Who Is Greg Lopez? The Former Parker Mayor Running for Governor as an Unaffiliated, and Why Douglas County Is His Best County

Of the three serious names on the ballot for governor, only one has ever held office in Douglas County. Greg Lopez was mayor of Parker in the 1990s. Thirty years later he is running for governor with no party, a slogan ("People Over Politics"), and a realistic chance of deciding who carries his home county, if not the state.

The resume

Lopez describes himself as a veteran, a small business owner, a former mayor and a former congressman. After Parker he ran the Small Business Administration's regional office, then made two unsuccessful runs for the Republican nomination for governor. In 2024, when Ken Buck resigned from Congress, Republicans chose Lopez as a placeholder for the special election in the 4th District, which covers Castle Rock, Parker and most of this county. He won, served out the final months of the term, and did not run for the full one; that seat went to Lauren Boebert.

On December 30, 2025, he and his wife changed their registrations to unaffiliated. He then did the hard, unglamorous thing: collected petition signatures in all eight congressional districts. The Secretary of State certified 11,948 valid ones, well over the 8,000 required.

What he is running on

His home page pitches restoring "Colorado Common Sense," making life affordable, and "bringing safety and opportunity" to the whole state, with a promise to serve across party and regional lines, and asks voters to send in their own "Colorado Dream" or "Colorado Nightmare." The issues page is more concrete, 21 planks in all. The ones with numbers and names attached:

• Budget: replace baseline budgeting with zero-based budgeting and review "every taxpayer dollar."
• Housing: build 25,000 starter homes of roughly 1,100 square feet at around $235,000.
• Roads: have the state purchase E-470 and remove the tolls; slow down bike-lane construction.
• Wolves: tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service the state cannot fulfill its responsibilities as designated representative under the federal 10(j) rule.
• Taxes and policing: defend TABOR and "fight to ensure refunds are returned fairly"; restore qualified immunity to all law enforcement officers.
• Immigration: a non-sanctuary state that fully cooperates with federal immigration enforcement, while supporting legal immigration.
• Energy and data centers: an all-of-the-above energy strategy including nuclear, a review of Public Utilities Commission appointments, and a requirement that data centers use Colorado companies and protect water.
• Social issues: supports "policies that protect life" alongside adoption services; would veto legislation that weakens parental access; expand school choice, charter schools, home schooling support and vocational training; opposes "unconstitutional" gun restrictions and says he would be the first governor in modern times to carry a firearm, concealed or openly.

The pitch is the posture: a conservative-leaning candidate without the Republican label, in a state where that label has not won a governor's race since 2002.

"They're worried about the brand. They're worried about their team winning. They're not worried about the lives of people." Lopez, on why he left the Republican Party.

Why Douglas County is his best county

This is measurable. In the June 2024 special election, Lopez won the Douglas County portion of the 4th District by 11.8 points. That was a low-turnout election and a weak opponent, so discount it some. But compare: five months later, against the same Democrat in the same county, Lauren Boebert won by 0.57 points. No Republican has posted a number like Lopez's here in recent cycles, and his name has been on local ballots and in local government for three decades.

Now look at who he is running against. The Republican nominee, Victor Marx, won his primary statewide with 39.9 percent, and the two candidates who split the other 60 have not endorsed him. In Douglas County he did not win at all: Barbara Kirkmeyer took 42.69 percent here to Marx's 37.56, with Scott Bottoms at 19.45. Unaffiliated voters are a 50.6 percent majority in this county. A voter here who is conservative, uneasy about Marx and unwilling to vote for a progressive Democrat has somewhere to go, and it is a name they have voted for before.

What he could actually do

Be realistic. Lopez is not going to be governor. Unaffiliated candidates without major money usually fade in October as voters drift home to a party, and we have seen no public poll showing him in double digits or anywhere else.

But he does not need to win to matter here. The Republican margin for governor in Douglas County in 2022 was 1,290 votes. If Lopez draws even two or three percent in this county, and most of it comes from voters who would otherwise back the Republican, a county that has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1964 probably hands its governor's vote to Phil Weiser. There is an older precedent too: in 2010, with Tom Tancredo running outside the party, the Republican nominee for governor finished third in Douglas County with 11 percent.

That is the uncomfortable position Lopez has put his old party in. We wrote in June that his strategy only works if Republicans step aside for it, and they have not. So instead of a test of whether an unaffiliated conservative can win Colorado, November is a test of how much one can cost the Republican, and the first place to read the answer will be the returns from Parker.

More: the full three-way race as seen from Douglas County, every race on your ballot, and the November ballot guide. We do not endorse candidates. Campaigns can send corrections to hello@discoverdougco.com.