Democratic state Rep. Lois Court’s campaign for the state Senate is looking less like a sure thing and more like a dogfight.

Two young, up-and-coming Democrats – 9to5 state director Erin Bennett and emergency-room physician Steve Sherick – are emerging as serious challengers to the venerable Court in her bid for the party’s nomination in Denver’s Senate District 31.

Sherick poses the most direct threat: Not only had he raised more money than Court as of the July 15 campaign-finance report, but last week he stunned onlookers by winning the critical endorsement of the popular incumbent, Democratic state Sen. Pat Steadman, who is term-limited.

Meanwhile, Bennett is moving to shore up the district’s left flank, touting herself in campaign appearances as “by far the most progressive candidate that’s running in this district.” She’s backed by a half-dozen of the state legislature’s most liberal members, including state Sen. Jessie Ulibarri.

Court has the backing of the Democratic establishment, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst and “blueprint” architect Ted Trimpa. Still, any chance of presenting her candidacy as a done deal vanished with Steadman’s refusal to jump on the bandwagon.

“There’s a race going on here, and it’s a bit surprising, given both her long tenure and her initial endorsements,” said Denver political analyst Floyd Ciruli.

“I think there was at least some expectation that Lois – she may well be the frontrunner, but it’s possible she was going to be only lightly challenged,” Ciruli said. “But the good people of the Senate district are going to have themselves an interesting race here. And the Steadman thing is the capstone of it.”

There’s also a Republican in the race – graduate student and former Denver city council candidate Jeffrey Washington – although the outcome of the race in the heavily Democratic district is expected to be decided in the June 28 primary election.

A former professional snowboarder, Sherick has already collected a whopping $37,393, significantly more than Court’s $26,241 and Bennett’s $11,542. By comparison, Steadman only raised $22,000 in the entirety of his 2012 campaign.

A longtime fixture in Denver politics, Court is facing term limits next year after having been elected to four terms in the House, where she serves as chair of the House Finance Committee. She previously served as an aide to former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, and teaches American politics at Red Rocks Community College.

At a Democratic candidates’ forum Monday – Washington attended but did not participate because moderator Steadman said he had only recently entered the race – Court touted her experience, pointing out that she has been “active in this community for 32 years.” Her strong suit was her superior knowledge of the state legislature’s activities and procedures.

For example, Bennett called at one point for police to wear body cameras and conduct more extensive internal reviews after alleged wrongdoing. Court countered that “we actually passed a number of laws dealing this past session dealing with this exact issue. I cosponsored most of them, and as I recall, we did require body cameras. And we do require further reviews.”

On the issues, however, the candidates were mostly in agreement. Bennett did diverge from the pack by supporting a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing, which Court and Sherick oppose.

Emerging as the biggest issue of the campaign so far is Denver’s tight, high-priced housing market. One solution proposed in the 2015 legislative session, a bill to give developers more protection from construction-defects lawsuits, was killed by House Democrats.

Court said she opposed the bill, although she said that there is “always” room for negotiation.

“There is a great deal of talk that this system is currently keeping us from having affordable housing. I don’t believe that that is true,” Court said. “I believe it may have some impact on whether developers build affordable housing, but we do have affordable housing being built. So I do not think that denying people the right to end up in court ultimately is the way to make certain we have more affordable housing.”

Sherick called affordable housing “the most emotional issue that I’ve seen . . . I’ve had people hang up on the phone with me if I’m not willing to say I’m just totally on one side or the other.”

He suggested encouraging more condominium construction by offering developers greater legal protection in exchange for a percentage of Federal Housing Administration-eligible housing. He also called for expanding rapid transit as a fix for soaring housing prices.

“From my standpoint, I would like to see us grow out our transit, make it more affordable for folks who are working class, at the same time, get our minimum wage up to an actual livable wage in this town, so people can afford to live within transport distance,” Sherick said.

Bennett said she opposes construction-defects legislation and called for solving the affordable-housing quagmire by having the state legislature lift its prohibition on rent control.

“At a state level, what we can do is make sure that cities if they want to can pass rent control policies and make sure we’re actually putting a cap on how high rent is going,” said Bennett. “A one-bedroom apartment should not cost $1,500 a month when our minimum wage is still $8.23 an hour. So we need to make sure that wages are going up and that we’re also stopping rising rent prices.”

“We also need stronger renters’ rights policies and we need to really make sure the deck is stacked in favor of renters and not in favor of landlords,” Bennett added.

Sherick said he would oppose bringing rent control to Colorado – “I’m not a believer that rent control at this point would actually work in Denver, given the geographic realities” – but Court said she would consider it.

“The basic issue here is local control. Colorado is a huge local control state,” Court said. “We do have on the books currently a prohibition against rent control. I wouldn’t be averse to saying let’s look at whether or not we should give municipalities the option of instituting their own rent control if that’s right for their community.”

All three candidates support Proposition BB, the November initiative that would allow the state to keep this year’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights refund. Bennet and Sherick said they support Initiative 20, the signature-gathering campaign for a single-payer state medical-care system aiming for the November 2016 ballot, despite the proposal’s estimated $25 billion price tag.

Known for her efforts to clean up the state constitution, Court said she supports the single-payer concept but doesn’t agree with the decision to introduce the measure as a constitutional amendment instead of a statute.

“I hope, ultimately, it will help us start being more careful about what we put in the constitution,” she said.

– valrichardson17@gmail.com

CORRECTION: State Rep. Lois Court, D-Denver, is set to complete her fourth term in the Colorado House next year, contrary to the two terms that were mistakenly described in the original version of this story.