Alex Valdez, a businessman and state house representative for northwest Denver, filed paperwork to run for mayor of Denver Wednesday.
He was first elected to the legislature as a Democrat in 2018. Before that, he was CEO of a residential solar installation company called EcoMark, which he founded in 2010. Valdez stepped away from running the day-to-day operations of the company when he became a lawmaker. When he left the CEO role at EcoMark the company had more than 150 employees.
Valdez joins 20 other candidates in the race, and he is the third current member of the state legislature to enter the race, joining Representative Leslie Herod and Senator Chris Hansen, both Democrats.
According to a blog entry on Valdez's company's website, he got into politics, in part, through solar industry lobbying.
"Valdez and other members of EcoMark ... learned they had to take an active role on the political scene to ensure that Colorado homeowners would always be able to benefit from the solar energy," his website reads "From this experience and with the full support of the company, Valdez started moving his career from CEO of a solar company to that of a politician running on an environmentally-friendly platform."
He served as chair of the Energy & Environment committee at the state legislature. Valdez has been a co-chair of the Latino Caucus and is part of the LGBTQ Caucus.
Valdez was born and raised in metro Denver and attended the University of Colorado Boulder.
