Colorado Senate Republicans will have a new standard-bearer next legislative session after Minority Leader Paul Lundeen resigned Monday to take a job heading a national nonprofit that funds conservative policy pushes, research and news sites.
Lundeen will take over the Washington D.C.-based American Excellence Foundation after four years in the Colorado House and seven years in the Colorado Senate, including serving as minority leader of the upper chamber since 2023. Assistant Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson of Alamosa is expected to step up and fill his role.
With a booming baritone, Lundeen was known for lengthy floor speeches defending the private sector, public safety and education— but also for garnering cross-aisle respect that allowed him to negotiate major amendments to bills that the GOP opposed, despite leading a small caucus. His signature was not sponsoring bills so much as working with moderate Democrats to force changes in bills ranging from efforts to boost oil-and-gas regulations to proposals to increase plaintiffs’ rights, seeking to make such proposals more workable for employers.
That’s not to say the Monument resident, entrepreneur and former Colorado Board of Education chairman did not have his name on signature pieces of legislation. He co-sponsored the Colorado Privacy Act that allows consumers to require retailers and other website operators to delete personal data, and he helped rewrite the K-12 school-funding formula and set up a $21 million scholarship program for high school graduates last year.
Colorado Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen smiles while Sen. Jeff Bridges testifies for a bill in 2023 that the two sponsored to fund scholarships for high school graduates.
“A true partner at the Capitol”
But as much as he did not shy away from the spotlight, much of the most influential work Lundeen did was behind the scenes, trying to find places where he could make legislation better when his caucus — which, since 2023, has held just 12 of the 35 Senate seats — could not kill it.
He twice led Republican efforts to grow the size of his caucus but ended up overseeing the loss of two seats during the Democratic landslide of 2022 and then stopping Dems from gaining a supermajority in 2024 despite projections that such an outcome was likely. His colleagues continued to reward him with the caucus’ top leadership post, as he clawed for every compromise and every victory that the party could claim.
Before entering public office, Lundeen’s background was one he described as being a “serial entrepreneur,” founding companies in fields as varied as brain training and learning centers, real estate development and golf course association landscape management. It was because of this that business groups often went to him first to lead pushback against proposed new regulations, and he dove head-first into some of the biggest legislative battles of the past few years.
“Employers throughout Colorado had a true partner at the Capitol in Paul Lundeen. He understood the unnecessary strains that government regulations can place on the companies that are working to create more jobs for people, and he stepped in countless times to try and make sure that burden was not too onerous,” Colorado Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Loren Furman said. “Lundeen fought to balance public protections with costs to employers while ensuring that fairness in the judicial system didn’t mean tilting the playing field against business owners. His voice will be missed.”
Lundeen was face of Senate Republicans
Colorado Senate Minority Leader speaks on the Senate floor on the opening day of the 2025 legislative session.
Lundeen said in statements Monday issued through his office and through the American Excellence Foundation that he was proud of the work he was able to do in his 11 years in the Legislature but wanted to take his advocacy to the national level. AEF uses a private-equity mindset to fund campaigns to shape public opinion on issues ranging from public safety to tax reduction to support of oil and gas, and the organization said in a news release that it recruited Lundeen because of his background and his Colorado record.
“Serving Colorado has been an honor and a blessing,” Lundeen said. “As I transition to a national platform, I am eager to continue advocating for personal freedom, economic opportunity and common-sense values.”
Simpson is one of the few members of the caucus who arguably have more cross-aisle respect than Lundeen, having sponsored numerous water-protection and agricultural bills with Democrats and having cruised to victory in November in a swing district. But he is known for a more low-key brand of leadership, and it will be intriguing to see how the caucus replaces Lundeen in the sense that he has been its public face for the past three sessions, leading its news conferences, its floor arguments and its fundraising.
The caucus will meet Thursday afternoon to officially pick its next leader, which likely will have a cascade effect and reshape the rest of the leadership team. A committee of Republicans from Lundeen’s northern El Paso County district then will meet to replace him. While the contest is likely to be competitive, former state Rep. Terri Carver reportedly has interest in the position.
Polis lauds partnership with Lundeen
Colorado state Sen. Cleave Simpson speaks on the Senate floor during the 2025 legislative session.
Lundeen’s announcement brought an outpouring of well wishes from politicians in both parties Monday.
House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, R-Colorado Springs, lauded his dedication to “education, economic opportunity and conservative values.”
And Democratic Gov. Jared Polis thanked Lundeen for working with him on education-reform bills and a 2024 law that restored income-tax cuts as a Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refund mechanism, saying that the minority leader’s “presence and leadership will be missed.”
“Paul has always found ways to work across the aisle and do what is best for the people he has served,” Polis said in a news release.