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Critics Warn Polis Commuting Sentence of Tina Peters Sends 'Dangerous Message' Before Midterms
"Reducing her sentence sends the wrong message to those seeking to undermine trust in our elections, and it will do nothing to deter Donald Trump's illegal attacks on Colorado," said US Sen. John Hickenlooper.
May 15, 2026
Top Colorado Democrats and democracy advocates were among those expressing concern on Friday after Democratic Gov. Jared Polis commuted the sentence of Tina Peters, a former county clerk and 2020 election denier backed by President Donald Trump.
"Today, Gov. Polis delivered a victory to every person urging President Trump to seize control of elections in 2026," said Aly Belknap, executive director of the advocacy group Common Cause Colorado, in a statement. "By commuting Tina Peters' sentence, Gov. Polis dealt a massive blow to Colorado's ability to run its own elections and uphold its own judicial system."
"This decision sends a dangerous message that Colorado will tolerate criminal meddling in election systems and equipment when it is done to make a political statement," Belknap warned. "Authoritarians create martyrs out of people like Tina Peters to fuel outrage, mobilize supporters, and excuse lawbreaking in service of their agenda."
"But authoritarians cannot dismantle democracy on their own. They need powerful people to give them consent. Today, Gov. Polis gave President Trump that consent. This is a shameful day for Colorado," she added. "Gov. Polis' decision undermines election security, weakens accountability, and permanently stains his legacy."
Since returning to office last year, Trump has pardoned his supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, fought for access to state voter rolls, said that Republicans "ought to nationalize the voting" in direct defiance of the Constitution, generated fear that he'll have federal agents surround polling sites in November, and even repeatedly suggested that the 2026 elections shouldn't be held at all.
Trump also gave Peters a symbolic federal pardon and pressured Polis—who is term-limited and set to leave office next January—to act on her case. The president was not able to free Peters from her nine-year sentence himself because a jury convicted her of state felonies and misdemeanors for her role in breaching election equipment in 2021.
After the governor's decision, which was announced alongside dozens of other pardons and commutations, and sets up Peters to be released from prison on June 1, the president wrote on his Truth Social platform, "FREE TINA!"
Peters also turned to social media on Friday, thanking Polis, apologizing for her "mistakes," and writing that "upon release, I plan to do my best through legal means to support election integrity and, based on my own personal experiences, to elevate the cause of prison reform."
In an interview with The New York Times, Polis denied trying to placate the president by freeing the former clerk. He said that "she committed a crime; she deserves to be a convicted felon," but "she was given an unusually harsh sentence."
As the newspaper detailed:
The governor's decision came after Mr. Trump cut hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money for Colorado, moved to dismantle a leading climate and weather research center in Boulder, rejected disaster relief for rural counties in the state that had been hammered by floods and fire, and vetoed an urgently needed water pipeline for rural Colorado.
In the interview, Mr. Polis pointed out that Mr. Trump had other grievances against Colorado, such as its mail-in voting system, and said he was not making his commutation decision with the expectation that Mr. Trump would undo his actions against Colorado.
"That's not something I ever considered," he said.
Meanwhile, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold declared that "this clemency grant to Tina Peters is an affront to our democracy, the people of Colorado, and election officials across the country. The governor's actions today will validate and embolden the election denial movement, and leave a dark, dangerous imprint on American democracy for years to come."
US Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said that "Tina Peters is guilty as sin and a disgrace to Colorado. She tried to undermine Colorado's free and fair election system. When she was caught red-handed, she was prosecuted by a Republican district attorney and rightfully convicted by a jury of her peers. Reducing her sentence sends the wrong message to those seeking to undermine trust in our elections, and it will do nothing to deter Donald Trump's illegal attacks on Colorado. I strongly disagree with this decision."
Fellow US Senate Democrat Michael Bennet, who is running for governor, was similarly critical, saying: "I vehemently disagree with Gov. Polis' decision to commute Tina Peters' sentence. She broke the law, undermined our elections, and was convicted by a jury of her peers. With Trump continuing to attack Colorado, we must stand strong for our institutions and the rule of law."
