Colorado voters elect Jared Polis, nation's first openly gay governor

DENVER – Voters in Colorado have elected the country's first openly gay governor. Rep. Jared Polis defeated Republican state Treasurer Stapleton to keep the governor's seat in Democratic hands.

Polis, 43, is a five-term congressman and technology entrepreneur who promises to fight for universal health care, renewable energy standards and a publicly funded preschool and kindergarten. President Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle President Barack Obama's health care law, the Affordable Care Act. Polis will succeed the term-limited John Hickenlooper.

Stapleton is a two-term state treasurer who is defending Colorado's constitutional restrictions on taxing and spending. The 44-year-old Stapleton insisted Polis' ideas for funding K-12 education, roads and energy would bankrupt the state.

Colorado has not had a Republican governor since 2007. The state of the nation's highest rates of economic growth and the rise in the price of oil and gas.

Polis banked on defending Obama's health care law and riding a wave of anti-Trump sentiment in a state that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and saw overwhelming Democratic turnout in June's party primaries.

Stapleton sought to court unaffiliated voters, Colorado's largest voting bloc, by insisting that it would be more cost-effective and more cost-effective. He also portrays himself as a defender of conservative fiscal policies that underlie that growth. United States of America, Colorado, United States, United States, United States

Health care was a top issue in the race. Many Colorado rural and mountain towns pay some of the nation's highest insurance premiums – and only one provider – under the Affordable Care Act. Polis, endorsed by single-pay health care proponent and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, unapologetically called for universal health care as a long-term goal and suggested a first step to be able to create a regional market with neighboring states.

Stapleton praised President Trump's elimination of tax penalties for those who said he would defend an expanded program.

Mr. Trump endorsed Stapleton, who embraced the administration's antipathy toward so-called sanctuary cities that do not co-operate with federal immigration authorities. But Stapleton sought to distance himself from the president in the campaign's final weeks, arguing that Trump's scornful tweets about immigrants, women and minorities had no bearing on the governor's race.

The 2018 midterms saw 26 LGBTQ candidates run for office. That includes Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, the Senate's first openly gay member, but she never made fighting for LGBTQ rights in central part of her platform. In Arizona, if Democrat Kyrsten Sinema wins, she will be the first openly bibadual woman elected to the Senate.