 Coates was elected Lieutenant Governor of Colorado on a fusion ticket, having received the nominations of the Democratic, Populist and Silver Republican parties.In 1901, Lieutenant Governor Coates volunteered, and was dispatched by Colorado Governor James Orman, to be part of a commission sent to Telluride to investigate an uprising of miners from the Western Federation of Miners during a strike.A shooting war was triggered when one of the strikers, believed to have been unarmed, had been shot through the throat by a deputized mine guard.