David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, told Democracy Docket that "it's unfortunate to see the governor of Colorado succumbing to the bullying tactics of election conspiracy theorists. He has thrown state and county election officials, Republicans and Democrats, under the bus after they resisted the corruption Ms. Peters engaged in and withstood attacks for many years as a result."
Even another former Republican clerk—Matt Crane, who's now executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association—sounded the alarm, arguing that "Tina Peters' actions have made life harder, not only for election officials here in Colorado, but make no mistake, for election officials all across the country. Her conduct became a rallying point for election conspiracy movements that fueled hostility and distrust towards the very people responsible for administering free and fair elections."
"Rather than standing with public service servants and defending one of our nation’s most cherished rights, the right to vote, Gov. Polis is bending the knee to the same political forces and conspiracy movements that are actively undermining confidence in our democratic institutions," Crane said. "That choice carries consequences far beyond this single case."
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Why Did We Stand in the Freezing Rain and Snow? Healthcare
In Colorado and all over the country, we gathered to demand that those who vote to take our healthcare away will be held accountable.
May 08, 2026
What we say at rallies and meetings with people who could help, but rarely do, is sometimes abstract and loaded with policy discussions that muddle even interested advocates at times. Healthcare in Colorado and all over the country is not only taking a hit with provisions of the “Big Beautiful Bill” passed by Congress in 2024 beginning to take effect, the healthcare industry is also still and increasingly one of the most profitable investment opportunities and nearly one-fifth of our GDP, or gross domestic product, flows from the healthcare industry. Private equity is in. Wall Street is in. It is as though the health industry CEOs and the elected officials they fund know exactly how to play the market to win. Human life is on the balance sheet bottom line buried in accounting lingo and those gorgeous profit terms.
Medicaid cuts hurt people. Medicaid cuts hurt communities. And on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, Coloradans were busy explaining the pain. Some were in warm conference rooms at Denver Health with a United States senator, and some were in the cold rain outside a clinic that could suffer or even close because of the cuts.
Cut losses; maximize gains. We are human widgets—forget the AI revolution if you have ignored the business insurgency into every aspect of the healthcare industry. We all needed to learn the language of greed and profit taking without regard for human life, and all the while we argued lives were lost without coverage. Those numbers of sacrificial dead are no match for the billions and yes, trillions, of dollars wagered, won, and lost making sure that final bottom line looks sexy.
So, in Colorado and all over the country, we gathered to demand those who vote to take our healthcare away will be held accountable. We may be widgets to the bean counters, but to one another and across multiple states and organizations, we stood together against the storm. In Westminster, Colorado, it was freezing rain and chilly, but we stood and carried on.
We intend to love one another enough to make sure human life is the profit we value more than the almighty dollar.
Dr. Vince Markovchick ran the emergency medicine department at Denver Health for 26 years. Think about what he must have seen and heard over time. Human life saved. The care not given when a patient tells the doctor they cannot afford the care or missing work or groceries if they allow care for a serious illness or injury. That is what Dr. Markovchick spoke about. Tender mercies delayed and shared as the rain briefly paused as we listened, as if the universe cared too. (Meanwhile, safe and sound and warm, in the hospital where he gave his professional life for us all, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) held an invitation only round table on the Medicaid cuts. Even the press stayed nice and warm and didn’t come to witness the more than 25 Coloradans who gathered in the cold.)
Lydia Guzman spoke with passion and fire about the damage she saw and sees in lives without access to care; Tyler Quick spoke to us about the issues the LGBTQ+ community faces in receiving not only gender affirming care but HIV prevention and care. We might weep for his reminder to us that what happens in the LGBTQ+ community will also spread to the straight community and others among us. Like it or not, no human is an island. Nope. We are the human community.
What do we demand together in this drippy, difficult weather? We spoke clearly, “Stop Taking Our Healthcare.” No more beautiful bills taking benefits away; no more enforcement of policies in unrelated ways to healthcare delivery; and no more healthcare dollars wasted on business measures like advertising, stockholder pleasures, “inducements” for prescribing or procedures, lobbying expenses for policies passed or policies blocked, or even baubles and freebies when you table with your wares at all those conferences.
