Former Republican U.S. Representative Greg Lopez now running for Governor of Colorado as an Independent
Lopez is making his third campaign for Governor.
Greg Lopez has primarily been a member of the Republican Party during his political career. But he is now forging ahead without a party affiliation.
Lopez is now an Independent candidate in the 2026 race for Governor of Colorado after having previously entered the Republican primary. While announcing his exit, Lopez criticized his now-former partymen raising money better than solving problems and dividing better than listening, adding that he feels “politically homeless.”
He’d sought the Republican nomination for the office twice before, finishing in a distant third place in 2018 behind State Treasurer Walker Stapleton and ex-State Representative Victor Marshall and losing to Heidi Ganahl, a member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents, in 2022. Additionally, Lopez was a candidate for in the Republican primary for the Colorado Senate in 1998 and the United State Senate in 2016.
Lopez was not the only candidate to depart from the Republican gubernatorial primary. State Senator Mark Baisley withdrew from race to instead run for the United States Senate. The field is still a crowded one, however, with remaining candidates including State Representative Scott Bottoms and former State Senate Minority Whip Barbara Kirkmeyer.
On the Democratic side, U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and State Attorney General Phil Weiser have both launched campaigns. Incumbent Jared Polis is not eligible to seek another consecutive term by state law.
In 1992 Lopez was elected as Mayor of Parker, located between Denver and Colorado Springs, as a Democrat. He was re-elected as a Republican in 1994. Later, Lopez was appointed as a senior official in the United States Small Business Administration under President George W. Bush and continued in the position for several years in the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama.
In 2024, Lopez won a special election for a seat in the United States House of Representatives from the 4th District of Colorado following the resignation of Ken Buck. He was not a candidate in the regularly scheduled election for the seat later in the year.
Gregorio Beltran Lopez is a native of Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Nimitz High School in nearby Irving and from New Mexico State University Alamogordo. Additionally, he served in the United States Air Force. While stationed at Holloman Air Force Base, Lopez suffered an injury that left him with significant hearing loss.
In 1988, Lopez married Lisa Garcia. The couple have two children.