(Bloomberg) -- Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper dropped out of the Democratic presidential race on Thursday after running a campaign that was plagued by lackluster fundraising, anemic poll numbers and the departure of top aides.
He said Thursday that he would give “serious thought” to running for the Senate seat held by Republican Cory Gardner, as Democrats have urged him to do.
“In almost every aspect, this journey has been more exciting and more rewarding than I ever imagined. Although, of course, I did imagine a very different conclusion,” Hickenlooper said in a videotaped statement.
The Denver Post published a poll on Sunday that showed Hickenlooper with a 51-point lead over two other Democrats in the state’s 2020 Senate race. Gardner, 44, is considered one of the most vulnerable Senate Republicans in next year’s election and a main target for Democrats seeking to flip at least three seats to have a chance at control. Colorado has been trending Democratic. Trump lost the state by almost 5 percentage points in 2016 after Gardner was elected two years earlier with only 48% of the vote.
“People want to know what comes next for me,” Hickenlooper, 67, said in the video. “I’ve heard from so many Coloradans who want me to run for the United States Senate. They remind me how much is at stake for our country. And our state. I intend to give that some serious thought.”
Hickenlooper took in just $1.2 million in the second quarter ended June 30, down from the $2 million he raised in his first 27 days as a candidate.
He announced that he was running for president in March, but his candidacy was overshadowed by other contenders in the crowded race. The Hickenlooper campaign attracted unwanted attention in early July when five key staff members left: Campaign manager Brad Komar, national finance director Dan Sorenson, communications director Lauren Hitt, digital director John Schueler and New Hampshire political director Nolan Varee.
Hickenlooper made the first two rounds of Democratic debates but did not make a lasting impression. His message that he’s a moderate with a record of bipartisanship has failed to resonate. A RealClearPolitics aggregate of polls has him failing to reach 1% support among primary voters, which means he might not have qualified for the third round of debates Sept. 12-13 in Houston.
At the end of June, he had about 14,000 unique donors, Federal Election Commission filings show, far fewer than the 130,000 needed to land a place on the stage in Houston.
Hickenlooper himself conceded earlier this summer that he was “not always the perfect spokesperson for my own ideas but we’re working at that. As a debater, I’m not a former prosecutor, I don’t go after the other candidates. I’ve never done an attack ad.”
He was Colorado’s governor from 2011 until January. Trained as a geologist, he co-founded the Wynkoop Brewing Co. in Denver before serving two terms as mayor of that city, until he ascended to the governor’s office.
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