Then, we would be fine with seeing that end of the healthcare industry given over to actual delivery of care—for us all. And we intend to stay loud. We intend to be seen. And we intend to love one another enough to make sure human life is the profit we value more than the almighty dollar.
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Judge Orders ICE to Release Family Who Spoke Out About Medical Neglect, Poor Conditions in Detention
Hayam El Gamal and her five children were detained last June after her husband was charged in connection with an attack in Colorado.
Apr 21, 2026
A lawyer for a family that has spent close to a year at an immigration detention center in Texas at the insistence of the Trump administration demanded the family's release late Monday after a federal magistrate judge found that "requiring them to endure further detention... risks compounding the constitutional violation."
“A federal court has determined [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement]'s prolonged detention of this family violates the Constitution,” the lawyer, Eric Lee, told The Houston Chronicle. “Nevertheless, ICE has not yet released the family. No more delays, no more obfuscations: release the El Gamal family immediately."
Hayam El Gamal and her five children, including five-year-old twins, were detained last June after her husband, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was charged in connection with a firebombing attack that targeted protesters who were calling for the release of Israeli hostages who had been kidnapped in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack.
The family has reportedly been detained longer than any other immigrant family under the Trump administration. Under court-mandated restrictions, the federal government is not permitted to detain children longer than 20 days.
El Gamal entered divorce proceedings with her husband after his arrest and is legally separated from him. She has maintained that she and her children knew nothing about his plans to attack the protesters, but the White House's official account on the social media platform X threatened the family with deportation after they were detained.
“Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon,” the White House said last June. Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also said the Department of Homeland Security was investigating what the family knew about the attack.
Three months after they were taken to Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas, an immigration judge determined last September that the Egyptian family did not pose a threat to the public and ordered them released on a $15,000 bond, but the Board of Immigration Appeals—part of the executive branch—ordered the judge to hold a new hearing and he later reversed his decision.
Monday's ruling came days after El Gamal was taken to a local emergency room with a lump in her chest; Lee said in court filings that El Gamal had not been given proper medical attention at Dilley. Doctors at the local hospital found fluid around El Gamal's heart but did not determine the cause of the lump. Lee told the Chronicle that ensuring El Gamal, who fears the lump could be cancerous due to her family history and medical neglect at the facility, gets urgent medical care following her release is a top priority.
The family has raised alarm for months about medical neglect, which has been reported at numerous ICE facilities, as well as rotten food and unsafe drinking water.
"I have seen with my own eyes, food that has mold in it. I even saw food with actual worms," El Gamal's 16-year-old son wrote in a letter shared publicly by Lee earlier this year. He also said he suffered "severe abdominal pain" and was unable to walk to the facility's medical unit. He was finally taken to the unit hours later in a wheelchair, but was told by a nurse, "I can’t help you. Go and come back if you still have pain in 3 days." He later vomited and was taken to an emergency room where it was determined he had appendicitis.
A friend of El Gamal's eldest child was among those who spoke out on behalf of the family at a protest at Dilley on Sunday and read from a letter written by Hayam El Gamal.
"My kids, two of whom are five years old, have been struggling to live in a place that isn't suitable for such long periods of time," the young woman read. "We didn't do anything to deserve this. Children shouldn't be punished for their parents' actions."
Friends of the family in Colorado Springs, where they lived before their detention, also organized a rally over the weekend.
"Reminder that children shouldn't have to organize protests to release their classmates from prolonged federal detention!" said Lee.
US Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who has advocated for the El Gamal family and other families detained at Dilley, noted that one of El Gamal's five-year-old children was also denied dental care.
Lee told The Texas Tribune that conditions have deteriorated for the El Gamal family since they began speaking out about their treatment at Dilley. The eldest daughter in the family, 18-year-old Habiba Soliman, was separated from her mother and siblings after telling reporters about the conditions at the center.
The attorney told NBC News that the family "feels vindicated" by the judge's decision, but "they have gone through enough in the last 10 and a half months of detention to know it’s not over yet, because of how brazen and sadistic the White House has been to this family and five innocent children."
"They're still detained," said Lee Monday night. "Release the El Gamal family immediately!"
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