Shimon Blau

According to his campaign website, Blau was born and raised in Denver's Sloan's Lake neighborhood, the son of immigrants George and Hermine.[1] His father was a Holocaust survivor from Poland who served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and earned an engineering degree from Columbia University, and his mother was from France.[1] Blau left Denver at age 13 to pursue his education, and medical school, residency and specialized training took him across the country.[1]

He is a board-certified physician specializing in interventional spine and pain management, and returned to Denver in 2013 to complete his fellowship and build his medical practice.[1] In a Colorado Politics questionnaire he describes himself as a physician with more than 20 years of experience and a small business owner.[2][1] Colorado Politics gives his age as 50; he entered the race as an unaffiliated candidate within days of Melat Kiros's primary win and qualified for the ballot by petition.[2] His campaign website says he and his wife live in Denver.[1] He received 5.5% of the vote to Melat Kiros's 78.3%, according to unofficial results reported by NBC News.[3]