DENVER – Colorado state Sen. Kerry Donovan filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission Wednesday saying she would run for office in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District in 2022.
The Vail Democrat and rancher submitted a statement of candidacy two weeks after The Colorado Sun reported that she was considering a run, saying Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Rifle, had done “a terrible job” during her first few weeks in office.
In an interview Thursday, Donovan said what happened Jan. 6 led to her to make the decision to run.
“The events of Jan. 6 were hard to watch. A violent mob took over our Capitol and paraded a Confederate flag through our hallways. And an action like that, and how Lauren Boebert was associated with it, was something that I could no longer feel was appropriate for my constituents,” she said. “…So, I felt that it was really important that this district have a congresswoman that was more interested in them and their issues than getting headlines.”
Before being elected to the state Senate in 2014, Donovan served a term as a Vail town councilwoman and runs the family's ranch in Eagle County.
A Twitter account that posts new candidate filings and Colorado Politics first reported Donovan’s new filing Wednesday.
Donovan, who is currently the Senate President Pro Tempore, is the third Democrat to already throw their hat into the 2022 race, joining Gregg Smith, a businessman from Westcliffe, and Colin Wilhelm, a lawyer from Glenwood Springs.
Donovan is the highest-profile candidate so far to file to run in 2022 against Boebert, who defeated Rep. Scott Tipton in last year’s primary and Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in the General Election by 6 percentage points. The Colorado Sun has reported that Rep. Dylan Roberts, D-Avon, is also considering running.
But Colorado is expected to add an eighth congressional district during redistricting, and the 3rd Congressional district – which covers about half of Colorado, including the Western Slope, southern Colorado, the Pueblo area and mountains – is likely to be split up when the independent commission redraws the state’s congressional map.
“This is an important time in American history, and I want change,” Donovan said Thursday. “I’m worried about the people of this district, and they need someone who will fight for them and not their own reckless agenda.”
