Colorado's Jared Polis: Our Third Openly Gay Member Of Congress?
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Entrepreneur Jared Polis, the first openly gay candidate for Congress from Colorado, won the 2nd Congressional District's Democratic primary on Tuesday night. The race was defined by record- breaking campaign funding and vitriolic attacks in its waning days. "This election cycle, a lot of barriers are being broken," Polis said. "At the congressional level, we are showing that people are willing to elect a candidate based on their values and ideas and not their sexual orientation."Polis is the founder of online greeting card company BlueMountain.com, which he sold to Excite in 1999 for $910M.
With 267 of 457 precincts reporting, Polis had 43 percent of the vote. Fitz-Gerald had 39 percent. Longtime conservationist Will Shafroth trailed with 19 percent. Polis is a favorite to succeed U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, because the seat is considered safe for Democrats. Udall is the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.
Cold, hard cash has been a hot topic in the race since Polis, an Internet millionaire, tapped his personal wealth to fund his campaign. At $5.3 million at last count, Polis easily demolished previous Colorado records for self-funding a race. Furthermore, Polis, Shafroth and Fitz-Gerald each topped $1 million in outside contributions, making the three-way race the most expensive primary in the nation.
Labels: Colorado, Congress, Jared Polis