Tom Tancredo

Tom Tancredo (born December 20, 1945, Denver, Colorado, U.S.) is an American politician, who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1999–2009) and who sought the Republican nomination for president in 2008.

Tancredo earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Northern Colorado in 1968, and he worked as a junior high school civics teacher before entering politics. In 1976 he was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives, where he served two terms. In 1981 Tancredo was named a regional representative for the U.S. Department of Education, a post he held into the early 1990s.

In 1993 Tancredo returned to the private sector as the president of a libertarian think tank. He remained there until he launched his campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998. He entered Congress in 1999 on a platform that emphasized border control, budget reduction, and immigration reform; his views on security and border issues are outlined in his book In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America’s Border and Security (2006). Tancredo, who established a reputation as a firebrand, was also an opponent of abortion rights and gun-control legislation. He focused on many of these same issues in his campaign for the presidency in 2008. Although his tough stance on immigration resonated with many in the Republican Party, his poll numbers never exceeded single digits. He withdrew from the presidential race in December 2007, and he declined to run for reelection to his congressional seat the following year.

Tancredo split from the Republican Party in July 2010, when he declared his candidacy for governor of Colorado on the American Constitution Party ticket. He argued that the Republican candidate, who enjoyed backing from the Tea Party movement, was not strong enough to defeat the Democratic contender. Tancredo ultimately finished second in a three-person race in the November general election. He later rejoined the Republican Party, and during the 2012 presidential campaign he endorsed Rick Santorum for the party’s nomination. Tancredo staged another gubernatorial bid in 2014 but lost in the primary. Another run in 2018 ended when he abruptly withdrew from the race.