March 12, 2026 11:26 AM UTC

This Republican is Running as a Democrat for Jefferson County Assessor

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• by: Colorado Pols

Meet Sue Flageolle.

Flageolle is one of two people seeking the Democratic nomination for Jefferson County Assessor and hoping to make the ballot via the county assembly on Saturday. She is currently the Deputy Assessor and is running against current Jefferson County Commissioner Andy Kerr, a former State Representative and State Senator.

This might seem like a typical Primary contest if not for the fact that the 70-year-old Flageolle is a lifelong Republican who changed her party affiliation in June 2025.

Obviously, Flageolle changed her party affiliation because she would have had no chance of becoming Assessor as a Republican; Democrats have won every countywide election for more than a decade now. Flageolle is well aware of the troublesome optics here, which is why she is claiming that she is merely someone who found the Democratic Party later in her life.

Here’s what Flageolle says on her campaign website:

That last paragraph is quite a stretch. Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton did not seek elected office as Democrats less than a year after changing their respective Party affiliations.

Flageolle can say that she was an unaffiliated voter, but unfortunately for her, it’s not that difficult to check these things. Flageolle cast a ballot in both the 2024 Republican Presidential Primary Election and the June Primary Election. Flageolle also voted in the Republican Primary in 2022, 2014, and 2010. Flageolle could have been registered as an “Unaffiliated” voter who chose to cast a ballot in the Republican Primary, but that was only an option in Colorado beginning in 2018; you had to be a registered Republican to have voted in a Republican Primary in 2014 and 2010.

Her husband, John Flageolle, is a baby Democrat himself. John was a registered Libertarian until six weeks ago; he didn’t affiliate with the Democratic Party until February 1, 2026.

We don’t know how Sue Flageolle voted in the past — she may well have never voted for Donald Trump — but she didn’t seem to have a problem with the Republican Party until June 6, 2025. Flageolle wants Democratic voters to believe that she is definitely not a duck even though she quacks and has webbed feet.

Weird things can happen in the caucus/assembly process — particularly for admitted Republicans — as Party activists try to drink from a firehose of questionable information about people whose names are altogether unfamiliar. When Jeffco Democrats cast their votes at Saturday’s county assembly, they should focus on supporting candidates who have been Democrats for more than a few months.