Daniel Kagan

Elections

Representative Anne McGihon announced that she would leave the Colorado House of Representatives on March 27, 2009. Kagan and eight other Democrats, including T. R. Reid, ran to be appointed to her seat by the vacancy committee.^[6] He won the appointment from the vacancy committee with thirty-five out of one hundred four votes and was sworn in on March 30.^[7][8] He defeated Republican nominee Christine Mastin in the 2010 election.^[9]

He defeated Republican nominee Brian Watson and Libertarian nominee David P. Jurist in the 2012 election.^[10][11] Watson spend $262,153 during the campaign which was the highest amount spent by any state legislature candidate in Colorado in that election cycle.^[12] He defeated Republican nominee Candice Benge in the 2014 election.^[13][14] Kagan ran for a seat in the Colorado Senate from the 26th district with the Democratic nomination during the 2016 election and defeated Republican nominee Nancy A. Doty.^[15][16] Andrew Fish, who later served as the Democratic caucus' deputy chief of staff, worked as Kagan's campaign manager in the 2016 election.^[17]

Tenure

During Kagan's tenure in the state house he served as the chair of the Judiciary committee.^[18] He served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention for Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries.^[19]

He gave a speech demanding for debate on a resolution seeking to expel Senator Randy Baumgardner for the sexual allegations against him. After his speech Kagan was accused of using the women's bathroom multiple times by Senators Beth Martinez Humenik and Owen Hill. He claimed that he had only used the women's bathroom once due to him having a gastrointestinal virus and the bathrooms being unmarked at the time. However, an investigation that ended in September determined that Kagan had used the women's bathroom at least three times. He announced on December 5, 2018 that he would resign on January 11, 2019, stating that the Republicans had targeted him due to the Democrats attempting to remove Republican members for sexual misconduct.^[20][21][22]

On January 5, a vacancy committee selected Jeff Bridges to replace Kagan in the state senate against three other candidates, including Iman Jodeh.^[23] Another vacancy committee selected Meg Froelich to replace Bridges in the state house.^[24]