(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Left-wing activists and Colorado Democrats launched a backlash campaign against Gov. Jared Polis after he commuted the controversial sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters.
Political exile, censure, impeachment and even removal from office are among the measures being floated by the left in response to the commutation. Leading the attacks are Democratic politicians running for statewide office in 2026.
Sen. Michael Bennet vowed not to appoint Polis to replace him in the Senate if elected governor in the November 2026 election. Bennet is currently running for the Democratic nomination for governor, while Polis is term-limited.
“If I have the honor of becoming Colorado’s next governor, Jared Polis will not be considered in my place,” Bennet wrote on X after discussing the matter on CNN.
If I have the honor of becoming Colorado’s next governor, Jared Polis will not be considered in my place. pic.twitter.com/0AQhdFqYvS
— Michael Bennet (@MichaelBennet) May 19, 2026
Meanwhile, left-wing attorney general candidate David Seligman called on the General Assembly to reconvene for special sessions “for the purpose of impeaching or censuring” Polis.
Seligman accused Polis of commuting Peters’s nine-year sentence in the election interference-related case only after the legislature adjourned to “avoid accountability.”
Colorado Secretary of State Jenna Griswold described the commutation as an “affront to democracy, the people of Colorado, and election officials across the country.” Like Seligman, Griswold is running for the Democratic nomination for attorney general.
Polis maintained in several interviews that he decided to commute Peters’s sentence independently, though President Donald Trump had long demanded that Polis pardon Peters.
The Democratic governor said the commutation came after a Colorado appeals court ruled that her nearly decade-long sentence was “based in part” on constitutionally protected speech — specifically her belief that the 2020 election was stolen.
Instead, the appellate court ruled that Peters must be resentenced based on the election-system breach in Mesa County in 2021.
Peters is set to be released in the coming weeks.
