Former Gov. John Hickenlooper takes up a lot of the energy in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat in Colorado, but Andrew Romanoff is showing he’s a contender, too.

A field of other candidates have seen their hopes scrambled by the coronavirus-thinned party caucuses last month and the inability to reach voters face-to-face.

Trish Zornio, the University of Colorado scientist who finished a distant third in the Senate preference poll during the caucuses, said Thursday she’s trying to figure out how to make up the ground.

When Hickenlooper dropped out of the assembly process, that was her best opportunity to make the ballot by picking up his delegates in county assemblies, on the way to the state assembly.

With coronavirus and the inability to get a list of Hickenlooper delegates from the state party, that makes it nearly impossible to actively campaign or ask her volunteers to put themselves and those they encounter at risk.

Zornio got 6.4% of the vote at caucuses, where turnout was dramatically impeded as concern about the virus surged. She’ll need 30% support to make the ballot.

“We heard from hundreds of folks who were planning to go to caucus for us,” she said. “As a scientist I’ve been championing social distancing longer than everyone else, and they took the advice from the scientific and medical communities and didn’t go out and caucus.”

She said she’s disappointed after nearly two years of campaigning.

“It’s been a hard couple of weeks,” she said. “We’re evaluating the best way to move forward. Caucus and assemblies have been deeply impacted, just like everything else has.”

And that’s where Zornio pivoted. The coronavirus isn’t about her. People are losing their jobs and their businesses, retirement funds for many are vanishing, and some people will lose loved ones or their lives, she said.

“It’s very difficult time for a lot of folks, not just in the political space,” Zornio said.

“Well behaved women seldom make history!” wrote Stephany Rose Spaulding, who finished just behind Zornio in the caucus preference poll with 4.9% of the vote, in a social media post announcing her intention to push through to the state assembly.

The Baptist minister and women’s and ethnic studies professor at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, who got 40% of the vote in 2018 when she challenged U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, quoted Frederick Douglas: “I prayed for freedom for 20 years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”

“We can not keep ‘hoping’ for change; we must work for it,” she added.

In an online video made available to the delegates she’s hoping to win over, Spaulding notes that 10 women and six candidates of color have been among the candidates seeking the U.S. Senate nomination, and only a tiny fraction of the state’s Democrats will decide whether she’ll advance to the primary.

“None of us will gain that access if you refuse to honor diversity, equity and inclusion today,” she says, adding that she’s “fighting for the lives, hopes and dreams of the most vulnerable human beings among us.”

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Spaulding has been maintaining a steady presence online, releasing videos and holding virtual town halls.

Lorena Garcia, the nonprofit executive attempting to petition her way onto the ballot, ran into similar barriers starting in late February, as Coloradans stopped gathering at large events and grew reluctant to take a clipboard and pen from a stranger at their doors.

She turned in 13,824 signatures on March 17, the deadline to submit petitions. She needs 10,500, including 1,500 from each of the state’s seven congressional districts, and expects to find out by the first week of April if enough of were valid.

During the week before petitions were due, Garcia asked that the challenges faced by petitioning candidates be taken into account when lawmakers crafted legislation to let Colorado’s political parties hold their assemblies and conventions remotely.

First she called for the state to halt petitioning and adjust the signature requirements and then asked for a deadline extension so collecting could pause, but officials stuck with current requirements.

“I’m so wildly proud of the entire team that was able to pull it off with so many different challengers that we were facing,” she aid. “Now we’re going to have to wait.”

In the meantime, Garcia said her volunteers are shifting overnight from the petition gathering to conducting a “100% virtual” campaign.

“We’re keep our strong presence online, we’ve been fundraising and making sure that we’re still moving at the same speed we have been,” she said.

That will include texting supporters, releasing videos and holding town halls online on a regular basis.

“It’ll be a test of the real impact of social media,” she said. “When face-to-face contact isn’t allowed, how do we make up for it?”

Three other candidates are also still in the running, though they face longer odds.

Michelle Ferrigno Warren, an author and nonprofit director, and Diana Bray, a psychologist and climate activist, both came up short in their petition drives but turned in the signatures they collected.

Warren is asking a Denver District Court judge to declare she “substantially complied” with the requirements, considering the unprecedented effects of the pandemic. Bray, meanwhile, has been calling on Democrats to put all the candidates on the ballot and let the voters decide using the ranked-choice voting method, though election officials say that can’t happen overnight.

Erik Underwood, who ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination two years ago and sought the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate two years before that, said he’s charging ahead after winning just 0.2% support in the caucus preference poll.