Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper told a small gathering at a New Hampshire diner Wednesday morning that he is running for president.
And in his next breath, he told the workers at Roots Cafe and Robie’s Country Store that he hadn’t made a final decision.
“I’ve never said it before,” an enlivened Hickenlooper says in a video of the comments, grabbing his chest and blushing. “I’m the governor of Colorado and I’m running for president. … To be honest, to be honest, I haven’t made a final decision.”
The moment was captured on video by a New Hampshire radio reporter and posted on Twitter.
At Roots Cafe/Robie’s Country Store in Hooksett Gov. John Hickenlooper says he’s running for President, then kinda walks it back
— Adam Sexton (@AdamSextonWMUR)
Brad Komar, director of Hickenlooper’s Giddy Up! PAC, said the governor was joking.
“The governor makes clear in the video that he is joking and in his next sentence that he has not made a decision yet,” Komar said. “If he had, his wife would have been the first to know. He is in New Hampshire to support 2018 candidates up and down the ballot.”
Hickenlooper has been crisscrossing the nation this fall, spending time in important early presidential contests including Iowa and now New Hampshire. His PAC has also made numerous donations to elected officials in those states.
Colorado Rising Action, a conservative political group, seized on the moment to suggest Hickenlooper is skirting campaign finance laws. were made about former presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who held out announcing his candidacy so he could continue to raise money for a PAC.
