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A regional public media collaboration serving the Rocky Mountain States of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Two Mountain West Governors May Take On Trump In 2020

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper
Fortune Live Media
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper

The Mountain West is a pretty conservative place. So when Democrats win here… it’s big news. And now two Democratic governors from the region are mulling a run for president.

Colorado’s John Hickenlooper and Montana’s Steve Bullock are both moderate progressives, both won in fairly conservative places, and both are kind of wonky.

“They’re not that person who can command a crowd,” Lee Banville, a political journalism professor at the University of Montana, says.

According to Banville, the men aren’t as charismatic as other governors who later became president, like George W. Bush or Bill Clinton. They also don’t have the big name recognition of Barack Obama or Donald Trump.

Instead, Banville says they are both somewhat boring but effective leaders.

“Is that what we want running the country? Maybe that’s what we should have, but often times what we want is that person who we’re just mesmerized by,” Banville says.

Both Hickenlooper and Bullock haven’t officially declared they are running for president.

But Hickenlooper has created a political action committee to help pay for campaigning and travel, while Bullock has given stump speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire.  

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.

Copyright 2020 Yellowstone Public Radio. To see more, visit .

Nate Hegyi is the Utah reporter for the Mountain West News Bureau, based at KUER. He covers federal land management agencies, indigenous issues, and the environment. Before arriving in Salt Lake City, Nate worked at Yellowstone Public Radio, Montana Public Radio, and was an intern with NPR's Morning Edition. He received a master's in journalism from the University of Montana.
Nate Hegyi
Nate Hegyi is a reporter with the Mountain West News Bureau based at Yellowstone Public Radio. He earned an M.A. in Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism in 2016 and interned at NPR’s Morning Edition in 2014. In a prior life, he toured around the country in a band, lived in Texas for a spell, and once tried unsuccessfully to fly fish. You can reach Nate at nate@ypradio.org.
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