Gov. Jared Polis is greeted by President of the Senate Leroy Garcia before delivering his State of the State address on Jan. 13 at the state Capitol. Polis would go on to outline an ambitious agenda to lift the economic burden on Coloradans, keep them safe from violence and signal the start of the campaign to pass what would become the state’s most expensive spending plan to date. 

Garcia, D-Pueblo, departed his post leading the Colorado Senate some six weeks later after accepting a role as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs within the U.S. Department of Defense. The Senate unanimously elected then-Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg of Boulder as Garcia’s replacement, while Pueblo Democrats elected Nick Hinrichsen to replace him in the Senate District 3 seat.

State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Weld County Republican, speaks during a press conference about the GOP agenda on the first day of Colorado’s 2022 legislative session at the Colorado state Capitol on Jan. 12. Only five of the Colorado Republican Party’s 44-bill package received approval from the state Senate and House. Of the remaining 39 bills, the legislature rejected 34, two were never introduced and three were automatically killed when they weren’t voted on before the session ended on May 11.

Sen. Faith Winter, D-Westminster, hugs Chris Leding, the widow of Pat Teegarden, the legislative liaison for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment who died after a brief illness on Feb. 5. Lawmakers paid tribute to Teegarden at the Colorado State Capitol on March 9.

Speaker of the House Alec Garnett, D-Denver, speaks during a press conference to introduce a bipartisan bill he was sponsoring to address penalties for distributing and manufacturing fentanyl on March 24 in the west foyer of the state Capitol. The initial draft of the legislation was criticized by a coalition of law enforcement organizations as a half-measure that failed to take necessary action, while harm reduction and addiction experts warned proposed changes to the state’s drug code would have unintended consequences and send more people struggling with a variety of addictions into the criminal justice system.

Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Cañon City, and Rep. Richard Holtorf, R-Akron, greet one another while conservative radio show host Kim Monson speaks during the “Colorado Election Truth Rally” on April 5 at the state Capitol. The rally also featured Tina Peters – the Mesa County clerk and candidate for secretary of State who is facing ethics, campaign finance and criminal investigations – as well as Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow. Lindell at the rally painted a dire picture of American democracy and repeated unsubstantiated claims of coordinated rigging in the 2020 elections. Four days later, Hanks won the top line designation in the Republican primary for on Colorado’s U.S. Senate seat on Saturday at the GOP’s state assembly in Colorado Springs.

Sen. Julie Gonzales speaks on the steps of the state Capitol during a “Recovery not Felonies” rally on April 26, an event scheduled two hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee was set to hear testimony about the legislature’s proposal to address the fentanyl crisis, which has killed an increasing number of Coloradans in recent years. Speakers, including Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, and Gonzales, castigated what they described as the dominant narrative around incarceration and fentanyl as being driven in part by the upcoming 2022 election and the desire to score, in Gonzales’s telling, “cheap political points.” They also criticized efforts by many lawmakers to make it a felony to possess any amount of fentanyl in any substance and instead called on money and energy to be spent on treatment services. Two days later, Gonzales became the sole Democratic “no” vote as the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the bill on a 3-2 vote.

Justine Sandoval speaks during a May 3 abortion-rights protest on the west steps of the state Capitol that featured several Democratic lawmakers. While the rally came after a draft opinion suggests the U.S. Supreme Court could be poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide, Polis had one month earlier signed a Democrat-backed measure affirming the right to an abortion in Colorado regardless of action the by nation’s highest court.

Juana Hernandez dances as thousands march around the Civic Center during the Celebrate Life Rally and March, hosted by the Archdiocese of Denver and Respect Life Denver, at the Colorado State Capitol on Jan. 15, 2022. 

Herod talks with Garnett during the last day of the legislative session on May 11. Despite her earlier criticism, Herod later in the day would vote in support of Garnett’s fentanyl bill as it narrowly passed the House on a 35-30 vote in the waning moments of the session. While Garnett gained Herod’ support, he lost the backing of Rep. Mike Lynch, R-Wellington, the bill’s original co-sponsor along with the speaker. Lynch asked to have his name removed from the bill and voted against after seeing the ultimate version of the legislation return from a conference committee, which came up with compromise language to close the divide between the chambers’ competing solutions.

Minority Leader Hugh McKean, R-Loveland, and Assistant Minority Leader Tim Geitner, R-Falcon, look on during a speech by Rep. Tony Exum, D-Colorado Springs, during the last day of the legislative session. While much of the Republican legislative agenda was killed by the Democratic majority, the GOP partly succeeded in diminishing several Democratic initiatives.

Colorado Politics reporter Marianne Goodland pays the harp on the House floor during the last day of the legislative session.