DENVER – State Rep. Langhorne “Lang” Sias, an Arvada Republican in his second term in the Colorado General Assembly, will be Walker Stapleton’s running mate in the gubernatorial race and will serve as lieutenant governor if Stapleton is elected.
Stapleton announced Sias would be his No. 2 at a news conference Wednesday morning in Denver. The announcement comes after a week of wonderment at whom Stapleton had picked after Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis tapped former state Rep. Dianne Primavera has his lieutenant governor pick and running mate last week.
Sias is a military combat veteran who was a Navy fighter pilot and TOPGUN instructor and who currently flies 777s for FedEx, so it was fitting that the announcement came at Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver.
Sias is also an attorney who works at Broomfield-based Cooley LLP. He is the ranking Republican on the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee and also sits on the House Education Committee.
Sias represents District 27, a seat he was first appointed to in January 2015 after Libby Szabo was appointed as a Jefferson County commissioner. That came after he lost a bid for a congressional seat in the state’s 7th congressional district in 2010 and two state Senate races in 2012 and 2014.
In the 2012 race for state Senate District 19, Sias narrowly lost to Democrat Evie Hudak by fewer than 600 votes. He was defeated in the Republican primary for the same district in 2014 by Laura J. Woods, who went on to win the seat. According to The Denver Post, Woods portrayed Sias as being “weak on gun right support and a liberal Republican.”
He has also been a registered Democrat and unaffiliated in the past — something that could prove helpful to Stapleton, who has cozied up to President Donald Trump and his brand of politics in recent months.
Sias holds a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School, a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and a B.A. from Vassar College.
This is a developing news story and will be updated.