John Hickenlooper

John Wright Hickenlooper Jr born February 7 1952 is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Colorado since 2021 A member of the Democratic Party he served as the 42nd governor of Colorado from 2011 to 2019 and as the 43rd mayor of Denver from 2003 to 2011 He was a geologist and businessman before entering politics Born in Narberth Pennsylvania Hickenlooper is a graduate of Wesleyan University After a career as a petroleum geologist in 1988 he cofounded the Wynkoop Brewing Company one of the first brewpubs in the US Hickenlooper was elected the 43rd mayor of Denver in 2003 serving two terms In 2005 TIME named him one of Americas five best bigcity mayors After incumbent governor Bill Ritter said that he would not seek reelection Hickenlooper announced his intention to run for the Democratic nomination in January 2010 He won an uncontested primary and faced Constitution Party nominee Tom Tancredo and Republican Party nominee Dan Maes in the general election Hickenlooper won with 51 of the vote and was reelected in 2014 defeating Republican Bob Beauprez As governor he introduced universal background checks and banned highcapacity magazines in the wake of the 2012 Aurora Colorado shooting He expanded Medicaid under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act halving the rate of uninsured people in the state Having initially opposed marijuana legalization he has gradually come to support it He sought the Democratic nomination for US president in 2019 but dropped out before primaries were held He subsequently ran for the US Senate winning the Democratic nomination and the general election defeating incumbent Republican Cory Gardner At 68 Hickenlooper became the oldest firstterm senator to represent Colorado and the only Quaker member of Congress