Jason Mikesell
Makes His Case
For Colorado
Governor.

The full Pyrost conversation with Sheriff Jason Mikesell — SB25-003, 287(g), cartel marijuana, recidivism, fentanyl, housing costs, and what he says he would do differently as governor.

Jason Mikesell is a two-term elected sheriff of Teller County, Colorado, running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2026. He has described his path to the race as reactive rather than planned — he came home in 2016 with a specific goal, stayed longer than intended, and eventually concluded that the problems he was seeing at the county level required a statewide solution.

When Teller County commissioners called, he was overseas building his company. His children were still in school back home. He flew 26 hours to get back. By Friday they'd hired him. By Monday he was drafting what would become his cartel enforcement strategy. Within six months, he says, those organizations had left the county. The department he inherited had 200% deputy turnover; he says he rebuilt it, brought salaries to market rate, and retained staff through two elected terms.

He's a third-generation Coloradan — grew up hunting, fishing, and camping across the state. He and his wife currently own five businesses: restaurants, apartments, and commercial properties. He describes that combination of law enforcement leadership and private-sector ownership as foundational to how he thinks about governing.

When we sat down with him on the Pyrost Podcast, a consistent theme ran through the conversation: that the consequences of policy decisions made in Denver fall on communities like Teller County, and that those making the decisions have little direct experience with the outcomes.

Mikesell has been an active and vocal opponent of Colorado's recent firearms legislation, including SB25-003 — the semiautomatic permit bill — which he says passed without the support of any law enforcement organization in the state.

"There was not one law enforcement organization that went forward and said this is a great idea," he told us. "Every single one of them said this is a bad idea." He says he watched legislators respond by invoking unnamed "stakeholders" before signing it anyway. He was present for the financial testimony on SB25-003, and argued that the state had no legal mechanism to fund the bill without accessing Pittman-Robertson federal funds — which, he contends, would trigger a federal audit and the loss of Colorado's conservation funding.

A Democratic legislator asked the question publicly during testimony. Mikesell said he stood, told him he would get the answer he was looking for, and delivered it. According to Mikesell, the legislator left the room before he finished. He says this dynamic — being technically prepared while legislators proceed regardless — has characterized his experience at the Capitol.

He also argued that the most effective screening already happens at the counter. Trained gun shop employees can read a customer, identify intoxication or erratic behavior, and decline the sale or ask them to return another day. In Mikesell's view, the 72-hour clock adds no safety benefit over that existing judgment — it simply penalizes everyone who passed the background check.

His read on the legislative pattern: California passes a gun bill; six to eighteen months later, a version appears in Colorado. Mikesell says legislators know many of these bills are constitutionally vulnerable, and that the strategy is to pass them, hold them for three to five years of court challenges, and keep them on the books in the meantime.

When Colorado's legislature effectively ended 287(g) agreements — the federal program that allows sheriff's deputies to perform immigration enforcement functions when detaining individuals who have committed crimes — Mikesell says he was the last county sheriff in Colorado still operating under one. The ACLU sued him in 2019. He says he negotiated a resolution that allowed the agreement to continue with specific operational guidelines.

He described how the program works in practice: when a deputy arrests someone for any serious offense, they ask where the person was born. That question is asked of everyone. If the answer indicates foreign origin, the deputy runs the individual through an ICE database. If there is an active federal interest — prior offenses, trafficking, illegal entry — a detainer is placed and the individual is transferred to federal custody.

Colorado's sanctuary policies block this process, Mikesell argues. The real-world result, in his account: dangerous individuals are released back into communities, ICE must then locate them at known addresses — often encountering entire households — and the state uses those subsequent enforcement actions to generate political opposition to the federal government while taking no steps to address the underlying issue.

Mikesell launched his campaign outside the Pioneers Museum in Colorado Springs. He describes his candidacy as rooted in the state's history and his family's connection to it — he grew up hunting and fishing across Colorado and says the outdoor traditions and rural character he knew are being eroded by policy decisions made in Denver.

"I grew up here," he said at the announcement. "I'm not coming in from another state trying to bring political values here. I'm here, on the ground, telling you I see what the needs are of the people." He describes himself as a moderate Republican who will not retreat on Second Amendment issues — positioning himself as someone with both a credible law enforcement record and direct experience with the legislation he opposes.

He has testified before legislative committees, engaged ICE and federal agencies directly on 287(g), and operated businesses alongside his law enforcement career. His case to primary voters is that those experiences, not a political résumé, are the relevant qualifications for executive office in Colorado.

The Republican primary is set for June 30, 2026, with the general election to follow in November.