Romney nephew running in 2018
Doug Robinson, a former investment banker, says he can “get things done.”
Mitt Romney’s nephew Doug Robinson is running for governor of Colorado.
The former investment banker, who declared his candidacy for the 2018 race in a letter sent Monday to Republican activists, confirmed the bid in an interview with The Denver Post.
“The reason I’m running and the reason I’m the best candidate for the job is simple — I know how to get things done,” Robinson wrote in the letter ahead of an official campaign launch Friday.
A first-time candidate, Robinson, 55, is touting himself as an outsider in an increasingly crowded field of current and former elected officials. He identified the need to improve education and repair the state’s roads as two top priorities — even as he suggested that the state’s spending is out of control.
“As I look around, I see a changing Colorado,” he said. “The question is are these changes going to shape us or are we going to shape the change?”
His entry into the Republican contest will add national attention as a proxy fight between two prominent political families. State Treasurer Walker Stapleton, a relative of former President George H.W. Bush, is poised to enter the governor’s race in coming months.
Robinson said he entered the race with the support of his uncle, the party’s former presidential nominee, and credited his grandfather, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, for inspiring him.
At the same time, he emphasized: “I’m not running as a Romney — I’m running as a concerned Colorado Republican.”
The contest for the Republican nomination is wide open — much like the Democratic battle to replace term-limited Gov. John Hickenlooper.
The other prominent GOP candidates are George Brauchler, the 18th Judicial District Attorney who prosecuted the Aurora theater shooter, and businessman and former state lawmaker Victor Mitchell, who is putting $3 million from his own pocket into the race.
Robinson’s entry comes after he seriously considered a bid to challenge U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in 2016 but later declined. In recent months, he met with top GOP operatives in Colorado to discuss the governor’s race.
He said he plans to invest his own wealth into the race but didn’t offer a dollar amount. His campaign began with a small online-advertising buy and he has hired a campaign manager and other consultants, whom he declined to name.
The married father of five lives in Cherry Hills Village and two weeks ago retired from his job as a technology investment banker at KPMG, where he landed after selling St. Charles Capital, an investment firm he helped create.
In the letter to party activists, Robinson described himself as a “committed Republican my entire life” and highlighted his business background as someone who can find “real solutions to the problems that face our state, not because it’s my job but because it has to be done.”
What sets him apart, Robinson said, is his newcomer status, even though he helped run Romney’s unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign in Colorado and served as a leader in an anti-recreational marijuana organization that lobbied lawmakers.
The other potential rivals “come from being in the political game,” he said. “I’m an outsider. Hopefully, my message and vision for Colorado is going to resonate with people.”
Robinson said he voted for Donald Trump and applauded his cabinet appointments, even as he said he thinks the president “can do a better job.” He expressed disappointment that the Republican-led Congress failed to pass a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
When it comes to major state issues, Robinson said the state’s roads need a major fix — but he opposes a statewide sales tax hike put forward by his own party’s legislative leaders. Instead, he believes the state can find money in the existing budget — a move Democratic lawmakers suggest would lead to significant cuts in education, public safety and health care.
“Our budget is a mess,” he said. “I fundamentally think we don’t have a revenue problem. … We have a spending problem.”