DENVER — Denver mayoral candidate Lisa Calderón says Colorado's growing progressive movement could shape the city's 2027 election.
“Our progressive trajectory has been coming for years,” Calderón said. “I'm a progressive, and I was recruited by the Working Families Party to run for office, and you know, that has been my story.”
Calderón is the executive director of Women Uprising, an organization that helps women running for office. She ran for mayor in 2019 and in 2023. In 2023, Calderón narrowly missed the mayoral runoff.
“We missed the runoff by less than 2%, and we only ran for seven months. We also had a fraction of the money that current Mayor Johnston had, and yet you know we saw back then that people really wanted a change in the establishment,” Calderón said.
That same year, the Democratic Socialists of America endorsed Calderón for mayor, but Calderón said she is not a member of the growing party.
“I support their efforts to get more young people involved and the energy that they bring to the movement. But I have been with the Working Families Party, which is really based in union workers, and that's where you know my family comes from, is a union background,” Calderón said. “But really, we're working along the same lines of having more affordability for working families, and that includes, you know, access to good homes and childcare.”
Calderón said she appreciates the party’s work but more work needs to be done to include diverse voices.
“DSA is a newer part of the movement, but it's been building for a long time, and on the backs of a lot of activists, including those in the Civil Rights Movement, Fannie Lou Hamer, Diane Nash. I mean, these were women who risked arrest and were beaten by police,” Calderón said. “I would love to see these newer progressive movements speaking more to the Black community and Latino communities, and really centering a racial justice agenda in a lot of the organizing. And that's something that I have found with the Working Families Party.”
► Watch Micah Smith's report in the video below:
Calderón said she has not decided if she will seek DSA’s endorsement for this election.
A fellow progressive, Denver City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, recently announced she is also running for Denver mayor.
When asked for her response to progressive voters who worry two progressive mayoral candidates could split the progressive vote, Calderón said she respects progressives’ opportunity to run, to an extent.
“It's a lot of hard work. It's like starting a business. What I would prefer is like what they did in New York, and that is that there came a point when they saw who had the best chance of upending the Democratic establishment. Others pulled back so that Mayor Mamdani eventually ascended and became the candidate and the eventual winner of that race,” Calderón said.
Calderón said she supports ranked-choice voting because she thinks it would help alleviate the issue.
Policies
Calderón has been vocal in her criticism of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration and his recent policy proposals.
“He’s touting universal childcare now. That is a progressive platform. So I'm glad that he's now on board. It was part of my platform since I launched in February, but we have to have more than flowery words. We have to have results, and I think that Mayor Johnston, the first time he ran, didn't have a record to run on. Now he does, and he made a lot of promises he didn't keep, including changing the culture of city government,” Calderón said.
She said disagrees with Johnston laying off 170 city workers. However, Johnston has previously defended the layoffs as part of efforts to address the city's $200 million budget deficit.
“So fundamentally, I'm going to hire those workers back. I'm going to restore confidence in Denver city government, restore dignity to public servants, and so that's a huge thing. The second thing is, you know, we have a 50% spike in homicides, mostly among young people, and it's devastating for the Black community. You know, I don't see Mayor Johnston leading. In fact, I saw him cutting those various services that we need: the violence interruption services, the case management and programs for our community providers,” Calderón said.
While Denver's homicide rate has gone up, the city has seen declines in most other violent crime categories, according to a Denver Police Department report released earlier this month.
The progressive candidate said she wants to restore funding and create social housing.
“I really believe in social housing. I want us to pass a social housing bond, and what that means is that we have mixed. Use multiracial, multi-income housing, so that we have deeply affordable housing, not just from year to year, but across even generations of families. They're doing it in Seattle, and so by passing a social housing bond, we can get deeply affordable permanent housing in Denver, and so that is going to be a top priority for me,” Calderón said.
But there are a few successful examples of social housing initiatives, which often face long waiting lists.
The Denver Mayoral election will be held on April 6, 2027
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.