control of screens or artificial limbs. They are also investigating whether they can send signals the other way, to produce semi-natural sensations in limbs that can’t communicate with the brain.

Dr. Daniel Kramer implanted six arrays of electrodes, which resemble patches of tiny needles, to pick up signals from the surface of Patterson’s brain. A computer then has to learn how to decode what the electric signals in the brain mean, because two people thinking about the same action produce different patterns.

“Each brain is totally different,” said Kramer, an assistant professor of neuroscience at CU’s Anschutz Medical Campus and a neurosurgeon at University of Colorado Hospital.

The current setups are good at moving a robotic arm in the right direction, but don’t always know when to stop: something like a toddler who knocks over the toy they want to grab, Kramer said. Putting the electrodes in a part of the brain involved in higher processing might improve that, he said.

If a computer could send signals back, the brain could judge whether it needs to tighten or loosen the grip of a robotic arm, in the same way that a person using their natural hand finds the balance where they don’t crush or drop the thing they’re holding, Kramer said.

“There’s lots of things that go into making a hand movement correct for an object,” he said.

Private companies and researchers are working on parallel tracks with the technology, with the businesses trying to prove their products help patients enough that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should approve them, Kramer said. At universities, they’re more focused on learning about how the technology and the brain work together, which could lay the groundwork for future advances, he said.

Kramer made clear that he couldn’t guarantee any benefits and that the goal of the research was to improve the technology for future patients, Patterson said. He doesn’t have any robotic devices or a computer capable of linking to his brain at home, so he only uses the technology during sessions with the research team.

“If I see some things now, fine, that’s cool, but it’s not for me,” he said.

Patterson’s wildest dream for the brain-computer interface is to someday be able to drive his wheelchair with his mind, like Professor X in the X-Men comics. But being able to use a computer more easily would also be a significant improvement, he said.

He currently uses a combination of voice controls and a stylus that attaches to his hand like a brass knuckle, allowing him to peck at a screen. Neither was enough to succeed with Microsoft Excel and pass the statistics class he took as part of his psychology major at Red Rocks Community College, he said.

On a Friday in April, researchers hooked Patterson up to a computer, plugging wires into ports sticking out of his scalp like a stegosaurus’ back. He didn’t have on the decorative metal spikes he sometimes attaches to them when going out.

“If I’m going to get looked at funny because I’ve got spikes, I’m going to make it as punk rock as possible,” he said.

Set-up complete, the researchers assigned Patterson mental tasks, such as visualizing putting his fingers through the holes of a pair of scissors or holding a cup. Just thinking about the tasks didn’t produce a significant reaction that they could detect, but holding up the scissors as a visual aid and asking him to pretend he wanted to drink from the imaginary cup got the signals firing.

Later, they set up something that looked like a 1980s computer game, with a green disk sliding on top of gray disks in a circle around it. The researchers were moving the green disk at that point while telling Patterson to imagine sending it in the right direction, Kramer said. Eventually, once the computer learns to decode his brain’s patterns, he’ll be able to move the virtual disk with his thoughts.

When he tried again, about two weeks later, Patterson could move the disk without as much support from the computer. He couldn’t budge it when asked to imagine he was playing air hockey, but a prompt to think about how the Jedi move things with their minds in the “Star Wars” movies clicked.

“The Force is strong with me,” he joked later.

People can somewhat understand the challenges of not being able to use his arms fully or his legs at all, but having quadriplegia brings a whole different set of challenges that a brain-computer interface probably can’t solve, said Tammy Neuman, Monty’s partner and Brandon’s co-caregiver.

Patterson — who lives with his father and Neuman in Elbert, about 50 miles southeast of Denver — had to relearn how to cough because his diaphragm no longer contracted and figure out what he could do with limited control of his arms. His biceps still work, but his triceps don’t, and his fingers usually stay curled under.

“Life with a quadriplegic is always about overcoming,” she said.

On top of that, the stillness can lead to blood clots, including one that went into his lungs and landed him in the hospital, Patterson said. Pressure sores from sitting or lying too long in one position are a constant threat.

Something as comparatively minor as a full bladder or bowel can trigger a dangerous spike in blood pressure because his body senses something is wrong below his spinal injury and doesn’t know how to manage it.

“I say I’m on 13 of my nine lives,” Patterson said.

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