Phil Weiser

Weiser was born in 1968 to a Jewish family; his grandparents were Holocaust survivors and his mother was born in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945.[1][7] He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in political science and from New York University School of Law in 1994.[1]

Weiser clerked for Judge David Ebel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and then for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Byron R. White and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.[1][7] From 1996 to 1998 he was senior counsel to the head of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division in the Clinton administration.[1] He joined the University of Colorado Law School faculty in 1999, founded the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, and served as dean from 2011 to 2016.[1] During the Obama administration he was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division and later a senior adviser for technology and innovation to the National Economic Council.[1][7]

Weiser defeated Republican George Brauchler in the 2018 attorney general election and took office in January 2019, becoming the first Democrat to hold the office in 15 years.[1] He won a second term in 2022 against Republican John Kellner.[1] His office's biography highlights consumer-protection work, more than $900 million in opioid settlement funds, a first update of peace officer training in 30 years as chair of the state's Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, and his Supreme Court argument in Colorado Department of State v. Baca.[7] Since January 2025 he has filed or joined more than 65 lawsuits challenging Trump administration policies.[1]

Weiser announced his run for governor on January 2, 2025, and won the Democratic primary on June 30, 2026, defeating U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.[1] His running mate for lieutenant governor is Lesley Dahlkemper.[2] He lives in Denver with his wife, Dr. Heidi Wald, and their two children.[7]