I appreciate the opportunity to join you to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing Colorado–and the Western Slope in particular–as we consider what leadership and collaboration we need to promote economic growth. Stated simply, we are in a critical moment for our state–and we have important work ahead to ensure we build a thriving future. Let me take this opportunity to outline what this moment requires and how I will lead as Governor.

I. The Moment We Face

In Colorado, we enjoy incredible outdoors, welcoming communities, and a spirit of collaboration. We thrive on growth and vitality. Yet, Colorado is at a pivotal moment. For decades, people moved here to experience what makes Colorado so special. From 2013 to 2020, for example, Colorado grew by about 42,000 people per year. That period of growth is now over. In 2025, we grew by the lowest amount since 1990.

That’s not just a statistic. It’s a warning sign. 

Without the right leadership and responses to this challenge, Colorado risks becoming a state where young people look elsewhere to build their futures or the companies of the future. It is essential that young people see opportunity in Colorado–wanting to stay here and actually having the option to do so. That means Colorado must be a great place to start and build businesses as well as attract and retain talented employees. There are important warning signs for leaders to recognize on that front, too, including reports about businesses leaving our state and business leaders highlighting concerns that warrant our attention. I am hearing–and am concerned by–the reports of how hard it is to start a business (including getting key approvals) and how regulations are missing the mark, creating frustrating burdens and not actually doing any good.

We’ve been here before. In the 1980s, a recession hit Colorado. Our population was in decline. Colorado elected two great leaders–Governor Roy Romer and Denver Mayor Federico Pena–who both called upon us to dream big, to imagine a great city and a great state, and to put in the work to make that happen. 

Back then, Roy and Federico called for us to confront our future with a spirit of can-do problem solving, a commitment to dynamism and growth, and faith that, together, we will build a great Colorado. I’m honored that Governor Romer and Mayor Pena endorsed my campaign for governor because they believe firmly that I am the leader for this moment who can think boldly and work to help create a vibrant Colorado.

When I moved to Colorado in 1994 for my first job, I could feel that Colorado was a place defined by opportunity. But it also was a community with a spirit of asking the question “how can we help?” And when I engaged in the Colorado entrepreneurial community, building critical initiatives over the last 25 years, that ethos is what helped it grow and thrive.

As Governor, I will be a champion for businesses to put down roots in Colorado, start and grow in Colorado, and thrive in Colorado. I will take on the challenges we face and I will always ask: “how can we help?” 

II. Three Telling Stories

To frame the challenges ahead, let me share a few stories I have heard on the campaign trail, the first is one I heard here in Grand Junction at a gathering at the Grand Junction Incubator. A small business owner made a crucial observation–why can’t our state focus on addressing bad apples—those who act wrongfully—instead of adopting sweeping regulations that raise costs and make it more difficult for all businesses to operate? That question stayed with me.

My friend Giles Flanagin, the owner of Denver’s Blue Pan Pizza, told me a story raising the same concern I heard in Grand Junction. Giles said that a law proposed at the State Capitol would stack up additional costs for restaurants and didn’t account for the unpredictability that comes with working in the food service business. For Giles, who was already operating a business on very thin margins, he explained that this law could be what caused his business to go under–and he asked if the bill’s proponents were trying to put him out of business.

I am certain that those pushing that bill were not acting out of malice towards restaurant owners. I offered a more charitable interpretation to Giles that reflected the point made by the small business owner. I was sure, I told him, that the proponent of the law knew someone mistreated by some restaurant owner somewhere and they were legislating based on that single, particular situation. That story begs an important question, which I will come back to: why can’t we develop systems that focus on the bad actors rather than sweeping requirements—that can be overbroad and expensive—that make life harder for the good actors?  

A second story that stayed with me and also points to the work ahead is what I learned from Chris Pearson, the CEO of Durango’s Agile Space Industries. He shared the story of how he considered whether to expand his company’s operations in Colorado or move to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Even with his initial operations here, he concluded that the right move was to expand in Oklahoma. Chris explained that a series of the critical factors all pointed towards Oklahoma, but the most fundamental point was that, in Tulsa, he experienced that the Oklahoma state and local governments were welcoming to him and were working to enable his business to succeed. By contrast, in Colorado—be it unnecessary regulations or permitting challenges—he regularly felt like the government was making it harder for him to grow his business. In particular, he told me of a permitting issue that would have taken 12-18 months to address in Colorado that, when it came up in Tulsa, took mere days to address.

