Jared Polis
Governor of Colorado
Colorado’s tech-entrepreneur governor, who signed the first comprehensive state AI act “with reservations” in 2024 — then spent two years campaigning to delay and narrow his own law, backing federal preemption to protect innovation.
In his words
I am concerned about the impact this law may have on an industry that is fueling critical technological advancements across our state for consumers and enterprises alike.
Government regulation that is applied at the state level in a patchwork across the country can have the effect to tamper innovation and deter competition in an open market.
Biography
Jared Polis (born 1975) made internet fortunes — ProFlowers, an online greeting-card company — before entering politics, and has governed Colorado since 2019 as a self-styled libertarian-leaning Democrat. That instinct collided with his own legislature in May 2024, when it sent him SB 24-205, the Colorado AI Act: the first comprehensive state law regulating “high-risk” AI systems in hiring, lending, housing, and other consequential decisions.
Signing it, then fighting it
Polis signed the act on May 17, 2024, but attached a signing statement declaring he did so “with reservations” — warning about compliance burdens, a state-by-state patchwork, and urging lawmakers to fine-tune the measure before it took effect, or better yet for the federal government to preempt state efforts entirely. He then acted on the reservations: pushing special-session negotiations, successfully pressuring the legislature to delay the law’s effective date, and publicly siding with calls for a federal moratorium on state AI regulation. In May 2026 he signed a pared-down revision that significantly narrowed the law’s scope before it ever fully bit.
Consumer and labor advocates who won the 2024 fight accuse Polis of strangling a landmark protection in the crib; industry groups hail him as the rare Democrat willing to admit a first-mover law was overbuilt. Polis has meanwhile embraced AI operationally — Colorado has promoted AI adoption in state services and workforce training — consistent with his framing that the technology itself is an opportunity Colorado should court, not a threat to fence in.
Where they stand in the war
Who backs them up
Sources & further reading
Canonical record: https://battlelines.ai/topic/jared-polis