Ken Lee Salazar (born March 2, 1955) is an American politician, rancher, and environmentalist from the U.S. state of Colorado. Salazar, a Democrat, served as state Attorney General before winning a U.S. Senate seat in the 2004 Senate elections. He has been a member of the U.S. Senate since January 2005. He and Mel Martinez are the first Hispanic U.S. Senators since 1977.

Salazar was born in the town of Alamosa in the San Luis Valley area of south-central Colorado. Five generations of Salazar's family had farmed and ranched in San Luis Valley, since before Colorado was a state; before that, Salazar's ancestors had farmed and ranched in New Mexico.

Salazar attended St. Francis Seminary and Centauri High School in Conejos County, graduating in 1973. He later attended Colorado College, earning a bachelor's degree in political science in 1977, and received his law degree from the University of Michigan's law school in 1981. Later Salazar was awarded honorary degrees (doctorate of laws) from Colorado College (1993) and the University of Denver (1999).

After graduating Salazar had a private law practice. In 1986 he became chief legal counsel to then Governor Roy Romer; in 1990 Romer appointed him to his cabinet as Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.

In 1994, Salazar returned to private practice. In 1998, he was elected state attorney general; he was reelected to this position in 2002. In 2004, he declared his candidacy the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Salazar considers himself a moderate and has at times taken positions which are in disagreement with the base of his party -- for a number of years he opposed gay adoption, and during the general election he ran ads attacking Pete Coors for saying Osama bin Laden should not receive the death penalty. After easily defeating Mike Miles in the Democratic primary, Salazar narrowly defeated beer executive Pete Coors of the Coors Brewing Company to win. His brother John Salazar also had an electoral victory in 2004, winning a race for the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado's third congressional district.

He took office on January 4, 2005. Salazar is married to his wife Hope and has two daughters, Andrea and Melinda. He is a Roman Catholic.

Soon after arriving in the Senate Salazar generated controversy within his party by introducing Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales and sitting by his side during Gonzales' confirmation hearings.

External link

• Official campaign webite (http://www.salazarforcolorado.com)