Former Colorado Senate president begins Republican campaign for state treasurer

Kevin Grantham, a Fremont County commissioner and former state Senate president, announced Tuesday that he is running for Colorado treasurer next year.

“I’m a conservative at heart. I believe in fiscal accountability and that there is no greater responsibility than making sure Colorado is a safe and affordable place to raise our families,” the 55-year-old Republican said in a video posted to his campaign website.

There has not been a Republican elected to statewide office since 2016.

The state treasury essentially functions as Colorado’s bank for public funds and manages the state’s investment portfolios, debt and unclaimed property fund. Treasurers can also help guide the state’s economic policy in the Legislature.

Grantham became a state senator in 2010 and served as Senate president from 2017 to 2018. While in the Legislature, he was on the bipartisan Joint Budget Committee, which crafts the state budget each year. He is in his second term as a Fremont County commissioner.

In a statement, Grantham criticized the growth of the treasury department, noting that the number of employees has doubled under current Treasurer Dave Young, a Democrat.

“Thanks to the last seven years of reckless spending and not enough concern for the hardworking taxpayers of this state, Colorado has become increasingly unaffordable for too many. Since 2019, the staff in the Treasurer’s office has doubled while the population has only grown by 3% — something is wrong with that picture,” Grantham said.

He is against use of the approximately $1.8 billion in the Unclaimed Property Fund to pay for legislation, a strategy that some lawmakers have tried in recent years in an increasingly tight budget scenario. A successful bill this year, for example, directs the state to borrow interest from the fund’s investments to make sure safety net health care providers get paid. A bill from a recent special legislative session originally would have used the fund to soften health insurance premium increases, but the funding mechanism was amended to rely on tax credit sales instead.

“I will work tirelessly to make sure we return taxpayer’s unclaimed property faster than the Legislature can spend it,” Grantham said.

The treasurer’s office returned about $62 million to 73,900 people during the 2024 fiscal year, according to the office’s most recent budget request document.

Grantham has not yet filed his candidate paperwork with the secretary of state. Sen. Jeff Bridges, Rep. Brianna Titone, Jefferson County Treasurer Jerry DiTullio and John Mikos, all Democrats, are also in the race.