Mike Johnston was a shaggy-haired Thornton school principal in 2008 when then-presidential candidate Barack Obama came to visit as part of his campaign in battleground Colorado.

Johnston — who because of his work in low-income schools was already advising the Obama camp on education issues — soon found himself offering help to the White House when Obama won the election.

By 2009, Johnston had become a Colorado state senator. And now he’s running for governor.

“He was a primary influence, obviously,” Johnston said of Obama. “It was the idea that it was still possible for good people to come together and solve problems in bipartisan ways and that sometimes the least (flashy) service had the highest impact.”

Johnston wasn’t the only one who got the bug for public service — at least seven people in Colorado who worked for Obama the candidate or Obama the president are building on that experience by running for office themselves. Johnston may be among the highest-profile hopefuls, but others are seeking office across a strata of government, from county clerk and recorder on up to Congress and several stops in between.

They’re among a wave of Obama-linked candidates across the nation who are as inspired by the former president as they are riled by the current one. But they also know that to overcome the circumstances in 2016 that led to the election of Donald Trump, they have to move beyond the coattails of Obama even as they try to preserve the substance of his ideas.

While the Colorado candidates have a range of values, they all generally want to preserve hallmarks of Obama’s presidency — such as protecting young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, expanding voter rights and making health care more available.

“It’s definitely happening all over,” said Craig Hughes, a Democratic operative who served as a senior adviser to Obama’s Colorado campaigns in 2008 and 2012. “I think it’s less about carrying on his legacy than getting involved and making their own legacy — making a difference on their own.”

However, the Obama alumni in Colorado say that trying to channel the former president’s dazzle is not enough for victory — they have to provide voters with something other than the status quo, much in the way the former president did when he first ran in 2008.

“I’ll never pretend or even try to have the same charisma as Barack Obama,” says Dylan Roberts, a 28-year-old who worked on Obama’s presidential campaigns and is now running for the state House of Representatives. “But that mere identity association is the direct problem with the Democratic Party right now and was last year.”

Obama’s presidency and campaigns were defined by his ability to draw young people’s support and translate that into steady popularity. In Colorado, that helped him beat John McCain in 2008 54-45 and Mitt Romney in 2012 51-47, which could give the candidates tied to him a boost.

But while he left office with fair national approval ratings — a CNN/ORC poll from September 2016 in Colorado showed him with a 50 percent approval rating — that likability didn’t trickle down to other Democrats, says Floyd Ciruli, an independent pollster in Denver.

“If you looked elsewhere in the country during his time in office,” Ciruli said, Democrats lost governorships and state legislatures.

The Colorado candidates say they know they have to be more than just the Obama or the anti-Trump candidate if they want to win.

Jewel Samad, AFP/Getty Images Former U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with a bystander wearing a horse head mask on street in Denver on July 8, 2014.

Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post Former President Barack Obama holds a rally that is part of a coast-to-coast campaign barnstorm of swing states at the Meadow in City Park Denver on Wednesday. Oct. 24, 2012.

AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post Former President Barack Obama speaks to a crowd during a presidential campaign stop at the at the Communtiy College of Aurora on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012.



Christian Murdock, The Gazette via AP, Pool Former President Barack Obama, center, meets with Thunderbird pilot Maj. Alex Turner at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016, before returning to Washington after the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. The pilot of a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird that crashed following a flyover met with Obama shortly safely ejecting safely into a Colorado field.

Andy Cross, The Denver Post Former President Barack Obama gives his commencement address to the United States Air Force Academy 58th graduating class at Falcon Stadium June 2, 2016.

Kent Nishimura, The Denver Post Former U.S. President Barack Obama waves as he boards Air Force One at Denver International Airport on Wednesday, July 9, 2014 in Denver. The President is en route to Dallas, Texas where he will meet local elected officials and faith leaders to discuss the humanitarian situation at the Southwest border.



RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Former President Barack Obama plays pool with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper at Wynkoop Brewery in downtown Denver after arriving in Colorado, July 8, 2014. President Obama is in Colorado to speak about the economy and raise money for Senator Mark Udall's re-election campaign.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Former President Barack Obama discusses the economy during a speech at Cheesman Park in Denver, July 09, 2014. After the speech President Obama will attend a private luncheon at the Westin Denver Downtown hotel to raise money for U.S. Sen. Mark Udall's re-election campaign.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Former President Barack Obama discusses the economy during a speech at Cheesman Park in Denver, July 09, 2014. After the speech President Obama will attend a private luncheon at the Westin Denver Downtown hotel to raise money for U.S. Sen. Mark Udall's re-election campaign.



Joe Amon, The Denver Post President Barack Obama speaking to uniformed officers community leaders at the Denver Police Academy calling for Congress to act more like the state's Democratic-controlled legislature to pass stronger gun-control laws April 3, 2013 Denver.

“To be an innovator, sometimes you have to break through the system,” said Levi Tillemann, who worked in Obama’s Department of Energy and is running as a first-time candidate to unseat U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican “That’s what Obama did. That’s why Obama inspired people, and that’s how Obama was successful.”

Phil Weiser, who worked in Obama’s Justice Department and is now running for Colorado attorney general, is heeding Obama’s advice to focus on work he wants to get done more than any office he wants to pursue.

“One of the things he told all of us who worked for him is to focus on what you want to do, not what you want to be,” the first-time candidate said. “That’s something I took to heart as I was making this decision to run. I’m not running because of some long-held dream to be a politician.”

Rochelle Galindo, a Greeley city councilwoman, has been working her way into politics for years and worked on Obama’s campaign in 2012 as a campus field organizer at the University of Northern Colorado. For her, Obama’s words might as well be gospel.

“Some people say, ‘What would Jesus do?’ ” said Galindo, who is running for a seat in the state House. “I say, ‘What would Obama do?’

“I don’t think its dangerous to tie me to him at all. He’s a part of my political history and the work that I’ve done in the community”

The thread that ties nearly all of the Obama alumni candidates in Colorado together is Trump. His presidency, for them, is such a departure from Obama — and so unsettling — that they felt obligated to run.

Jena Griswold was an election monitor during Obama’s 2012 campaign. When the Trump administration started requesting voter information from across the nation as part of its Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, she was moved into seeking public office — a decision she said she wouldn’t have made without working for Obama.

“What we’re seeing now, we’re seeing attacks against women, against Latinos against Muslim-Americans against the judiciary, against democratic institutions,” said the first-time candidate who is running for Colorado secretary of state.

Dylan Roberts said he diverted his plans to build a career as a lawyer and instead run for a job in the Colorado legislature.

“Had last November never happened, I don’t think I would ever be doing this,” he said.

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Even George Stern, who worked in the Obama administration’s White House Counsel office and is now running for Jefferson County clerk and recorder, is hoping to push back.

“When I say the federal government is in disarray, I’m talking about this current administration,” he said. “I think as I see everything that is going on federally, that is why I have such a drive to make sure that at the local level I want to make sure our government is working for everyone.”

And that seems to answer the proposition Obama left his followers as he exited office in January.

“If something needs fixing, lace up your shoes and do some organizing,” Obama said in his farewell speech in Chicago. “If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures and run for office yourself.”