For my final story, let me get back to a point I made above–Colorado’s spirit of supporting one another–and share a story told by Brad Feld in his book, Give First (pp. 31-33). One of the themes of the book is how a spirit of mentoring and supporting others is essential to a successful entrepreneurial community. And Brad walked that walk, as exemplified by his mentorship of Yoav Lurie and Justin Segall, the founders of the company Simple Energy. As he explained, and I remember this from when it happened, he met the two founders of the company in 2015 when they had just under a month of cash left in the bank and were facing a potential demise of the company. Brad took the time to go for a long walk with them both, talk through the options, and guide them on how to rebuild the company. That mentoring literally saved the company, which ultimately merged with Tendril to create Uplight and was a great success story that sold for $1.5 billion. It’s important to note here that Brad wasn’t an investor in the company; he helped out the founders because we have a culture of helping each other succeed, whether or not we are investors.

III. The Way Forward

The stories above provide important lessons and guidance on how we can ensure we build a thriving business environment in Colorado. My work in the Colorado entrepreneurial community includes the founding of the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship; Startup Colorado; and the Bridge Entrepreneurs Network. All three of these institutions–all of which are thriving–play important roles in supporting our entrepreneurial community. For me, being a champion for Colorado businesses–both those already here and those considering coming here–is not a new role. It’s one I have played over the last 25 years. 

As Governor, I will follow three strategies on how to drive economic opportunity and create jobs: foster a welcoming community for business, simplify our state operations and regulatory environment, and invest in our infrastructure.

First, I will foster a welcoming community in Colorado for business by working together to promote enhanced growth and innovation in key Colorado assets, including technology and digital infrastructure, quantum computing, AI, blockchain technologies, outdoor recreation and tourism, agriculture and natural foods, health care and biomedical innovation, aerospace, defense, and energy. I will work tirelessly to make Colorado a place for small, startup, and established, growing businesses to thrive, leaning into our secret sauce that we root for each other to succeed. 

Second, I will simplify our state operations and regulatory environment to make doing business easier, reviewing all regulations, based on costs and benefits, and removing burdens that do not advance important objectives. We will streamline processes for those starting companies and working hard to grow. And we will improve government performance, led by a Chief Innovation Officer, by bringing cutting edge thinking to government. 

The question asked at the Grand Junction Incubator and by Giles Flanagin of Blue Pan Pizza deserves an answer–how can we improve our policymaking environment so that business regulations and oversight address the bad apples without imposing unnecessary costs and burdens on responsible businesses? As Governor, this will be a guiding principle for me–how do we ensure that our state government doesn’t adopt overbroad regulations and, instead, uses targeted enforcement on those who act irresponsibly? We must develop regulations that are clear, simple, and manageable for responsible businesses to comply with; and we need consequences for irresponsible businesses who break the rules and compete unfairly with responsible businesses. Or, as a friend of mine once put it, we need to approach regulations like garlic in cooking–just enough and never too much.

To address the challenge of developing an effective regulatory system, we must follow two basic steps. First, any proposed laws or regulations must be scrutinized for how they will operate in practice, insisting that those affected by them are given a chance to be heard and that we are thinking ahead about their practical consequences.  Second, we must evaluate–from top to bottom—all existing laws and regulations with an eye to whether they work as envisioned or whether they create unintended, unnecessary, and unfortunate consequences. In short, we must adopt a mindset of continuous improvement for all existing regulations—with the goal of a system that is efficient, transparent, and focused on results.  

For a sense of how these principles should operate in practice, consider our development and implementation of the Colorado Privacy Act, which I lead as Attorney General. In that case, we worked closely with businesses, consumer advocates, and technology experts to build a regulatory framework that protects people’s data while giving businesses clear, workable rules to follow. That collaborative approach–which I speak of as a model–is one I will follow as Governor. 

The story of Agile Space Industries is another warning sign and call to action.  Chris’ point about the overall attitude is one I will work to address, spearheading a can-do culture and working to knock down barriers to keep responsible businesses operating here in Colorado. As Governor, I will be Colorado’s Chief Marketing Officer–attracting businesses and knocking down barriers to operating successfully in our state. That means not only selling Colorado’s collaborative culture and positive qualities, but celebrating businesses like Agile Space Industries, increasing their sense of belonging and making clear that we are committed to their success.

The warning sign we face requires acknowledging both the actual challenges we need to address–as well as the perception we need to address. Other states are now marketing against us, and seeking to entice Colorado companies to move, by touting their perceived advantages. As Governor, I will take both of these challenges head on and work to bring people together both to address the on-the-ground shortcomings and to build a winning spirit of Colorado as a place that celebrates all of our successes and operates with a culture of continuous improvement that always seeks to do better.

Third, as Governor, I will invest in our infrastructure. For starters, we must invest in our workforce, expanding job training, apprenticeships, and career pathways aligned with employer and worker needs. We must also invest in housing, childcare, and health care, helping workers stay close to their jobs. And we must invest in keeping our communities safe, so people are not afraid to go to work, shop, and play in our city downtowns and town centers. Finally, we must invest in physical infrastructure. That means our transportation systems, broadband, electricity network, and water infrastructure. These investments must be informed by ongoing dialogue with key stakeholders, including the business community, to ensure that they are advancing critical objectives and addressing key pain points.

