ERIK UNDERWOOD FOR COLORADO GOVERNOR
Fighting for Colorado • Speaking Truth to Power • Standing Up for What’s Right
Colorado, you know me, and you know my story.
I’m Erik, and I didn’t grow up in a mansion in Cherry Hills or learn politics in some Ivy League boardroom. I grew up in the housing projects, raised by a single mother who sometimes had to choose between keeping the lights on and putting food on our table. That struggle – that reality of working families getting left behind while the powerful get richer – that’s not just policy to me. It’s personal.
You know me as the man who took on Bank of America Corporation and their army of elite lawyers from firms like WilmerHale and Debevoise & Plimpton – not because it was easy, but because it was right. For eight years, I fought them in federal courts across multiple circuits, exposing their fraud and proving that one person with truth on their side can challenge the most powerful corporations in America. I didn’t back down when federal judges tried to silence me. I didn’t quit when they threw everything they had at me. I kept fighting because that’s what Coloradans do.
As Chairman of Illmatic Ventures, CEO of My24HourNews.Com and Vurbil, I’ve built tech businesses from the ground up. Having worked in the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C., I know how to craft legislation and develop working coalitions. As a former student Junior Prosecutor in Atlanta (Atlanta City Solicitor’s Office for 5 months), I’ve stood up for justice in the courtroom. I’ve spent years navigating the federal legal system, not as a comfortable insider, but as someone who had to earn every victory against overwhelming odds.
Now I’m running for Governor because Colorado families are facing the same fight I’ve always known – the fight against a system that works for the wealthy and powerful while leaving working people to pay the bill. Housing costs that force families out of communities they’ve called home for generations. Healthcare costs that bankrupt families facing cancer. A system where your ZIP code determines your opportunities.
I’ve never been bought by millionaire special interest groups. I’ve never been compromised by corporate donors. I’ve been fighting the powerful my entire life, and I’m not about to stop now.
Colorado deserves a Governor who understands what it’s like to worry about rent, who knows the weight of choosing between groceries and medical bills, who will stand up to corporate landlords and insurance companies the same way I stood up to Bank of America.
I’m not running to manage the status quo. I’m running to change it.
Erik Underwood Gubernatorial Speech: April 2018
WHY I'M RUNNING - WHY NOW
Because I made a promise to a scared kid in the projects – and I intend to keep it.
When I was nine years old, lying awake listening to my mother cry because she couldn’t afford both rent and groceries, I promised myself that someday I’d have the power to make sure no child ever had to hear those tears. Forty years later, Colorado children are still hearing those same tears from their parents.
That promise kept me going through eight years of fighting Bank of America.
Every time their lawyers tried to silence me, every time federal judges ruled against me, every time people said I should just give up and settle – I remembered that promise. I remembered what it felt like to be powerless. And I kept fighting.
Now I’m making that same promise to Colorado families.
To the single mother in Aurora choosing between her child’s medicine and next month’s rent – I see you. To the college graduate in Colorado Springs living with four roommates because that’s the only way to afford housing – I hear you. To the family in Pueblo watching their neighborhood get gentrified around them – I’m fighting for you.
This isn’t about my political career – this is about keeping faith with that scared kid.
I’ve built tech businesses, had federal victories, and served in government. I don’t need to be Governor to be successful. But that kid who went hungry needs me to be Governor so other kids don’t have to go hungry. That’s the difference between me and career politicians – they’re running for themselves. I’m running for him.
Some fights choose you – they don’t ask if you’re ready.
I didn’t choose to take on Bank of America – their fraud chose me. I didn’t choose to fight for affordable housing – corporate greed chose me. I didn’t choose to run for Governor – Colorado’s crisis chose me. But once you’re chosen, you don’t get to walk away.
