Quickly rising Denver picks Mike Johnston as new mayor amid mounting big-city issues

DENVER — Former Colorado state senator Mike Johnston claimed victory as opponent Kelly Brough conceded Tuesday night time in a runoff election to turn into Denver’s subsequent mayor.

Unofficial outcomes confirmed Johnston with 54.05% of the vote to 45.95% for Brough late Tuesday night time. Johnston was forward by 8,000 votes shortly after polls closed and that lead grew to almost 11,000 votes because the night time went on.

Johnston would be the metropolis’s first new mayor in additional than a decade, changing Michael Hancock, who was elected in 2011 and was term-limited.

Brough, the previous president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, instructed supporters Tuesday night time that she had known as Johnston and “wished him godspeed in the work ahead because our city is challenged and it needs a lot of work.”

The two moderates have been the highest vote-getters in a 16-way race in April, sending the race to Tuesday’s runoff.

Denver has turn into the tech and enterprise hub of the Mountain West however now faces issues just like these in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Johnston will helm a quickly rising metropolis confronted with out-of-control housing prices and elevated homelessness.

The job of Denver mayor has launched careers, notably that of John Hickenlooper, a Democrat who went on to turn into Colorado’s governor and is now a U.S. senator. Another Democratic mayor, Frederico Peña, went on to turn into U.S. Energy Secretary below former President Bill Clinton.

Peña endorsed Johnston, who additionally had a bigger warchest, together with practically $5 million raised from exterior contributions.

A tech and aerospace hub, the Denver metro space’s inhabitants has virtually doubled over the previous three many years, reaching 3 million. Fears that quickly rising Denver is lurching towards a destiny like different main cities outlined the race.

Candidates debated whether or not to implement a ban on rising homeless encampments, additional fund the police, impose lease management and permit what are sometimes known as “safe injection sites” – the place folks might use medication below supervision to forestall overdoses.

The ban was a legacy of Hancock’s administration.

Johnston, who acquired barely extra votes than Brough within the April election, has mentioned voters need the following mayor to do a superb job of taking a number of approaches to issues.

“We do have the same problems that San Francisco and Seattle face,” he mentioned in April. “If we get that wrong, you end up like a lot of other big cities where no middle class people can live.”

Brough campaigned on her data of Denver and expertise as a CEO. Besides main the Denver chamber of commerce, she has been chief technique officer for Metropolitan State University of Denver and was Hickenlooper’s chief of employees for 3 years when he was mayor.

Denver’s homelessness price has grown by over 12% over the previous two years. Whether to implement the ban divided candidates within the April election however Johnston and Brough each have mentioned they might implement it.