In the 16 months since Donald Trump took office, we’ve seen him break promise after promise. 

Lower prices? He drove up prices with his illegal tariff taxes. 

Un-rig the system? He gave $4 trillion in tax cuts to the Epstein class, paid for by forcing millions of Americans to pay double for their healthcare or lose it entirely. They even tried to auction off our public lands to shoulder the cost before we stopped them!  

No more forever wars? He illegally attacked Iran to distract us from his failures at home. Only, the war has made it worse! Thirteen Americans have died, and it has increased gas prices to more than $4.50 a gallon in Colorado. 

Trump’s created a full-out cost-of-living emergency. 

We hear it everywhere we go in Colorado. 

A mom and dad in Colorado Springs who are their daughter’s full-time medical caregivers. Their daughter is paraplegic and requires a ventilator. They’re facing a 40% cut in their Medicaid benefits because of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. 

A farmer in Montrose told us he might not plant any crops this year or even quit farming altogether because Trump’s war with Iran has driven up fertilizer and diesel prices so high it might not be worth the risk. 

And it isn’t just the costs. 

The president has unleashed secret police who are ignoring our due process and terrorizing our communities. His ICE agents have dragged, beaten and killed people in the streets. These victims aren’t violent criminals. They’re often our friends, family and neighbors. 

He’s punished Colorado for voting by mail. He’s stolen Space Command, risking our national security. He’s denied rural communities disaster relief to rebuild after fires and floods. He put a hold on the funds that Congress finally appropriated to finally deliver clean drinking water to 50,000 rural Coloradans. 

Donald Trump’s corruption is just as widespread as his broken promises. 

He’s handed out tax cuts to the Epstein class. His family has pocketed $4 billion since Trump took office. He’s pardoned crypto money launderers. We’re watching the White House bankroll billions for bombs and handouts for convicted criminals and turn their backs on working families.

So, I understand how Coloradans feel beyond frustrated – hell, we are too. 

But this fight is too important to do anything but double down. 

This month, we forced Republicans to ditch Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund for convicted criminals like Tina Peters and the Jan. 6 rioters. Last summer, we derailed Trump’s plan to auction off our hiking trails and public lands. 

We refuse to give ICE another penny. We’ll keep fighting to get Coloradans out of ICE detention facilities — just like we did for the two teenage sisters we helped get released from the Aurora ICE facility.  

Colorado — and our campaign — is built for tough battles. 

We did it in 2020. 

We defeated Trump and Cory Gardner. We flipped the Senate and passed the most historic climate rescue bill ever. We capped the price of insulin for seniors and lowered prescription drug costs.    

Now, we have a real chance to do it again and stop this administration in their tracks. 

But, stopping Trump is just the beginning. We need to actually un-rig the system and deliver the big solutions that Coloradans deserve. 

First and foremost, we’ll address Trump’s cost-of-living emergency. 

That starts with fixing our healthcare system and actually getting to universal coverage. We’ll fight to restore the Republicans’ cruel healthcare cuts, create a public option and bring down prices by empowering Medicare to negotiate all drug prices and rooting out fraud and abuse. Healthcare is a right. It’s about damn time every Coloradan has a medical home. 

We’ll bring down prices. We’ll end Trump’s tariffs, build more housing and ban Wall Street from dominating the housing market. 

We need to end Trump’s attacks on our climate and environment. We’ll invest in our clean energy future and fight to pass our bills to protect more than one million acres of public lands in Colorado. 

None of this will be easy, but when has that ever stopped us before? 

We’re not backing down now — not when all that we’ve worked so hard for is at risk.

Sen. John Hickenlooper is the incumbent candidate in the Colorado Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate.