Jared Polis ranked among top 10 governors by conservative-leaning organization

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis was the only Democrat ranked among the country’s top 10 governors by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative-leaning organization that advocates for limited government, free-market capitalism and states’ independence.

Polis came in No. 9 in ALEC’s ranking, after Gov. Eric Holcomb of Indiana and before Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, both Republicans.

The report, titled “Laffer-ALEC Report on Economic Freedom: Grading America’s 50 Governors,” ranked governors based on taxes, spending, government assistance programs, coronavirus response, education policy and union policy.

“The governors that we rate highly have come out of this crisis that we’re in with respect to the flattening of the economy,” said Steve Moore, report co-author and chairman of the Task Force on Economic Revival for FreedomWorks, a conservative and libertarian advocacy group. “You have, by my estimates, about 15 to 20 states that are pretty much close to up and fully running and back to normal, which is incredible given what we’ve been through in the last eight months.” Moore spoke during a virtual news conference announcing the report’s release.

Arthur Laffer, the report’s lead author and an economic adviser under former President Ronald Reagan, who was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump, also had kind words for Polis during the news conference.

“He’s done a great job as governor of Colorado, and I anticipate that he’ll do really well going into the future,” Laffer said.

Polis, who hosted Laffer at the state Capitol in 2019, according to an article from Forbes, was lauded for his support for cutting income taxes.