Jared Polis
Jared Schutz Polis (/ˈpoʊlɪs/; born May 12, 1975)[1] is an American politician, businessman, and philanthropist serving as the 43rd governor of Colorado since 2019.
Jared Polis
Polis served one term on the Colorado State Board of Education from 2001 to 2007, and five terms as the United States representative from Colorado's 2nd congressional district from 2009 to 2019. A libertarian Democrat, he was the only Democratic member of the Liberty Caucus. He was elected governor of Colorado in 2018 and reelected in a landslide in 2022. As an openly gay man, Polis has made history several times through his electoral success. He became the first non-incumbent openly gay man elected to Congress in 2008,[2][3] and the first openly gay parent in Congress in 2011.[4] In 2018, he became the first openly gay man and second openly LGBT person (after Kate Brown) elected governor of a U.S. state.[5][6] He is also the first Jewish person elected governor of Colorado.[7] In 2021, he became the first U.S. governor in a same-sex marriage.[8] In 2022, he became the first openly gay man and the first U.S. governor in a same-sex marriage to be reelected.[9]
Early life and education[edit]
Polis is the son of Stephen Schutz and Susan Polis Schutz, founders of greeting card and book publisher Blue Mountain Arts.[10] He was born at Boulder Community Hospital in Boulder, Colorado, in 1975. He lived in San Diego, California, as a high school student, graduating from La Jolla Country Day School in three years with multiple honors. He graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in politics in 1996, writing a 157-page senior thesis, "Paradigm Shift: Politics in the Information Age", under the supervision of Carol M. Swain.[11] While at Princeton, Polis served as communications director of the undergraduate student government and was involved in other campus organizations, such as Model Congress and the Princeton Juggling Club.[12]
As a college sophomore, Polis purchased stamps from a Legends of the West series at the Princeton post office. The USPS had recently recalled the series due to a printing error in the image of Bill Pickett, making his stamps far more valuable. Polis sold the stamps to a collector for a sum "exceeding $1000".[13]
In 2000, he legally changed his surname to his mother's to raise awareness for a fundraiser and because he simply "liked it better".[14]
Business career[edit]
Polis co-founded American Information Systems (AIS), Inc., while still in college. AIS was an internet access provider and was sold in 1998. In 1996, he co-founded[14] a free electronic greeting card website, bluemountain.com, which was sold to Excite@Home in 1999 for $430 million in stock and $350 million in cash.[15][16]
In February 1998, Polis founded ProFlowers, an online florist, in La Jolla, California. In December of that year, economist Arthur Laffer began advising Polis and joined ProFlowers as a Director.[17] ProFlowers, later renamed Provide Commerce, Inc., went public on NASDAQ as PRVD on December 17, 2003. In 2005, Provide Commerce was acquired by media conglomerate Liberty Media Corporation for $477 million.[18]
Polis and other investors founded TechStars in Boulder, Colorado, in 2006.[19]
During his tenure in Congress, Polis was among its wealthiest members; his net worth was estimated at over $300 million.[20]
Philanthropic career[edit]
Polis is the founder of the Jared Polis Foundation. The foundation issues annual Teacher Recognition Awards and donates computers to schools and nonprofit organizations. Polis has also founded one charter school (the New America School) and co-founded another (the Academy of Urban Learning).[1]
Polis has received the Boulder Daily Camera's 2007 Pacesetter Award in Education[21] and the Kauffman Foundation Community Award.[22]