Johnnie Nguyen has a slight lead over his primary challenger to become the Democratic nominee for the open District 1 seat on the University of Colorado’s Board of Regents, according to early unofficial results. 

Nguyen, a graduate of the University of Colorado Denver and Boulder, had 538 more votes — or less than 1 percentage point more — than his opponent, Wanda James as of 10:30 p.m. If this continues, he will face Republican Amy Naes in November.

Democrat John ‘Jack’ Kroll currently serves as the District 1 regent, but announced last Fall he would not seek reelection, so he could spend more time with his family. 

District 1 represents all of Denver County and portions of Arapahoe and Jefferson Counties. Each of the counties had only partially reported their results as of 10:30 p.m.

Nguyen told The Denver Gazette earlier this month that his main priorities if elected are mental and physical health, healthcare, gun safety and protecting public workers. 

“CU needs to do more to support their students with mental health resources or alleviate some of the variables contributing to the extra weight on their mental health,” Nguyen said.

As of 10:30 p.m., Nguyen had received more votes in Denver but trailed James in Arapahoe County. 

District 8

While District 1 only had one primary race, the newly formed District 8 had primary races from both parties. 

Yolanda Ortega is poised to become the Democratic primary winner as early results gave her a significant lead over her opponent. 

Ortega currently leads her opponent, Rosanna Reyes, by 10 percentage points with 17,141 votes, according to the unofficial results. 

“I had absolutely no idea where this was going to go, but this is a win for higher-ed,” Ortega said. 

Ortega has worked in higher education for 50 years and has served as the Vice President of Student Affairs at Metro State University Denver and was appointed to the Auraria Board of Trustees. 

As of 10 p.m. Ortega had received more support in all three counties than her opponent.

But despite the feeling of victory, Ortega said her journey to becoming the new regent began on Tuesday night.

“I’m already thinking where I need to go and who I need to tap into,” she said. “I’m excited and thrilled, but we still have work to do.”

On the other side of the aisle, Mark VanDriel has a slight lead over his opponent to become the Republican candidate for Regent 8. 

VanDriel, who worked in campus administration at the University of South Carolina since 2021, was ahead of Eric Rinard by 5 percentage points or 1985 votes. He’s previously said his top three priorities are affordability, accessibility and accountability. 

He declined to provide a statement to The Denver Gazette on Tuesday night because he wanted to wait for every vote to be counted. 

The new 8th Congressional District represents portions of Adams, Weld and Larimer Counties. 

Watch: Former gubernatorial chief of staff on primary results

Watch: KUSA coverage of primary election