Do we like them?

Do we like Jared Polis?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A strong record for LGBTQ+ people and on climate, held back by the Peters commutation and his immigration calls.

Polis grew up in Boulder in the family greeting-card business, started his own companies in college and made a fortune with ProFlowers, which sold in 2005. He went to Congress in 2009 as a Colorado Democrat with a libertarian streak. In 2018 he was elected governor, the first openly gay man elected to lead a US state.

The story everyone is on about is Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk convicted over a 2020 election-related plot. In May 2026 Polis cut her sentence, and she was released on 1 June. A state appeals court had upheld her conviction but found the judge improperly weighed her election-denial beliefs at sentencing. Polis said she would likely make false claims but “that’s not a crime in our country.”

Colorado Democrats were furious. The state party's central committee censured him with nearly 90 per cent of the vote, which is symbolic but stings. A CNN fact check found he said three times that Peters had “certified” Biden's 2020 win, and CNN said there was no evidence she did. His office said the decision rested on the facts and that the right call isn't always the popular one.

On the harm test, his LGBTQ+ record is strong. In 2019 he signed a ban on conversion therapy for minors and made it easier for trans people to change their birth certificates. In June 2026 he signed a law letting conversion therapy survivors sue providers. On the planet, he campaigned on 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2040.

Immigration is where he's most open to criticism. A Denver judge let a lawsuit continue over his attempt to comply with an ICE subpoena about sponsors of unaccompanied immigrant children. In June 2026 he vetoed a bill that would have let people sue federal immigration officers over constitutional violations. He also signed a separate immigration bill, so it isn't all one way.

The good stuff is mostly what he signed and who it protects: trans Coloradans, conversion therapy survivors, and a state that has been far friendlier to queer people since he took office. We couldn't verify details of his education philanthropy from sources we could open, so we'll leave that off. He has also vetoed bills from his own party, which makes him hard to pigeonhole.