State Sen. Bob Rankin is resigning his seat in the Colorado Senate.
The longtime legislator hasn’t said why he is leaving, only that he is doing so effective Jan. 10, one day after the start of the 2023 session of the Colorado Legislature.
“I have informed the secretary of the Senate my intention to resign from the Colorado State Senate effective January 10th,” Rankin said in a statement. “After proudly serving the state for the past 10 years, I have made the decision to move forward with the next chapter of my life.”
Rankin, a Republican, was first elected to the Colorado House in 2013. He served three two-year terms representing House District 57, which at that time represented Garfield, Moffat and Rio Blanco counties.
He was appointed to the Colorado Senate in 2019 to replace Sen. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs, who resigned amidst a scandal involving multiple complaints of sexual harassment of women inside the Capitol Building.
Rep. Bob Rankin
Rankin later was elected to what then was Senate District 8 in 2020, and was to represent Senate 5 after legislative district lines were redrawn last year that included him in it. That district also included Montrose, and with it, GOP state Sen. Don Coram, but because Rankin was more recently reelected to the Senate, the district went to him. Coram had been representing Senate District 6, but that district now includes Alamosa County, where GOP Sen. Cleve Simpson lives, giving him that district.
While Rankin could not be reached for comment, Coram said he isn’t surprised Rankin is resigning, saying he’s been thinking about it for some time, partly because of the state of the Colorado Republican Party.
“The Republican Party is in shambles,” Coram said. “They are totally out of touch with where the electorate is in the state of Colorado.”
Coram puts some of that blame on Colorado GOP Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown, saying she understands little about politics, but also on election-denying Republicans who continue to support former President Donald Trump, adding that the former president is a large part of what’s wrong with the party.
Ironically, he isn’t the only one criticizing Brown. On Wednesday, a group of far-right Republicans, including indicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, called on Brown to resign, saying she helped hinder their candidates during this year’s elections, which saw Democrats winning reelection to all statewide offices by wider margins than they did in 2018, and losing seats in the Colorado Legislature.
In the Colorado Senate, where Republicans had hoped a so-called red wave would give them a majority, the GOP ended up losing ground. When the Legislature reconvenes next month, only 12 of the 35 senators will be Republican, down from the current 14.
Additionally, half of them are further to the right, Coram said.
Coram said neither he nor Rankin, both of whom are seen as moderate Republicans, want to operate not only with a smaller minority, but also in a divided atmosphere within the Senate Republican caucus.
“They’re going to be grenade throwers,” Coram said of some of those far-right senators.
“The opportunities to have any successes within that group, I don’t see anything happening,” he added. “I don’t think they have a negotiator in the group that can move things back to the center. The party thinks that they’re not extreme enough. That’s the problem. I grew up when Republicans were by far the majority. I don’t think we’ll win a statewide race in the next 10 years.”
In virtually all of his time in the Legislature, Rankin has served on the six-member Joint Budget Committee, which drafts the state’s annual budget.
Historically, that committee is known for working collaboratively regardless of political affiliation. Even Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, bemoaned Rankin’s departure, saying it is a great loss because of his institutional memory and ability to reach across party lines.
“Senator Rankin’s commitment to bipartisanship and fiscal responsibility is a model for all of us, and his steady hand on the Joint Budget Committee will be missed,” Polis said. “I enjoyed working with Senator Rankin to help rural communities, cut red tape, save people money on health care with reinsurance, provide the biggest property tax cut for property owners and small business in recent memory, invest in education and to strengthen search and rescue capacity.”
In his 10 years in office, Rankin sponsored or co-sponsored more than 200 bills that were signed into law, most of which dealt with the state’s budget or fiscal policies.
He’s also helped address such issues as wildfire mitigation, job training and improving health care and other services in rural areas of the state.
His wife, Joyce Rankin, has worked as his legislative assistant throughout his time in the Legislature.
She currently serves on the State Board of Education.
She was first appointed to that post, representing the 3rd Congressional District, in 2015 to fill a mid-term vacancy. She was elected to complete that term in 2016, and re-elected to a full six-year term in 2020.
A vacancy committee for the Senate district is to be established to appoint a replacement, who would serve until the office is up for election in 2024.
Names that have surfaced as possible replacements include Glenwood Springs resident Gregg Rippy, who served in the Colorado House from 2000 to 2004, and Rep. Perry Will, a New Castle Republican who lost his reelection bid for House District 57 last month.
