“Ethics Commission finds Hickenlooper twice violated gift rules.”
— CNN, June 5, 2020
John Hickenlooper is running for a second term in the United States Senate in 2026 — a term he has said will be his last. Before he was a senator, he was Colorado’s governor for eight years. It was conduct from those years that produced one of the more unusual episodes in recent Colorado political history: a sitting U.S. Senate candidate found in violation of the state constitution’s gift ban, and held in contempt by a state commission for refusing to show up.
This site documents that record — the 2020 ethics ruling, his Senate record, and the 2026 campaign — using primary sources: the Independent Ethics Commission’s own ruling, contemporaneous reporting from the Colorado Sun, CNN, The Denver Post and The Washington Post, and the public congressional record.
Every factual claim here links to its source. Where the record is disputed, we say so. If you find an error, the corrections policy is at the bottom of the page.
The Three Questions
The Ethics Ruling
The Jet and the Maserati
In 2018, then-Governor Hickenlooper flew on a corporate jet owned by MDC Holdings CEO Larry Mizel to a submarine commissioning in Connecticut, and accepted Fiat Chrysler-funded travel — including a Maserati limousine — to the Bilderberg conference in Italy. The ethics commission found both broke Colorado’s gift ban.
Read the full ruling →The Contempt Citation
He Refused to Testify
Summoned to answer for the gifts, Hickenlooper skipped the first day of his own hearing and declined to appear. The commission held him in contempt; a Denver District Court judge had to enforce the subpoena before he would testify. It happened days before the 2020 Senate primary.
What happened →The 2026 Race
The “Final Term”
Hickenlooper says 2026 will be his last Senate run — a self-imposed two-term limit he can’t actually bind himself to. At 72, he’d be 80 when the seat is next up. What has a first-term senator’s record actually been? We lay it out.
The race & the record →The Findings — Colorado Independent Ethics Commission, June 5, 2020
Source: Colorado Independent Ethics Commission, Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law, Complaints 18-22 & 18-29 (June 5, 2020); reporting by the Colorado Sun, CNN, The Denver Post and The Washington Post. The complaint was filed in October 2018 by the Public Trust Institute, a nonprofit led by former Republican House Speaker Frank McNulty. Full citations below.
Explore the record
The 2020 Ethics Ruling
The two gift-ban violations, the contempt citation, and what the commission actually found — with primary sources.
The Senate Record
Committees, bipartisan deal-making, the two-term pledge, and the question of a signature achievement.
The 2026 Race
A “final term,” an 80-year-old finish line, and what’s on the ballot this primary.