My conversation with Chris, Agile Space Industry’s CEO, also made clear that there is much room for improvement along these lines, including addressing the housing affordability crisis in Colorado. In the Durango community, he told me that too many of his employees cannot afford to live near the facility and drive an hour each day to work from Farmington, New Mexico. To meet our housing challenges, I will partner with all players, and most importantly, I will collaborate with local governments to accelerate approval times for housing permit approvals to best-in-country levels to speed more housing units to completion and make them move-in ready immediately. I will push for legislation with the goal of towns, cities, and counties modernizing land use, zoning, building requirements, and processes to support affordable housing development efforts. And I will also work to catalyze innovation, such as the use of modular housing that can be 20% cheaper and built 30% quicker than traditional built homes.

My conversation with Chris also made clear that our education and workforce development system leaves much to be desired–and is an imperative from a business development point of view. In a testament to Chris and the local Durango Superintendent, they developed a place to train high school students who could work at Agile Space Industries. But their work was operating without a playbook or institutional support. We can do better. As Governor, I will lean into expanding career and technical education and do so in an organized fashion that supports the fast growing and high-demand sectors in the state. That will mean a concerted and statewide commitment to strengthening partnerships between our K-12 system and higher ed with the business community, opening more doors to sectors like manufacturing, clean energy, health care, aerospace, quantum, and technology.

As for my broader commitment to improving Colorado’s K-12 education system, I plan to invest in our teachers, support our students, and make sure every young person graduates prepared for success—whether that means college, a career, or both. We will also significantly improve reading and math proficiency and increase our high school success rate in the first term—and to do so we need collaboration from our diverse district leaders and educators across the state.

Another workforce challenge that communities like Durango and Grand Junction know well is the lack of affordable, accessible childcare. We must approach affordable childcare like other infrastructure–such as roads and bridges–that enable our economy to function well. In La Plata County, for example, the Economic Development Alliance, the Early Childhood Council, the Regional Housing Alliance, and the City of Durango all came together to study this challenge—and what they found should get our attention. Their research shows that $34 million in wages are lost annually in La Plata County alone due to inadequate access to early childcare, and that 60% of employers have lost employees because of childcare challenges. Scaled across Colorado, solving this problem could recover over $700 million in lost wages, generate $3.7 billion in GDP, and create 29,000 jobs. As Governor, I will attack this problem on multiple fronts: streamlining the fragmented funding programs that make it too hard for families to get support, cutting unnecessary regulatory burdens that drive up costs for providers, and creating a Childcare Solutions Fund—a public-private partnership that matches business and philanthropic investment with state dollars to expand options across Colorado, including here on the Western Slope. We cannot recruit and retain a world-class workforce without it.

IV. Supporting Rural Economic Development

My true north as a leader is to always listen and show up for all of Colorado. The day when I announced my candidacy, for example, Republican State Senator and Minority Leader Cleave Simpson stated about my engagement with the San Luis Valley: “There’s not a lot of votes here, but I think [Phil’s] trying to help people. I truly believe he’s well-intentioned and wants to help the state of Colorado.” And there is a reason that, when I focused on how to respond to the opioid crisis as AG, I did not craft a state-centric model that led from Denver in a top-down fashion. Instead, we built a bottom up model, with 90% of the funds being invested at the local and regional level and the model earning praise from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, which recognized it as the best in the nation.

Let me offer a local example to make this point. After Rocky Mountain Health Plans was purchased by United Health Group, there was a provision in the sale documents for what would happen if pending litigation by Rocky was successful. It stated that, if the litigation was successful, United Health Group would “consider” how best to put those funds to use. After Rocky’s position in the litigation prevailed, I got a call from former state representative Bernie Buescher, a board member from the Rocky Mountain Health Foundation, asking if I might reach out to United Health Plans to make the case for investing those funds in the foundation. As Bernie explained at the time, “we don’t have a strong legal argument here, but you have a strong moral argument.” I was proud to make that moral argument and United Health agreed to invest $25 million in the Foundation and invest an additional $5 million in youth mental health. Afterwards, the Grand Junction Sentinel praised my “chutzpah” for making the case for the Western Slope.

My commitment to rural Colorado well predates my run for elected office. As chair of Bill Ritter’s Innovation Council, I was an advocate for rural broadband, a critical supporter for economic development. And I was and remain a champion of rural broadband, leading a bipartisan coalition of AGs advocating for funding and pushing CDOT to do better in terms of providing access to rights of way. As the founder of a center for law, technology, and entrepreneurship, I founded Startup Colorado, which focuses on supporting entrepreneurial opportunity all across Colorado. This year, I was proud to join West Slope Startup Week as a keynote speaker and continue to advance the vision of Startup Colorado—supporting vibrant startup communities all across Colorado is critical to a thriving future for us all.

