Former Colorado state Sen. Penfield Tate has thrown his hat in the ring for Denver’s 2019 mayoral race, Denver’s KMGH reports.

“Over time I’ve been watching what’s going on in our city and frankly, I’ve been concerned,” Tate told the station’s Tony Kovaleski. “I just felt it was time for the city to move in a different direction.”

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock ran essentially unopposed for his office in 2015. But the May 2019 election could prove tougher, with potentially stronger opponents, questions about his relationship with the development community in the face of a gentrified Denver and a suggestive text-message scandal hanging over his campaign.

> RELATED: Denver Mayor Hancock building war chest for 2019 re-election bid

Additional challengers include businessman Kayvan Khalatbari, known for his “socially responsible” Denver businesses including Sexy Pizza and Birdy Magazine, and his advocacy for the arts, cannabis and the homeless; Kalyn Heffernan, Ken Simpson, Marcus Giavanni, and Stephen Evans (also known as Chairman Seku).

Tate’s father, Penfield Tate II, was Boulder’s first and, to date, only African-American mayor, serving in that post 1974-76 after a stint on the council. He led the council in amending the city’s human rights ordinance in 1974 to protect employees and job seekers from discrimination on the basis of “sexual preference.”

That policy was considered so radical at the time, even in Boulder, that voters immediately repealed it at the ballot box and turned their ire on Tate and fellow council members. He survived a recall that toppled a colleague, but the episode ultimately cost him re-election.

Perhaps inevitably, the political path of his son and namesake – a prominent Denver attorney who served in both chambers of the legislature, on the cabinet of Democratic former Gov. Roy Romer, and at the helm of the state Democratic Party – began with his father’s legacy of political activism.

In a September Q&A with Colorado Politics, the younger Tate told us that his dad, who died in 1993 after battling cancer, was “a guiding force” for him who “intrinsically understood discrimination against one is discrimination against all.”

As to a possible mayoral run, Tate told our Dan Njegomir that he would not discuss a “Tate administration,” but that any administration should aspire to:

You can read the interview, in its entirety, here.

Colorado Politics Opinion Editor Dan Njegomir and contributor Adam McCoy contributed to this report.