July 22, 2016 11:29 AM UTC

The Final Rose: "Bachelor Ben" Won't Run in HD-4 After All

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• by: Colorado Pols

Breaking news this morning from Joe St. George at Fox 31:

Just in! Bachelor Ben is NOT running for office in Colorado per new statement. He had filed paperwork. #kdvr#kwgnpic.twitter.com/WTdVcHqEGw

— Joe St. George (@JoeStGeorge) July 22, 2016

Thus ends the not-quite-weeklong State House candidacy of Ben “The Bachelor” Higgins. For voters in North Denver’s HD-4, this also means that there will be only one reality TV star on the ballot in the fall.

Higgins may be withdrawing from the race in part because of a potential electioneering communications problem related to a reality TV show (“Ben and Lauren: Happily Ever After”) that ABC would have been shooting during the campaign, although you would think the Republican consultants who talked Higgins into running would have figure this out beforehand. Perhaps more likely, Higgins finally realized that running as a Republican in the top-performing Democratic House District in the entire state was a fool’s errand no matter what reality television show you hail from.