Colorado voters continue to grapple with the rising costs of housing, groceries and gas in a state ranked toward the bottom in the nation for affordability. Against that backdrop, Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper will face Republican state Sen. Mark Baisley on Nov. 3 as Republicans across the U.S. fight to maintain their majority in Congress.
Hickenlooper and Baisley differ on issues such as taxes and the economy.
The game of politics is not new for the incumbent. Hickenlooper was the mayor of Denver beginning in 2003, where he served over 500,000 people in the city until 2011. He was then elected to serve as governor of Colorado, where he served the whole state until 2019.
Since then, Hickenlooper has been a U.S. senator representing Colorado at the nation’s capital. And, on Nov. 3, voters will determine if his time is up.
Colorado has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 2014.
Baisley, a former aerospace engineer who worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is currently a state senator representing Colorado’s Fourth District, is running against Hickenlooper to upend the stronghold Democrats have held in the state for the last two decades.
The two share a priority: serving Coloradans and representing their interests in Washington, D.C. But they could not be more opposite in their positions on how to advocate for their constituents.
One big issue is the economy.
Earlier this year, the Colorado Chamber of Commerce released a scorecard for the state’s affordability. The state ranked 47th in the cost of living category, with housing affordability ranking one place lower – at 48.
Homeownership is continuing to decline as well, with the rate sitting at only 65.7% of Coloradans. This means that for every 100 homes, roughly 66 are occupied by people who actually own the home, whereas the other 34 are occupied by renters.
The rate is down as the housing shortage increases and the number of new houses being built declines.
“We’re in a full-blown cost-of-living emergency,” Hickenlooper told The Center Square.
He blamed the housing affordability problem and other dilemmas such as health insurance affordability and increase in fuel and gas prices on the “Make American Great Again” agenda of President Donald Trump and his supporters.
“Millions of families are paying double for their health insurance – or losing it entirely – because Trump gutted our healthcare system to pay for his lavish tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans,” Hickenlooper said. “Gas and diesel prices are increasing because of Trump’s costly war with Iran. Trump’s tariff-taxes are driving up grocery prices, even as nearly 34,000 Coloradans have lost their food assistance thanks to MAGA’s disastrous budget.”
To remedy the housing crisis in Colorado, Hickenlooper points to his vote for the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation directed at cutting down the red tape and other economic and administrative barriers to address the affordable housing shortage.
The Center Square reached out to Baisley for this story, but he did not respond.
In a recent op-ed written by Baisley, he cited a statistic from the National Association of Home Builders that found that regulatory costs have jumped nearly 40% in the last five years – adding nearly $131,734 to the cost of a new single-family home.
Baisley argued this massive increase in cost is the fault of unelected bureaucrats, which has long been a messaging point for the Republican Party in arguments against big government.
“We simply must return the responsibility of regulation to Congress and away from unelected bureaucrats,” Baisley wrote. “It will be my primary goal in the U.S. Senate to find every opportunity to reduce government spending.”
Baisley and Hickenlooper have disagreements on tax policies, although both candidates have noted tax breaks can be important when done appropriately.
For example, Hickenlooper mentioned that he agreed with the “no tax on tips” provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
And when the two took to the debate stage on Wednesday, they were each asked to expand on their thoughts about the Big Beautiful Bill, a federal policy aimed toward providing nationwide tax relief, among other measures.
Baisley indicated he supported the bill in its entirety, whereas Hickenlooper was much more critical of its provisions.
In fact, Hickenlooper called the bill “the big bad beautiful betrayal” because it would remove a large amount of people off Medicare or substantially increase the costs, if nothing else.
“These things are trickling down at every level,” Hickenlooper told The Center Square. “People can’t make rent. They’re having a hard time making their budget work.
He added he would address this by reversing cuts to healthcare assistance.
“I would reverse the cruel cuts to the Affordable Care Act to help bring down the cost of healthcare,” the senator said. “MAGA’s extreme budget is forcing 240,000 Coloradans off their health insurance and doubling premiums for tens of thousands of families.”
Baisley, who supported the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, said he supported U.S. Sen. Rick Scott’s “More Affordable Care Act.” The Florida Republican’s plan would effectively reform federal healthcare and create Health Savings Accounts to send federal support directly to users instead of insurance companies.
The More Affordable Care Act was presented to the Senate last year, but there’s been no progress on the legislation since then.
Bailey said that if he could draft his own legislation, he would advocate for a payment system that relies on consumer-funded and tax-exempt health savings accounts for regular care and would limit the use of insurance only for catastrophic events.
Although Hickenlooper was not in Congress when former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act was passed, he has continually voted for expanding ACA subsidies and sought to fund Medicaid programs.