Tom Tancredo’s run for Colorado governor proves that shirt happens

Tom Tancredo didn’t win Colorado’s wacky gubernatorial race, but at least he went out in style: Not only did he concede graciously — and far more quickly than Dan Maes — on election night, but he did so while rocking a great Western shirt. Only one problem: Like the Wrangler shirt that John Hickenlooper wore in one of his commercials, Tancredo’s was not from Rockmount Ranch Wear, the Denver-based company that invented the snap-button Western shirt.

“We’re busted, too,” Tancredo admits.

His wife had picked up the Scully shirts at High Country Westernwear (she wore one, too) for Tuesday’s election-night party, which was held at the Stampede C&W bar in Aurora.

Back in August 2009, Tancredo had called his run for president of the United States “a last, final act.” Which makes his run for governor — a quixotic move that collected 600,000 votes and threw the Colorado Republican Party into disarray — a hell of an encore.

And there’s still a curtain call to come, as Tancredo contemplates how to channel the energy and enthusiasm of his supporters. “What do I do now?” Tancredo asks.

Whatever he does, he’ll do it with a style all his own.

More from our Politics archive: “Tom Tancredo: Bitter white people report Post‘s try to drag Hick over finish line, spokesman says.”