July 07, 2015 07:11 AM UTC

BREAKING: Morgan Carroll Runs For Congress

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #3: The campaign of Rep. Mike Coffman responds with a mind-numbingly lame message about Nancy Pelosi. From a fundraising email:

We already know Nancy Pelosi is salivating at the idea of replacing me with their handpicked liberal candidate.

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UPDATE #2: The Hill’s Martin Matishak notifies D.C., “Dems get top-tier recruit for competitive Colorado seat.”

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UPDATE: What a difference a good candidate makes:

New ratings alert @CookPolitical: Morgan Carroll (D) decision to run vs Rep. Mike Coffman (R) moves #CO06 to Toss Up. http://t.co/QdZHLHCiJx

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) July 7, 2015

Fasten your seatbelts, readers, this is now 2016’s biggest race.

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The Aurora Sentinel’s Rachel Sapin nailed a big scoop early Tuesday morning–Colorado Senate Minority Leader Morgan Carroll is running for GOP Rep. Mike Coffman’s swing Sixth Congressional District seat in 2016:

“The theme of the campaign is going to about real results,” she told The Aurora Sentinel in an interview Monday. “Congress has been paralyzed. It’s a crisis of confidence to get anything done.”

Carroll, 43, said she would best describe herself as a populist, with a focus on how leaders in Washington, D.C., have not fixed middle-class issues such as soaring student loan debt, affordable healthcare, immigration reform and affordable higher-education opportunities. She said her campaign contrasts against Coffman’s tenure because given the choice to take the side of the average person or a big government or corporate interest, she has and always will side with the everyday residents in the district…

Working her way up to leadership positions in the both the state House and Senate, she became Senate president as Democratic Majority Leader in 2013. Her career has focused on many measures protecting the rights of individual homeowners or residents at the expense of developers, homeowner associations, employers and government agencies. She said that mission has been her life’s work.

Today’s announcement includes a well-produced campaign launch video:

Having represented Aurora in the Colorado legislature for ten years, there are few lawmakers in either party who can match Carroll’s deep ties to the district she is running to represent. Meanwhile, Mike Coffman’s headlong run to the center since his district was remade in 2011, formerly running as a hard-right Tom Tancredo mold conservative Republican, indicates clearly the danger an authentic progressive candidate poses. We’ve said for many years now that the right Democratic candidate, running in the right year, can expose Coffman’s reinvention as a political contrivance–and deny him the remarkable freedom he has enjoyed up to now to be all things to all people.

As of today, Morgan Carroll represents the best chance Democrats have had, and may ever have, to prove us right. We’ll update through the day with statements and coverage.