Colorado Primary Results: Rough Night for Washington
After seeing House members in Georgia, South Dakota, South Carolina and Iowa fail to make the jump to statewide office and a pair of House incumbents losing primaries in New York last week, there was increased national attention on a handful of races in Colorado to see if Washington is a visible stain on candidates’ resumes.
Here’s what happened in the Centennial State on Tuesday:
Senate. John Hickenlooper (D), elected 2020 (54%). Hickenlooper won re-nomination for a second term over progressive state Sen. Julie Gonzales by an underwhelming 57-43 percent. That’s a similar margin to six years ago, when the former governor defeated former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, 59-41 percent, in his initial primary. He is a prohibitive favorite in the general election against state Sen. Mark Baisley, who won the Republican nomination at the party convention in April. Solid Democratic.
Governor. Open; Jared Polis (D), term-limited. Sitting House members from Dusty Johnson in South Dakota to Randy Feenstra in Iowa to Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman in South Carolina have struggled to translate their electoral success in Congress to gubernatorial primaries this year. That streak now extends to the upper chamber, as Sen. Michael Bennet was defeated by state Attorney General Phil Weiser. Weiser captured 55 percent of the vote to Bennet’s 45 percent.
Bennet began the race as the front runner thanks to his three high-profile Senate bids and national fundraising network. But Weiser outflanked the senator by casting himself as the more anti-Trump candidate. Reps. Brittany Pettersen, Jason Crow and Joe Neguse must also be disappointed considering no one will be appointed by Bennet to the Senate seat.
Meanwhile, Republicans may have avoided their worst-case scenario as state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer (41 percent) narrowly leads ministry leader Victor Marx (39 percent) with state Rep. Scott Bottoms in third (20 percent). Republicans had fretted that Marx, who was unable or unwilling to admit how many people he’d killed in what will go down as one of the strangest interviews in election history, could have been a drag on the GOP ticket. However, Kirkmeyer would still be a considerable underdog against Weiser in November. Solid Democratic.
1st District (Denver) Diana DeGette, D, re-elected 77%. Harris 77%. Fresh off of primary victories last week in New York where candidates backed by democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani unseated Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espalliat, progressives appear to have defeated another long-time incumbent. DeGette, who has served in Congress since 1997, trails Melat Kiros, a democratic socialist activist and attorney, 49-44 percent with 73 percent of the estimated vote counted. If she prevails in the primary in this deep-blue district, Kiros is virtually guaranteed to be a member of Congress come January. Solid Democratic.
3rd District (Pueblo area and Western Slope) Jeff Hurd, R, elected 51%. Trump 54%. Hurd had quite the tumultuous primary en route to a 68-32 percent victory in a rematch against former state Rep. Ron Hanks. Earlier this year, President Trump endorsed former state party vice-chairwoman Hope Scheppelman over the first-term congressman after he voted against Trump’s tariffs on Canada. This set off a lobbying campaign from Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans concerned that nominating Scheppelman could put the seat in jeopardy in November. Trump ultimately re-endorsed Hurd and enticed Scheppelman to drop out with an offer of administration positions for her and her husband.
Democratic voters nominated former Army Ranger and Aspen City Councilman Dwayne Romero. Hurd only won by 5 points in 2024. But he was massively outspent in that race by Democrat Adam Frisch, who benefitted from being able to raise money against Lauren Boebert for three years before the congresswoman decamped to the 4th District. It’s a different story for Hurd this cycle: he reported $1.6 million in cash on hand to Romero’s $371,000 in mid-June. Likely Republican.
4th District (Eastern Colorado and Denver exurbs) Lauren Boebert, R, re-elected 54%. Trump 58%. Two years after moving from the more competitive 3rd District to win re-election over a crowded primary field, Boebert faced no opposition in her primary this time. Earlier this year, Trump suggested that someone run against her after she campaigned for Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, but the filing deadline had already passed. Democrats have a credible challenger in retired Rear Admiral Eileen Laubacher, who was also unopposed in her primary and raised nearly $10 million as of May 10. But it’s a tough district, even against a chronic underperformer like Boebert and in a good Democratic environment. Solid Republican.
5th District (Colorado Springs area) Jeff Crank, R, elected 55%. Trump 53%. Former Army captain and chief of staff to Doug Emhoff Jessica Killin won the Democratic primary and will face Crank in November. Killin defeated Army veteran Joe Reagan, 63-37 percent. Having already put her on the DCCC’s Red to Blue program, national Democrats believe that Killin can make this blue-trending district competitive this year. Likely Republican.
8th District (Northern Denver suburbs and Greeley area) Gabe Evans, R, elected 49%. Trump 49.6%. This seat is one of the top targets nationwide for Democrats on their path to a House majority. State Rep. Manny Rutinel will face Evans, who flipped this seat two years ago. Rutinel defeated former state Rep. Shannon Bird, 61-35 percent with 82 percent of the estimated vote counted. While some Democratic strategists preferred Bird because of Rutinel’s progressive reputation, the DCCC did not put its finger on the scale for her like it did in California’s 22nd, Maine’s 2nd or Arizona’s 1st districts. Republicans hope to levy a range of attacks against Rutinel including his activism for animal rights and against fossil fuels. Toss-up.
Jacob Rubashkin contributed to this analysis.
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Podcast Episode 74: Inside Capitol Hill and Midterm Elections w/ Manu Raju of CNN
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