As Governor, I will keep rural Colorado front of mind as traditional opportunities for economic development evolve and as new ones become more promising. To that end, I am proud as Attorney General to remain a supporter and regular participant in the Joint Organizations Leading Transition, or JOLT, supporting communities facing changes in their energy economies. I also am proud to have been the first leader to stand up—when the water rights owned by Xcel and TriState were being broadened through legislation—to demand that those rights stay on the Western Slope.  

For Western Colorado and rural Colorado more broadly, we will need innovation and innovative thinking around changing energy sources and around how we use water.  In Colorado, we can and must lead in that work, seeing opportunities for ways to conserve water, invest in cutting edge water infrastructure–like the Maybell Ditch Project–and how we can support data centers that use geothermal power and other forms of clean energy here on the Western Slope, just like CMU does. We also must continue developing and supporting our outdoor recreation economy, which is a significant source of jobs and economic opportunity.

Finally, picking up on my discussion above, we need to ensure that anchor institutions in rural Colorado–namely, education and health care providers–don’t go under in the face of a challenging budget environment. If a community college or a hospital closes, the affected community may never recover. As AG, I have worked closely with our rural hospitals, K-12 system, and our community colleges–and that partnership will remain robust when I am our next Governor.

V. AI and Our Future

Let me close by discussing the transformation that AI is bringing to every corner of our society in Colorado and America. On AI, it is clear that it will change our future, perhaps even more so than the Internet transformed our society and economy. That means we must prepare for its challenges and embrace its possibilities. 

On the jobs front, many new businesses will and are being built using AI and existing ones are being transformed by it. On the one hand, we have a potential looming threat to certain jobs, as predicted last year, for example, by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei who cautioned that AI could drive unemployment up 10 to 20 percent within the next 5 years. On the other, we have the possibility, as some suggest, that AI will create and open up a range of new opportunities. Whether we like it or not, the AI transformation is coming. We need to prepare and respond appropriately. 

For the public sector, we will need to take a long look at government operations and how our education and workforce development system is responding to the rising use and impact of AI. This will include the question of how do we help workers adjust and prepare for a new job and work environment while we create the right transitions for those displaced on account of AI? 

As Governor, I will make this work a central priority, including how we develop and support an effective, responsive, and adaptable education and workforce development system. To do that, I will work with educators and companies in partnership to help define the evolving skills necessary for the AI economy and do the work to support workers with the training to obtain those skills should they need it.

To both enable AI to drive innovations and to enable workers to adjust to the transition, Microsoft has established work councils to enable a true partnership between industry and workers. Microsoft explained, for example, that it is setting up work councils that bring employees to the table to discuss how AI will be used in the workplace, creating a collaborative culture–and a win-win mindset–rather than a threat of it being used to drive wholesale layoffs. This approach provides a model for others to consider and adopt in a range of contexts.

In Colorado, we already have a tradition of partnership and collaboration, creating an opportunity for creating a culture of responsible use of AI, following the example set by Microsoft and others. To make that happen, we will need collaboration between business leaders and workers as well as the governmental, education and non-profit sectors. I am optimistic about what we can do and clear eyed about the importance of getting this work done right for our economy and society.

I recognize that Colorado’s much-discussed AI bill, SB 205, did not follow the collaborative approach I have outlined above. As a result, Colorado suffered–in reality and perception–by appearing not to care whether we advance a sound regulatory environment or not. That’s why I called on the General Assembly “to delay the effective date of this law so that companies would not be asked to follow unnecessarily burdensome requirements and the legislature would have time to address its unworkable provisions.” That process is underway. And after we improve the law, we will still have work to do to demonstrate that we walk the walk I outlined above–soliciting feedback in advance of a law or regulation’s passage on its impact in practice and working to ensure that we don’t adopt unnecessary and overly burdensome regulatory requirements (as this law had done on users of AI). As we do so in the case of AI, we must work to develop a governance framework “that encourages innovation, competition, and economic growth while protecting consumers and promoting trust.” 

* * *

I recognize that we are facing a make-or-break moment for Colorado. Developing a thriving and a growing economy involves building trust, confidence, and a shared commitment to problem solving. We have met that challenge before in Colorado and I know that we can do it again.  

As governor, my goal will be for Colorado to be known as the best state in the country to start a small business, build a growing business, and to do business. Our strong ethos of “how can we help one another?” with our people and natural beauty sets us up for success. With the advent of AI changing the face of how companies operate, moreover, we are going to face a new set of challenges and opportunities. I am confident we can work together to build a thriving future for Colorado. Let’s get to work.