Born in 1965, Joseph B. Rogers grew up in Commerce, Colorado, and graduated from Adams City High School.
Rogers worked his way through Colorado State University, majoring in business administration, and went on to Arizona State University for a law degree. While at Arizona State, Rogers led the school to its first national championship by winning the American Bar Association Negotiation Competition, a contest involving eighty U.S. law schools.
After earning his law degree, Rogers provided pro bono legal services for the poor in rural southeast Colorado as part of the Colorado Bar Association's Lend-A-Lawyer Program. Born into a family that spent eight years on welfare, he has an intimate knowledge and empathy for what it is like to be poor. Rogers went on to practice law with Davis, Graham and Stubbs, one of Colorado's top firms. He served as staff counsel for U. S. Senator Hank Brown and advised on a wide range of issues related to business, including telecommunications, transportation and housing. Later, in private practice, he served as general counsel to the Denver Parents Association, a conservative nonprofit public policy group advocating school vouchers. On their behalf, Rogers filed a lawsuit against the Denver Board of Education.
In 1996, Rogers ran for Colorado's First Congressional District seat vacated by retiring Congresswoman Pat Schroeder. Rogers, a black Republican, surprised skeptics by garnering 42 percent of the vote, including 50 percent of the black vote. Encouraged, Rogers broadened his appeal and ran for lieutenant governor in 1998. Colorado's population is overwhelmingly white — only 4 to 5 percent is African American and 13 percent is Hispanic. Rogers and his gubernatorial running mate Bill Owens won by a nearly 20 percent margin. In 1999, Joseph B. "Joe" Rogers was sworn in as the youngest lieutenant governor in Colorado history.
Rogers is chairman of the newly formed National Conference of Lieutenant Governors. He was a principal speaker at the 2000 GOP National Convention.
Rogers was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 17, 2002.
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