DENVER — Mayor Michael Hancock and his challenger Jamie Giellis will share the 9NEWS debate stage once again Tuesday live on KTVD Ch. 20 at 7 p.m.
The live stream is also available above, on the 9NEWS app and Facebook page.
The debate airs the same week ballots for the June 4 runoff election are mailed to Denver voters, and it follows a wild week politically for the Giellis campaign in particular.
Giellis, the former president of the RiNo Art District who earned a spot in the runoff as the second-place finisher in the May 7 election, pulled out of a candidate forum hosted by the Colorado Black Round Table on Saturday. Her campaign said she decided not to participate because the organizer is a paid consultant for the Hancock campaign. She held a discussion with black community members on Facebook instead.
Giellis had promised a conversation with the black community after a gaffe at an event earlier in the week in which she could not remember what the initialism NAACP stood for. A day later, she scrubbed her social media accounts after a 2009 tweet surfaced where she asked why so many cities had Chinatowns.
Hancock became the first Denver mayor forced into a runoff for reelection since 1995 after he failed to win more than 50% of the vote on May 7. He won just under 39% of the vote.
Since Giellis placed second with just under 25%, she will be the sole challenger in the June 4 election. The third and fourth place finishers from May 7, Lisa Calderon and Penfield Tate, have endorsed Giellis in a show of unity against Hancock.
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