Colo. GOP rep. leaves door open for Senate

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) is leaving the door open to possibly challenging incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) in 2016.

“Never say never,” Coffman told The Hill as he left the House floor on Tuesday.

Coffman also addressed the potential candidacy of his wife, Cynthia Coffman, who has also been rumored as a potential GOP Senate candidate in Colorado in 2016.

He seemed to indicate that because she just won the election to become Colorado’s attorney general in 2014, it might be too early for her to leave to seek national office.

“Obviously she’d be a great Senate candidate,” he said. “But in her situation, I think, just being elected for the first time, I don’t know. But never say never.”

Cynthia Coffman was the second highest vote-getter in Colorado in 2014, with only Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) turning out more supporters in the midterm elections.

Mike Coffman is usually the first name political operatives in the state mention in the pack of potential GOP candidates with a chance to unseat Bennet. Coffman has impressed Republicans in the state by winning several competitive House races.

In 2014, he defeated former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, a top Democratic recruit, by 9 percentage points. Coffman has also won statewide elections for secretary of state and treasurer.

Colorado Republicans say that Coffman already has to raise large sums of money to defend his House seat every two years, so it would be easy for him to raise a little more in a bid for the Senate.

They also say that if he can carry his home district in a Senate race that the election would be his. Coffman’s district sits in the southern portion of liberal Denver and includes some nearby suburbs.

Now-Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) was able to defeat former Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) in 2014 despite losing Coffman’s Arapahoe County district.