(Watch livestream on YouTube.)
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis will deliver his penultimate State of the State address on Thursday morning, as he faces his final two years in office, a bleak state budget picture and the return of Donald Trump to the White House.
Polis was set to begin speaking to the full legislature and other state officials at 11 a.m. in the Capitol’s House chamber.
The governor has typically used the annual speech to highlight successes and present his legislative agenda for the coming term. This year, it comes at something of a crossroads, both for Polis’ tenure and for the state’s future.
With two years left in his second term, Polis has succeeded in passing his suite of land-use reforms through the Capitol, his priority since his 2022 reelection. He’s also still seeking additional reforms on transportation as part of his broader land-use and environmental policy.
But his speech will meet a legislature facing a stark budget shortfall of roughly $700 million that, lawmakers have warned, will force uncomfortable cuts to core state services. Polis has submitted two budget proposals to lawmakers in recent months that seek to close the gap, proposals met with varying degrees of lukewarm response from the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee.
At the same time, Polis’ final two years will coincide with the second Trump administration. After prominently backing Vice President Kamala Harris for president during the campaign, Polis has adopted a more openhanded posture toward the incoming administration.
He’s spoken positively about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist that Trump has nominated to be the top health administrator in the country. He’s also tried to banter with Vivek Ramaswamy and billionaire Elon Musk, who are leading an amorphous group charged with studying potential cuts to the federal budget.
The state was largely insulated from the red wave that swept much of the United States in November. State House Democrats lost three seats but still maintain a near-supermajority in the chamber, while their Senate colleagues maintained a similarly firm grip on their majority.
Polis’ posture stands in some contrast to members of the state’s overwhelmingly Democratic legislature, who immediately formed working groups to prepare for Trump’s move to the White House, along with the regulatory and immigration shifts that he has promised. One moderate Democratic state senator, Kyle Mullica, an emergency room nurse, reacted to Polis’ praise for RFK in November by calling it “complete bullshit.”
It’s unclear how — or even if — Polis will address the changing federal administration in his speech Thursday. The legislature’s two top Democrats, House Speaker Julie McCluskie and Senate President James Coleman, both referenced federal uncertainty and concern in their opening-day speeches Wednesday. McCluskie’s defense of immigrants prompted a lengthy standing ovation from her members.
McCluskie and Coleman both also referenced the need to address the cost of living in Colorado. That’s something Polis has sought to prioritize during his tenure and will likely hit on again Thursday morning — especially in light of the 2024 election results, which were generally viewed as a referendum on the country’s ground-level economy.
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