Of all the historic victories that happened during last night’s elections — including, of course, a record-breaking number of women headed to Congress — we’re going to take a moment to give a shoutout to one special guy: Jared Polis, a 43-year-old Democrat who was elected governor of Colorado.
We’re kvelling here at Kveller because not only is he the first openly gay man in the U.S. be elected governor, he’s a proud Jewish papa. (Yeah!)
Notably, Polis is also the first Jewish governor of the state. His candidacy was based upon a three-pronged platform: provide free preschool and kindergarten across the state, fight income inequality, and commit Colorado to only using renewable energy by 2040. (All things we can get behind!)
Wow!! Congratulations @jaredpolis of Colorado who just became the first openly gay man to be elected Governor in US History!!! 🌈🌈🌈
— billy eichner (@billyeichner) November 7, 2018
Polis and his partner Marlon Reis (who is also Jewish!) have two children: Caspian Julius, 7, and Cora Barucha, 4, who was named after Polis’ great-great-aunt Kasha Barucha.
Prior to his historic win, Polis was the first openly gay parent to serve in Congress (yes!). And prior to that, he was a super-successful Internet entrepreneur, including founding online greeting card company Blue Mountain, which, as we all know, is very popular with bubbes the world over.
In an interview with our sister site, JTA, last year, Polis described how his Jewish identity inspired his candidacy, saying: “I derive a lot of the values that I try to bring into the public sphere from my private faith. Certainly, for me, I focus a lot on education, and I’m running for governor to bring [free] preschool and kindergarten to our state and improve our schools, and that’s an important Jewish value.”
Amen to that!
