Mike Coffman


Michael Harold Coffman is an American politician, businessman, and veteran of the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps serving as Mayor of Aurora, Colorado since 2019. A Republican, Coffman served as the U.S. representative for for five terms, as well as Secretary of State of Colorado and Colorado State Treasurer.
The son of a soldier, Coffman was born in Missouri and moved to Aurora when he was nine years old. He enlisted in the army himself at age 17, serving two years before leaving for the reserves to attend college. Coffman received his B.A. from the University of Colorado Boulder, while also attending special programs at Harvard University and the University of Veracruz. After transferring to the Marine Corps Reserve, Coffman founded a property management company in Aurora in 1983. As a soldier, Coffman served in both the Gulf War and the Iraq War.
Coffman was first elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 1988, being reelected in 1990 prior to his appointment to the State Senate in December 1994. He was then elected as Colorado State Treasurer in 1998 and as Colorado Secretary of State in 2006. He resigned as Secretary of State when he was elected to the United States Congress, where he served until his defeat for reelection by Jason Crow in 2018. In 2019, he was elected to his current post as Mayor of Aurora, and was re-elected to a second term in the 2023 election.

Early life, education, and career

Michael Coffman was born on March 19, 1955, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, to Harold and Dorothy Coffman, and is one of five children. His father served in the United States Army at Fort Leonard Wood, and after 1964, at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora.
In 1972, Coffman enlisted in the U.S. Army, and was assigned to a mechanized infantry battalion. The following year, he earned a high school diploma through an army program. Leaving active duty for the U.S. Army Reserve in 1974, he entered the University of Colorado, under the G.I. Bill graduating in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in political science. In 1994, he attended the Senior Executive Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. and the University of Veracruz in Mexico. Upon graduation from the University of Colorado, Coffman transferred from the Army Reserve to the United States Marine Corps in 1979, becoming an infantry officer. In 1983, he transferred from active duty to the Marine Reserve, serving until 1994. In 1983, he created an Aurora-based property management firm, serving as senior shareholder until 2000.

State politics and military deployments

Colorado Legislature

Coffman began his political career serving as a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 1989 to 1994. Shortly after winning re-election in 1990, he took an unpaid leave of absence from the statehouse during his active duty service in the Persian Gulf War, during which time he saw combat as a light armored infantry officer. He was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon after his first deployment. In 1994, he retired from the U.S. Marine Corps after 20 years of combined service in the Army, Army Reserve, Marines, and Marine Reserve. In 2006, Coffman returned to active duty in the Marines where he deployed to Iraq for combat service. Upon return from his deployment, he retired from the Marine Corps once again after a total of 22 years of military service. When State Senator Bill Owens resigned his seat to become state treasurer, the party's vacancy committee named Coffman as the replacement in December 1994. In 1996, he was elected unopposed to a full term to the Colorado State Senate. He became the chairman of the Finance Committee.

Colorado Treasurer

In 1998, Coffman was elected as State Treasurer of Colorado with 51% of the vote, defeating Democratic nominee Jim Polsfut. In 2002, he was re-elected with 56%, defeating Democratic State Senator Terry Phillips.
He resigned from that post in 2005 in order to resume his career in the U.S. Marines, and serve in the War in Iraq, where he helped support the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, which oversaw two national elections, and helped establish interim local governments in the western Euphrates Valley. In 2006, he completed his duty in Iraq and was re-appointed as State Treasurer. He served that position for only a few months because in November 2006, he was elected Colorado Secretary of State with 51% of the vote, defeating Democratic State Senator and Minority Leader Ken Gordon.

Colorado Secretary of State

During the general election of 2008, when Coffman was Secretary of State of Colorado, several groups accused the secretary of state's office of improperly marking 6,400 voter registration forms as incomplete, because they failed to check a box on the form, required by legislation sponsored by then Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon in 2006. Coffman's office responded that incomplete registrations require voters to either re-register or provide extra identification when they go to vote. Soon after the accusations were made, Common Cause filed suit against Coffman, in his official capacity as secretary of state. The secretary of state's office denied wrongdoing, and Coffman said he believes his office was correctly applying the law. On October 30, 2008, the court approved a preliminary injunction allowing purged voters to participate in the 2008 election. Bernie Buescher, Coffman's successor as secretary of state, replaced Coffman as defendant in the case in January 2009.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2008

Coffman announced that he would run for the U.S. House seat being vacated by retiring Republican Tom Tancredo in 2008 in Colorado's 6th congressional district. Three other candidates decided to run in the Republican primary for the open seat: Wil Armstrong, State Senator Ted Harvey, and State Senator Steve Ward. Coffman won the August primary with a plurality of 40% of the vote, beating runner-up Wil Armstrong by seven points.
The Denver Post endorsed Coffman on October 10, 2008. In November, Coffman defeated Democrat Hank Eng, an Appleton, Wisconsin City Common Councilman, 61%–39%. Governor Bill Ritter designated State Representative Bernie Buescher, a Democrat, to succeed Coffman as Secretary of State.

2010

Coffman defeated Democrat John Flerlage 66%–31%.

2012

In redistricting, Colorado's 6th congressional district was made more favorable to Democrats than in previous elections since Aurora was added to the district. Democratic State Representative Joe Miklosi challenged Coffman. Coffman defeated Miklosi 48%–46%, a difference of 6,992 votes.

2014

Coffman ran for re-election to the U.S. House in 2014. He won the Republican nomination in the primary election on June 24, 2014, unopposed. He faced Democrat Andrew Romanoff in the general election. Coffman won 52%–43%.

2016

Coffman ran for re-election in 2016 as the Republican nominee against Democratic State Senator Morgan Carroll. He defeated Carroll in the general election, winning 51% of the vote to Carroll's 42%. In July 2016, the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity announced plans to launch a major advertising campaign opposing Carroll.
Coffman subsequently held a public town hall meeting the following April, where he was challenged and often shouted down by residents of his district and others in attendance. Coffman's performance at the town hall and frank discussion with the audience earned praise from KUSA commentator Kyle Clark, who remarked that " opponents might not like me saying this, but he is clearly prepared to debate the issues, his positions, and his policies." Coffman also made national news during the town hall, telling the audience that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer "needs to go" because of his historically inaccurate remarks about the Holocaust.

2018

Coffman's 2018 Democratic opponent was Jason Crow, an attorney and Iraq War veteran, who beat Levi Tillemann in the primary by a 66 to 34 margin.
On July 2, 2018, the New York Times ran an article about the fact that a district populated by Somalis, Japanese, Koreans, Latinos, and other minorities has continued to be "a scene of frustration and failure for Democrats, who in a series of expensive elections had been unable to unseat Mike Coffman." The Times explained that Coffman had "kept winning in part because he has sought to show he embraced the needs of his newer constituents," and had become "a renegade Republican on immigration issues."
Coffman was trailing Crow in most of the polls in fall of 2018. The Republican National Congressional Committee confirmed on October 19, 2018, that it had pulled the remaining $1 million in television ad spending in an apparent assessment that Coffman was likely to lose.
In the November 2018 general election, Crow defeated Coffman 54.1% to 42.9%.
At a press conference the day after the election, President Donald Trump blamed Coffman for the loss of his seat, as Coffman had distanced himself from the president. Trump said, "On the other hand, you had some who decided to, 'Let's stay away, let's stay away.' They did very poorly. I'm not sure whether I should be happy or sad but I feel just fine about it... Mike Coffman. Too bad, Mike."

Committee assignments