Ken Salazar has been a high-profile politician in Colorado and nationally for nearly four decades, recently returning home after serving as ambassador to Mexico in the Biden administration. A logical question for the Democrat is, “What’s next?”
He’s writing a book. He’s spending time with his family in Denver and helping out on the Salazar family ranch in the San Luis Valley.
And the former U.S. senator and interior secretary is thinking through his next move.
“I know what the options are. I could run for governor, and I might. I could run for national office and there’s only one and I might do that: the presidency,” Salazar said. “I want to listen to the people and see what their feelings are, what went wrong. How could we have gotten to this point in American history where we’re turning back the clock on 70 years of civil rights?”
Salazar is also concerned that the 25% percent tariffs imposed on Mexico and Canada will unravel the integrated economy in North America that has benefitted all the countries. The potential for trade wars ignited by the tariffs will endanger one of the world’s most important trading blocs, he said.
While in the U.S. Senate, Salazar was part of a bipartisan group that steered a comprehensive immigration reform bill through the chamber in 2007. The bill, which included beefing up security at the border and a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, died in the House and legislation the following year didn’t even make it out of the Senate.
Salazar believes making the U.S.-Mexico border secure is important and he favors deporting criminals, but said the Trump administration’s “weaponization” of the issue and the deportations are hurting people and will hinder efforts to find common sense solutions.
Salazar, 70, headed Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources; served as state attorney general; U.S. senator; interior secretary in the Obama administration; and as ambassador to Mexico.
“I’m looking forward to being on the playing field,” Salazar said. “It may be that I’m just an adviser in helping correct the direction that we’re in.”
But first, he wants to finish his book. The working title is “Borderland: Making America Great, a United and Inclusive America.” Although part of that might have a familiar ring, Salazar pointed out that there’s no “again” in the title.
“It’s a march toward a more perfect union. We’ve made a lot of progress in the last 70 years,” Salazar said.
However, that progress is at risk given the policies of the Trump administration, Salazar said. He believes the executive orders eliminating government programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI, are wrong.
“That’s an America I have worked for all of my life,” Salazar said. “Whenever I talk about an inclusive America, it means you have to have everybody at the table, not just the billionaires.”
Salazar recalled a speech by former Gov. Roy Romer, whose administration he served in. Romer gave a speech in the late 1980s in Lamar where the crowd was mostly white and conservative.
