State Sen. Jeff Bridges, the chair of the powerful Joint Budget Committee, will run for Colorado treasurer in 2026, he said ahead of a Tuesday campaign launch.
The state treasurer’s office manages the state’s finances. Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat, said he also sees the position as an opportunity to invest directly in Colorado instead of parking state money in things like federal treasury bills.
“There is a way to run the office that creates a direct and meaningful impact in the state of Colorado,” Bridges said in an interview. “It is a new and exciting toolbox to do a lot of the work I have been doing on housing affordability, renewable energy and all of the things that are important to the people of Colorado.”
He envisions using state money to invest in affordable housing, green energy production and infrastructure, while keeping money available for when it’s needed.
“We need to invest in our future,” Bridges said. “Sometimes investing in our future means you need it really liquid. Sometimes it means you really need a really high dollar return. Sometimes it means you need housing that Coloradans can afford, clean energy so they can efficiently heat their homes, and infrastructure that gets them that high-paying job they need to afford to live here.”
Bridges is the fourth entrant in the race. So far, state Rep. Brianna Titone, Jerry DiTullio and John Mikos, all Democrats, have announced their candidacies for the office. No Republicans have yet filed for it.
Bridges has served in elected office since 2017 and has helped write the state budget since 2022. He was reelected to his second and final four-year term in 2024. Besides the budget committee, he’s chaired the Senate finance and education committees.
Prior to elected office, he worked for then-U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and an investment management firm shortly after he graduated from Harvard Divinity School.
As chair of the budget committee this year, he has helped close a $1.2 billion budget shortfall that was driven by spiking Medicaid costs. The committee was able to preserve core spending on health care and education by finding cuts elsewhere. It called for combing through all of the budget’s nooks and crannies and creating the “most complicated budget the state has ever had,” he said.
Bridges called it “some of the hardest work I’ve ever done and some of the most rewarding.”
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