Surprise candidate Shimon Blau cleared to face off against Melat Kiros in November
Unaffiliated congressional candidate Shimon Blau, a Denver doctor, has qualified by petition for the general election in Colorado’s 1st District, where Democrat Melat Kiros defeated 15-term U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in last month’s primary, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said Friday.
Blau, a newcomer to politics, submitted just shy of 2,000 valid signatures on July 8 days after starting his petition drive in response to Kiros’s upset primary win over DeGette.
Election officials said 1,918 of the 2,212 signatures gathered by Blau were accepted, easily clearing the 1,500 signature requirement.
In a statement, Blau thanked volunteers and those who signed his petition.
“Now the real work begins, he said in the statement.
“I want the people of Denver to know this: if elected, I will nothesitate to stand up to the Trump administration whose policiesare harming the people of Colorado’s First CongressionalDistrict and undermining the values we share.”
Blau, who operates a medical pract…