July 14, 2026 11:00 AM UTC

Bob Chew is Indeed Lighting His Money on Fire

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• by: Colorado Pols

We noted a few months ago that a Boulder businessman named Bob Chew — a registered Republican as recently as last August — was launching a bid for the U.S. Senate as the nominee of the Colorado Forward Party and planning to spend millions of his own money in order to win a few thousand votes in November.

Jesse Paul of The Colorado Sun reported in May that Chew planned to “self-fund his candidacy with a minimum of $1 million — and up to $2 million or ‘whatever it’s going to take'” in order to become a viable candidate for U.S. Senate. “I’m going to make the major parties take me seriously,” said Chew.

That’s…not happening, but not for a lack of trying. As Ernest Luning reports for the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman, Chew is putting his burning money where his mouth is:

Chew plans to report loaning his campaign $1.1 million and raising an additional $170,000 in the most recent quarter, his campaign told Colorado Politics.

The 67-year-old Boulder resident, a Navy veteran and founder and former CEO of an engineering firm, said when he launched his run in May that he planned to spend at least $2 million to offer voters “a real choice beyond the two-party status quo.”…

…On Monday, Chew’s campaign put up a series of ads on digital billboards across the state featuring modified quotes attributed to iconic American presidents, including Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, punctuated by a Chew campaign slogan.

“I cannot tell a lie, Republicans and Democrats really f***ed things up,” reads one of Chew’s digital billboards, alongside a portrait of George Washington.

The billboards are part of what Chew’s campaign said will be an initial $1.5 million statewide ad buy, including broadcast TV, cable, radio, digital and mail. His campaign plans to hit the airwaves at the beginning of August with an over $700,000 buy planned to run through September. [Pols emphasis]

This is great news for the media consultants getting a cut of Chew’s money, but it’s hard to see how this will make a difference anywhere but in the bank accounts of said consultants. Sure, $2 million is a lot of money in the abstract, but it’s a relative pittance for a U.S. Senate campaign and nowhere near enough money to move the needle for a guy who most Coloradans wouldn’t recognize if he walked in their front door and sat on the couch. Colorado has also never elected an Independent or third party candidate to the U.S. Senate.

We’ll end in the same place as Luning’s story: with this hilarious take from a campaign staffer with the U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Mark Baisley:

A campaign spokeswoman for Baisley, the Republican who switched to the U.S. Senate race at the end of last year after spending most of 2025 running for governor, told Colorado Politics in a text message that Chew’s candidacy could tilt the race toward Hickenlooper, the Democratic incumbent. [Pols emphasis]

“The reality is that third-party candidates do nothing more than spoil races, often in Democrats’ favor,” said Baisley campaign aide Mary Elizabeth Fabian.

We suppose it’s possible that Chew’s candidacy will put Baisley in danger of losing by 20 points to incumbent Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper rather than just 15 points. Baisley, after all, finished the most recent fundraising period with all of $11,444 in the bank.